Castoro Cellars … found at Trader Joe’s

Now, what’s a nice girl like me, with 29 years of sobriety, doing in the wine section of the fabulous Trader Joe’s store in Raleigh, North Carolina…thrilled to be clutching a bottle of Coastal brand merlot? Well, let me explain:

My nephew Niels owns a large winery in Templeton, California called Castoro Cellars and on a visit there 10 years ago he treated me to a complete walk-through of their operations. At one point we watched as workers attached labels to the bottles rotating past on a conveyor belt. These, he explained, were the wines that were sold at the Trader Joe stores nationwide...a mellow merlot at a reasonable price. Then he snatched one of the bottles from the belt, wrote “stolen from the bottling line” in large indelible silver letters and handed it to me as a gift.

Needless to say I have never opened that bottle but I display it proudly and on a recent visit to Raleigh I decided to check and see if they still sell his wine. I was happy to see that they did and, as I was reading the back of the bottle, a man caught my attention. “You look like you know your wines”, he said, “Would you recommend the one that you are holding? I see it's from the West coast but is it affordable?” 

Putting on a thoughtful expression and hoping that he couldn't see the twinkle in my eye I seriously replied, “I can honestly say that it’s the best bargain I’ve ever found...on either coast.”