Day 11: 2014 Vintjs Sauvignon Blanc

Today I walked slowly up and down the wine aisle at the Trader Joe’s in Napa, noticing several things:

1. That Trader Joe’s does an excellent job of communicating their schtick, such as the look of hand-written signage in order to convey a “down-home,” less expensive, hipster vibe. Apparently someone named Tony makes “picks” of certain wines and tags them with a hand-drawn portrait (of himself), in order to distinguish favorite or recommended wines.
2. The schtick and the signage add texture to the aisle. Which makes it a comfortable place to hang out. Which makes it easier to buy wine.
3. Two of the best-selling white wines in the store are both Sauvignon Blancs and both cost less than $10. And even though this is Napa, both of those wines are from Marlborough, New Zealand.
4. That another best-seller is a house label called Vintjs Sauvignon Blanc, “house” meaning Trader Joe’s buys the juice — from St Supéry, I was told, which is located to the north of Napa — and bottles it under their own label. It’s like the Kirkland line of products at Costco, which includes wine: both stores buy juice, bottle it, and price it very competitively so that its best-seller status is almost a given.
5. I could walk out with a bottle of what’s essentially St. Supéry Sauvignon Blanc (that’s just labeled differently) for seven bucks.

Which is exactly what I did.

Because here’s the thing: I’ve had a crush on Sauvignon Blanc from Napa for about six months now. I’ve had a crush on the minerality of it, and the citrus, and the tropical notes of it. All of which I get in this bottle too. It’s just that, at least not lately, no one told me I could get it for $6.99.

Quick Background Note: The Blue Collar Wine Guide is a 30-day, 30-wine experiment that looks at some of the world’s most popular, consumer-friendly wines. The idea is to take off my wine-writer shoes and stand instead in the shoes of Jane-and-Joe-in-front-of-a-wall-of-wine. Thank you for reading today’s post!