Why We Always Avoid Buying This Cheap $5 Wine At Trader Joe's
You can really find some certifiable steals when shopping at Trader Joe's, including items that you just have to buy when visiting for the first time. Trader Joe's has something of a reputation for keeping quality high and prices reasonable. But some things are simply too good to be true, even here. Yes, just because Trader Joe's keeps its prices cheap, that doesn't mean that every affordable item is going to be the steal of the century. And you need look no further than one of the chardonnay wines it sells, which is bland, lacks a noticeable aroma, and doesn't taste anything like a chardonnay at all.
Charles Shaw Chardonnay only costs a touch under $5 at Trader Joe's, but sadly that's where the positive traits stop. This chardonnay bottomed out on Chowhound's worst-to-best ranking of nine white wines from Trader Joe's, and its placement wasn't a tough decision at all. And since chardonnay is extremely popular for its versatile flavor, there's really no reason to settle for a subpar bottle, even if it does only cost a handful of dollars.
Why doesn't Charles Shaw stack up?
Chardonnay can have a pretty broad range in terms of its flavor, and often makes lists of must-buy low-alcohol wines, but you know you've really missed the mark when your chardonnay fails to meet any of the expected flavor notes at all. Unfortunately for Charles Shaw in this case, its chardonnay seems to fall short in just about every facet of wine tasting. A chardonnay is typically quite characteristic on the nose, and is either clean and fresh or (perhaps more commonly) soft and buttery on the palate. But when it comes to this one, all boxes were left unchecked.
The nose of this Trader Joe's chardonnay was all but completely absent, which did practically nothing to cover for the acidic taste that dominated the flavor profile. Cap it all off with a finish described as metallic and you've got a wine that would struggle to satisfy even the least picky wine lover. The consolation for Charles Shaw is that the wine producer had better fortune further up that same ranking, with its equally prized pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc being placed higher up, meaning there's really no reason for you to buy this bottle if there are other wines available for the same price at the same store.