About This Blog
Jason enjoys exploring the world of wine, a new varietal or region lies around every corner. He views the wine world as a treasure hunt for grown-ups. This often leads him to the Trader Joe’s wine aisle where he can assess the latest finds to search for nuggets. He has no credentials and doesn’t claim to. Jason describes himself as a “professional consumer”. He’s just sharing what he liked, didn’t or loved and lessons he is learning along the way. In doing so, he hopes to continue to grow his palate while helping all filter through the masses of wines to find those that deliver tremendous value to the wallet and the palate.
I can be reached via the following:
email: jason at jasonswineblog dot com
twitter: @jasonswineblog
facebook: JasonsWineBlog
My original “About This Blog” from April 2007:
Why:
A friend made me do it. Apparently he was really sick of hearing me talk about wine so he decided to get me a URL in hopes that typing about wine might shut me up. Of course he wasn’t so direct, he stated merely that he wanted to know what I was drinking so that he could go out and get it. So here we are four months later and I am finally going to take a crack at it.
I don’t have any credentials. I just buy and drink lots of different wines. Mostly from Trader Joe’s and the pretty much the rest from K&L Wines here in San Francisco. So while I will provide as many tasting notes as I can, it will mainly be focused on if I liked it, didn’t or loved it and what I learned from. Please help me along the way by providing comments and ratings to let me know what your thoughts and opinions are. If you enjoy the content feel free to use the social bookmarking tools available throughout the site.
My Wine Info Sources:
As of today I get my wine information from three main sources. The first and my favorite is quaffability, this is a blog that chronicles the many Trader Joe’s wines that John has tried. If you stumbled across this site, close it and go there…much better. Trust me, I have spent a couple of years googling for info on Trader Joe’s and there is nothing else close. The second is from K&L Wines, I work near one of the stores and subscribe to a number of their newsletters which I find enjoyable. The last is scanning the shelfs at TJ’s itself.
If there is anything else you want to know just leave me a note here.
Enjoy!
17 thoughts on “About This Blog”
I like it. No longer need to make blind guesses at K&L / TJ’s, just a quick scan of Jason’s List prior to shopping – thanks!
Oh, man, your blog is RIGHT up my alley. I had *forgotten* Trader Joe’s as a source of “cheap good” wine! Thanks, bro; here’s my review of mail-order wine clubs: anonymous-bosh.blogspot.com/2007/07/wine-club-review.html
Nice blog man. I just bought the Chateau de la Galiniere from Trader Joe’s and was looking for some thoughts/opinions on it. Your blog came up on a google search and i liked what you had to say. My thoughts exactly. Keep it up.
Thank you this is exactly what I need, and your site is great!! I’ve had Mt. Linden’s Merlot and they are yummy, however, now its all gone, and still looking for it! Thanks to your friend who persuaded you to make this site happen, its a blessing for all of us!! I’ll be checking it to get more info!!
@Alice unfortunately, to my knowledge, this one was a Trader Joe’s exclusive and is now gone for good. If I learn otherwise I will surely let you know…
I just saw a 2008 Chariot advertised on Chariot wines web page. I am on my way to TJ’s to see if they have it here in MPLS.
www.chariotwines.com/
Really looking forward to comparing it to the 2007 blends…
@RMS Thanks for the tip off, guessing you visit to the store was fruitless. Per Angela, as I mentioned in my post, it is scheduled to appear in the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer on Feb. 16th so we should see it within the next two weeks. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it is as good as we remember! Look forward to hearing your thoughts once you get to give it a try…
A small suggestion: It’s very helpful that the most recent comments are linked in the right margin, but is there any way for you to add a “see more” link? When there’s either a flurry of discussion or I can’t visit as often as I’d like, I miss out on some comments. I know nothing about WordPress or the logistics of this.
More importantly, thanks for all the time and thought you put into the blog.
Er, since this will be clogging up a spot in “recent comments,” why don’t I randomly list a few of my recent purchases I don’t think you’ve reviewed :)
2005 Abrazo del Toro Reserva – buy it
NV Rene Barbier Mediterranean Red – skip it
2007 Trader Joe’s French Market Reserve Merlot – buy it
2007 Chateau Matalin – 12 bottle
2007 Rootstock Syrah – skip it
2008 Villa Borghetti Pinot Grigio – skip it
2006 Trader Joe’s Reserve Syrah (organic, Mendocino) – pricey
@Don Fist off, thanks for the kind words. I’ll look at some widgets to see if I can’t find something that helps. I wish I knew more AJAX so I could make a roll over state that showed the comment text. I did find a vertical scroll that I might experiment with. As for the wine, thanks for the ratings! Nothing catching my eye from the list, but keep these coming my way. Also if you are ever interested in doing a guest post on one of these (or another) wines let me know!
Jason,
Thank you for the data on your blog it is a great benefit considering I am a 3 minute walk from Trader Joe’s, can you give a bit of insight on the organic wine list I really enjoy the variety that is given in UTC what is your take?
Jason – Thanks for the great website – I have always had a difficult time finding great wines and your Top 10 list is the best. I bought several bottles of your #1 rated Trentatre 2007 and used them at our wine tasting and pairing event with 10 couples and 10 different wines and the Trentatre beat all of them in the wine tasting event. Several other bottles were in the $80 and $90 dollar price range and your rated wine won thanks for helping us pick top rated and great tasting wines. Al Sanders
Do you live in California or Las Vegas? I asked about “Now and Zen” at Trader’s today and asked if you worked for them. Two clerks had never heard of you, but I bet Renato Lebron knows this site. He works at the Henderson store.
Whatever, keep it coming….I refer to these occasionally to see if you said to buy it or not.
I live in California and do not work for them. I’m not familiar with Renato but perhaps he does know the site. If not send him my way! Thanks for checking in…
Hey Jason, Kaz chose your blog to be highlighted this week on Wine Biz Radio! Hope you’re listening!
winebizradio.com/live
Randy, I missed it! Hopefully I can find the replay. Thanks for letting me know…
Bummer I watched 56 minutes but couldn’t access the last 15… Hopefully they were kind words ;)
Hello,
We are a group of students in wine business at the Dijon Business School, part of our course this year is to decern an award to the best wine blog in the US. The event will take place at the end of this year (nov or dec) and is under the management of Evelyne Resnick, author of Wine Brands Blog. We have a list of 660 wine blogs to evaluate (10 blogs per person) and I would appreciate if you were to spend a few minutes to answer the following questions. This information will help us classify your blog amongst all the others.
- Gender (Male – Female)
- Age bracket (15/25 – 26/40 – 41/55 – 56/70 – 70+)
- Location (Town and state)
- Is this your only activity? If not what is your job title and company?
- Do you perceive revenue from your blog?
- Do you advertise on your blog?
- If so, what kind of ads do you authorise?
- Do you know who reads your blog (how many people, who, how often).
- Do you have a Facebook or Twitter page?
- Do you post videos on Youtube?
- Do you comment on other blogs? If so what ones?
Your answers will only be used for our blog project, we do not intend to sell or discard any of the information you give us.
I would like to thank you once again for your time, helping fellow wine lovers which we are, to further our research in this field.
Best,
Sophie