Wallet Friendly Wine Reviews: Two Buck Chuck Sauvignon Blanc Challenge!

Show Notes

Episode 140: Wallet Friendly Wine Reviews: Two Buck Chuck Sauvignon Blanc Challenge! 00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

If you are new to our podcast, here is a quick orientation! Each week, we explore a different wine varietal or blend—like Pinot Noir or Bordeaux or Sauvignon Blanc — and dive into what makes it unique, special,and worth learning about. Our goal is to help you expand your wine knowledge in a fun way that normal people can understand. We also taste and review 2-3 wines under $20 each, and share our scores and recommendations to help you find great wines without breaking the bank. So, thank you so much for joining us! And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.

I just want to do a quick thank you, too, Carmela, because this past week we surpassed 50,000 downloads for the podcast, and so we want to thank all of your support and we are so humbled to know that so many people have chosen to spend some time with us. Hooray!

Today, Carmela, we ask the age old question once again - just how bad, or good, is Two Buck Chuck? The last time we did this, in a previous episode called Wallet Friendly Wine Reviews, we compared Two Buck Chuck Cabernet Sauvignon to two other Cabernet Sauvignons that were under $5. And, the results were interesting. First, old Two Buck Chuck actually performed the best, and we also found two of the worst wines we have ever tasted in the other two - so it was kind of relative. Two Buck Chuck was like the least crappy. 

But that was then and this is now. 

Today, we are once again seeing first if Two Buck Chuck Sauvignon Blanc is drinkable, and second, we have two other low priced Sauvignon Blancs to see how Chucky stacks up against them.

As we mentioned in the previous wallet friendly episode, the vast majority of wine sold in the United States, nearly two-thirds of it, is priced $8 or less, so this is more than just a hypothetical battle. This is a true test to see if we can find quality wines at that price point or not, and it is a worthy quest because most people are buying wine that is not expensive. 

And, although we are not going to be doing it in this episode, there is also another age-old question that we should tackle at some point, which is, can you really taste the difference between an expensive wine and an inexpensive wine. 

Now, the snobby side of me says yes, but I do always find it interesting that we often find that a good Costco Kirkland wine under $10 will often way out punch its weight against wines that are more expensive. And we have one we are tasting today. But we have never really pushed the envelope to see if we can taste the difference between a, let’s say, $20-ish wine vs. a $40-ish or more wine. 

The other thing I will say is that there are lots of wines out there, based on where they come from, that are consistently less expensive and consistently good. I am talking about wines like Cava, Vinho Verde, and Malbec, and so it is possible to be a drinker of less expensive wines and still be drinking wines that are objectively pretty good. 

And today, we are focusing on cheap Sauvignon Blanc, which is one of our favorite wines, and it is generally an inexpensive white wine, and we are going to see how Two Buck Chuck fares against two similarly priced wines, one of which is the Costco Kirkland Sauvignon Blanc which is kind of a standby for us  . . .

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and if you haven’t  had the chance to do so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast  - it is a free way to support us, and then you never have to miss a show!  - and a huge thank you to all of you who have subscribed already! 

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You can also follow us and see pictures of the wines we are tasting and trying today and weird AI pictures I like to make on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast, and you can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and get news and food and wine pairing ideas and more!

And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note and tell us what you like and don’t like, if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! And a shout out to Corinne who reached out this week and asked us about Armenian wines.

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow our listeners is when you let your family and friends know that you enjoy our podcast - and your word of mouth is so powerful - and this week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who swears that you can’t tell the difference between an expensive wine a and cheap wine because they just may enjoy this episode!

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://thegrapegrind.com/cheap-vs-expensive-wines-can-you-taste-the-difference/ 

Topic: Is Sauvignon Blanc the Most Reliably Good, Inexpensive White Wine? 07:22

For our topic today, I want to focus a little bit on Sauvignon Blanc, because we really like it, and it seems to be a popular wine that is not terribly expensive, and so the question is, is Sauvignon Blanc the most reliably good and cheap white wine?

Interestingly enough, there is a Wine Spectator article with a very similar theme from several years ago called Is Sauvignon Blanc the World’s Most Reliably Good White Wine?

So here are some reasons why we think Sauv Blanc is a great wine, and why it is reliably inexpensive. 

• It is a pretty reliable wine. Although there are some crappy ones out there, and we’ll see if we have a crappy one or two today, Sauvignon Blanc is like pizza to me - the worst it’s ever going to be is good. It is a good food wine, and it is generally crisp and refreshing with nice tropical fruit and orchard fruit flavors and a zippy mouthfeel.
• Sauvignon Blanc grows pretty consistently and easily in many different climates and is made pretty consistently well in lower cost wine regions. The classic region for Sauvignon Blanc is Sancerre in France, and a reminder that if you are drinking a white Sancerre, you are drinking Sauvignon Blanc, but there are other regions like Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia that make really nice, reasonably priced Sauvignon Blanc. And you can find nice, lower priced Sauv Blancs from areas like Santa Barbara in California. 
• It doesn’t need to age. One thing that is great about Sauvignon Blanc is that you can generally pull a good one off the shelf or out of the refrigerated wine section of your local wine shop or grocery store, crack open the screw cap, and enjoy it. There is nothing pretentious or overly fancy about Sauvignon Blanc.

Now, this doesn’t mean that every Sauvignon Blanc is going to be a winner, but if we are going out to dinner, and I want to order a white wine that I feel I am going to be pretty safe with, if they have a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand I am going to feel pretty good that we are going to have a wine that is easy to enjoy and goes well with food. 

It also doesn’t mean that everyone likes them, and like we generally don’t like oaky Chardonnay, there are those that feel that Sauvignon Blanc is too light and fruity. Which is fine. I do think it is hard to find a Sauvignon Blanc that is offensive or difficult to drink, but you know what, this is what makes wine great - there is something for everyone, and plenty of things for people to talk about!

I would just say, though, that one thing we have found after doing this podcast for a couple of years and tasting tons of different wines and wine varietals, there are very few that we would outright say are just bad wines. I think it is a bit of ignorance and a bit of inexperience that makes someone think that a specific wine is always bad - although Carignan may be that wine. But even I can find a Chardonnay or a Cabernet Sauvignon that I can tolerate! And we used to really be dismissive of rosé, but if we find it made from the right grape for us, like Pinot Noir, we really enjoy it.

And if I can do it, even the most die-hard Sauvignon Blanc hater can figure it out. However, we will caution again that not all of the Sauvignon Blanc we are going to try today may be any good!

So, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.winespectator.com/articles/matt-kramer-sauvignon-blanc-reliable-wine-value 
• https://www.winery-sage.com/blog/general/the-sauvignon-blanc-rant/ 

Wallet Friendly Sauvignon Blanc Wines We Chose for This Episode 12:34

As usual, all of the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $20, and all of them should be very easy to find because I bought one at Trader Joe’s obviously, one at Costco, and one at Target. And, Sauvignon Blanc is just not a hard wine to find at all. 

The first wine we are going to try is the 2022 Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc. I’ll be honest. I could barely find any information about this wine, so there is just not too much to say. We know that Two Buck Chuck, which in this case was Four Buck Chuck ‘cause it was $3.99, is made by the Bronco Wine Company. And they are a huge wine making company that has a ton of brands. And we know this is a California product because it says so on the bottle, but that is really all I can tell you. 

So, let’s move on to our next wine, which is the California Roots Sauvignon Blanc which is a Target special, and there was no year on this wine. This is another wine that is just from California, which means that they source their grapes from many different sources. On the label, the wine says that it has won over 100 Awards, but it doesn’t say which ones, and I will say that the alcohol content on this wine is high for a Sauvignon Blanc, clocking in at 13.5%. It is a screw cap, which I respect. 

Now, I will say that Wine Enthusiast gave this wine an 86 rating and a Best Buy in 2020, but I have no idea if this is the same wine or not in terms of vintage. 

There is a tech sheet for this wine, believe it or not, and they say the wine is crafted from premium grapes grown under the warm California sun in Lodi and the Central Coast. They also say the wine is cold fermented at 60˚F and aged exclusively in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. So, I am expecting this to be pretty crisp, but the high alcohol has me concerned that it is not going to have much balance. 

The last wine we are going to drink is one of our standby wines, the 2023 Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. From our perspective, this is a solid and reliable wine that rarely is anything worse than good. 

Not only did this wine get an 8.3 rating from Reverse Wine Snob, Wine Enthusiast actually reviewed this wine and gave it an 86 and called it an easy poolside sipper. I will also say the 2022 got an 89 from Wine Spectator and was their wine of the week in November of last year. So, if you have the 2022 vintage, drink that puppy! This is also another one of those Kirkland wines where the producer is ok showing who they are, something that a lot of private label producers do not like to do. The wine is made by Ti Point Wines from New Zealand. 

But, I think that is enough information about these wines - so let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://winefolly.com/grapes/sauvignon-blanc/ 
• https://www.target.com/p/sauvignon-blanc-white-wine-750ml-bottle-california-roots-8482/-/A-54249204
• https://thewinebox.biz/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/California-Roots-Sauvignon-Blanc-2020-Fact-Sheet.pdf 
• https://www.reversewinesnob.com/kirkland-signature-marlborough-sauvignon-blanc 

2022 Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc, NV California Roots Sauvignon Blanc, 2023 Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 16:56

Wine: Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc
Region: California
Year: 2022
Price: $3.99
Retailer: Trader Joe’s
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc

What we tasted and smelled in this Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc:

• Color: Pretty light colored, but a little darker than a typical Sauv Blanc
• On the nose: Melon, peach, gasoline, apple, glue
• In the mouth: Lacks smoothness, blended apple pie, syrupy, strong envelope glue aftertaste, overripe yet still tart, fruit gone bad

Food to pair with this Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc: Needs to be masked with something salty and spicy to you can’t taste the wine
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 2/10
• Carmela: 4/10

Wine: California Roots Sauvignon Blanc
Region: California
Year: NV
Price: $5.99
Retailer: Target
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc
Professional Rating: 2018 WE 87

What we tasted and smelled in this California Roots Sauvignon Blanc:

• Color: Very light lemon colored
• On the nose: A little cat pee, lemon, citrus, apple, a little glue, white flowers, pear, peach
• In the mouth: Like a Sauvignon Blanc La Croix, tastes like it was been left out in the sun and the ice cubes in it melted, very watered down, lemon zest, does not taste like it has as much alcohol as it does, bitter ending

Food to pair with this California Roots Sauvignon Blanc: Spicy food, fried food, nothing too delicate like a light fish would not go well, white pizza, white sauce pasta,

California Roots Sauvignon Blanc Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 5/10
• Carmela: 5/10

Fine for a bulk buy

Wine: Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
Region: New Zealand, Marlborough
Year: 2023
Price: $7.49
Retailer: Costco
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc
Professional Rating: RWS 8.3, WE 86

What we tasted and smelled in this Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc:

• Color: Almost Champagne colored, very light, a tiny bit evanescent
• On the nose: Acid, lemon, lime, natural gas, asparagus, apple, pineapple, tropical fruit, Sour Patch
• In the mouth: Tropical fruit, lots of lemon, pineapple, zippy, racy acidity, refreshing

Food to pair with this Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc: Great appetizer wine, fish, sushi rolls, spicy foods, fried foods, the lemony nature requires some consideration, baked chicken, pork loin, chicken katsu, chicken cutlet, chicken piccata


Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 7/10
• Carmela: 8/10

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
• Joe: Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Kirkland wins the challenge! Did you know that Kirkland is the name for a city near Seattle?!?

Taste profiles expected from Sauvignon Blanc 33:40

• General 
  • Wine Folly: Gooseberry, honeydew, grapefruit, white peach, passion fruit
• Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc
  • None
• California Roots Sauvignon Blanc
  • Bottle: Lively passion fruit aromas and crisp citrus flavors
  • WE (2018): This fresh and tangy wine is light bodied and refreshing. It offers subtle mineral aromas and soft citrus accents, and the price is unbeatable
• Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
  • Bottle: Tropical fruit flavors, vibrant lemon-lime citrus notes and crisp acidity.
  • WE: A fruit salad combo that's both tropical and citrus—with herbal notes just beneath—this is an easy poolside sipper with rather shrill acidity and a limey finish
  • RWS: begins with clean, pleasing aromas of lemongrass, citrus, grapefruit and herbs. It’s classic, crisp and fresh New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Tasting the wine reveals lots of deep flavors (a wine at this low of a price shouldn't have this much depth of flavor), good balance, a pleasing texture and bright acidity. Filled primarily with rich and juicy grapefruit, green apples, citrus and a little guava this is very quaffable stuff.

Go with the Kirkland, skip the Two Buck Chuck!

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 36:05

Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast app - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

We would also love to hear from you about a wine you would like us to taste and review. You can leave a message for us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com and you can join our email newsletter there - and if you missed our latest newsletter, email me and I will send it to you. You can do that by reaching out at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. And tell us some things you want to hear us do, or not hear us do!

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.

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