Áine Cain / Business Insider
We all said yea to this chardonnay.
- Trader Joe's Shaw wines provide an organic twist on the grocer's usual vino.
- Business Insider's
retail desk recently tasted five Shaw wines. - We preferred the Shaw whites to the line's reds, and we selected the chardonnay as the best in the bunch.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
- And to hear the full story behind Trader Joe's more well-known Two-Buck Chuck wines, subscribe to Business Insider's podcast, "Household Name."
When it comes to buying cheap white wine at Trader Joe's, spring for the store's organic Shaw brand instead of the standard "Two Buck Chuck."
Business Insider's retail section gathered together to taste five different types of Shaw wine: two whites, a rosé, and two reds.
We found that the Shaw whites were largely crisper and cleaner-tasting than their non-organic counterparts. And that's coming from a group mostly composed of self-professed red wine fans.
The competition was tight between the pinot grigio and the chardonnay, but the chard ended up winning us over.
Read more: We taste-tested 8 of Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' wines. Here's how they ranked from worst to best.
Reviewers universally agreed that the chardonnay was worth its price of $3.99, and all but one holdout said they'd share this beverage with friends.
In terms of taste, this wine makes a bold entrance and a quiet exit. One taster called the wine "decent," albeit "flat at the end"; another agreed that, while the first note "smashes you in the face," the taste "slowly fades away" the more you sip.
As a group, we also picked up "earthy," "floral," "sweet," and "woody" notes, with one reviewer comparing the first note to "sharp cheddar."
"It's a pretty good, down-the-line chard," one reviewer wrote.
All in all, not a bad wine to sip outdoors on a bright summer's day.