With the holidays coming up, I like to have a good stash of wine to offer guests that come to visit. We tend to have more people dropping by. There's a lot of coming and going so we go through more wine than usual.
The wine I'm talking about here is what I call my "house wine." My goal for this is to find a wine that first of all, I like it. I don't want to be drinking something I don't like into the New Year and I want something most people will like. Next I want it to be affordable. If I going to be buying a lot of it, why not keep the price down. Finally, if it's a wine I'm going to be offering it to the great uncle who doesn't really appreciate wine, I don't want to be spending $40 a bottle.
For my house wine, I want something few people will recognize. I avoid wines like Yellow Tail or box wines that most people know is cheap and usually drunk by broke college students. Call me a little snobby, but that's my thing. If also avoid it if it's wine I can find at a gas station wine rack or in just about ever grocery store. You can find good stuff there too, but I disqualify it for my house wine because I want it to be a bottle that begs the question, "What is that?" I want something that gets people to ask, "Where did you get this?" Unless people are checking it out on Vivino, they won't immediately assume it's cheap.
So I visited my local Trader Joe's and walked down the aisle pointing out wines I like and giving you an overview of what I like to pick. I do want to mention that Trader Joe's ALWAYS has someone knowledgeable and easily approachable to tell you about their wines. I have yet to find someone that's snobby or pretentious and makes you feel stupid for not knowing something. They are really helpful and they know what they carry on their shelves. That's not something you typically get at a grocery store.
Watch the video and please let me know what you think. Let me know if you have a Trader Joe's favorite you'd recommend. Let me know what house wines you've selected and why.