It has been only six months since we last posted about the kosher wines at Trader Joe’s. Which by the way, is very deja vu from what I said in that previous posting as well. Terrenal, has been very good at keeping up production, releasing solid QPR wines, and essentially making us all happy – until Trader Joe’s runs out of the wine and then we have to wait for 6 or so months until the next vintage arrives!

By the time I released the last posting, the 2011 Terrenal Chardonnay had essentially run dry, in all of the Trader Joe’s in my area. The good and bad about store specific wines is that, for the most part they are reasonably priced – but they have the downside of always being in high demand and in relatively low supply.

The Banero continues to not be available here in the west coast. The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo are both available in the area, but the clear winners are the new 2012 Chardonnay and Malbec.

There is ZERO comparison between the last Terrenal Malbec and this new one. All I can say is that if you blind folded me and asked me to guess the varietal of the 2012 Malbec, I would have guessed Australian Shiraz, given the crazy blueberry and floral notes. Nothing comes close to this wine, in terms of price – I mean that seriously! I have never tasted a $4.99 bottle of wine that tastes this good – period! So for a QPR brain-dead winner, get some bottles of the 2012 Terrenal Malbec, and it is mevushal to boot!

The new 2012 Chardonnay continues to impress, a wine that shows what a talented winemaker can do with unoaked chardonnay. This wine may not be a home run, but it is clearly a very solid single that could have been legged out into a double, if not for the few issues listed below. The Malbec, on the other hand was a solid single that was easily legged out into a double.