2005 Gramona Gran Cuvee – $16

Gramona is the last family owned Cava maker in Spain. The Gran Cuvee is a blend of three grapes, Xarel.lo (that’s right it has a period in the middle), Macabeo and Chardonnay. The still wine is aged one year in French Oak and thirty months “on lees” ( in the bottle while the yeast is doing the second fermentation). Parker gave this vintage 91 points. So far so good, we have a single vintage, estate grown and bottled, 90 point plus Sparkler selling for 16 bucks.

Pale yellow in color, it looks very elegant in the glass. The nose is buttered toast, hints of butterscotch and a bit of lemon zest. The taste is sharp green apples on your tongue and fresh baked apple pie in the back of your palate with  that champagne nutty, yeasty note evident; cool, different levels of flavor. It has both a tart citrus component and a creamy almost buttery element. This a very classy bottle of wine, delicate and varied. The bubbles are light and fleeting, but the taste makes a statement. This is a sparkling wine that will hold it’s own with sparklers far more expensive.

2008 Napa Cellars Chardonnay

I’m starting to like my Chardonnays with a little oak, and this one has some nice toastiness to it. Golden straw color, melons and Granny Smith apples on the nose, apricot front-end with a nice caramel finish.

At $14.99, you can bring this to a BBQ and your fancy friends will wonder why they’re dishing out $40 for Cakebread (that’s an expensive Chardonnay).

Price: $15
Year: 2008
Place: USA, CA, Napa Valley
Booze: 14%
Aging: French & American oak
Grapes: Chardonnay

2007 Eve Chardonnay Charles Smith Wines

Picked up this Columbia Valley, Washington State Chardonnay for $11.99. The first thing that hits you is the smell of apples, it’s as if you are standing in an orchard.  The apples come through on the palate, crisp juicy fresh apples, not cider, also some pear and on the very end a touch of butter.

This is more fruit driven and less oaky than your typical California Chardonnay. If California Chards are not doing it for you or you just want a change of pace, seek the Eve Chardonnay out. This is winemaker makes wines worth looking for.

La Crema Chardonnay 2006

Just as I had hoped this 06 Chardonnay was a delight. La Crema is producing some amazing wines around the $20 price range. When you look around you will be able to find their wines for under $20. Of course, you can always count on me to provide a link to the wine shops where it is the cheapest.

The nose was not overpowering but still had some very interesting aromatics. I picked up nutmeg, creamy orange peel and butterscotch. Pretty cool nose. In the mouth I tasted more of that creamy orange peel with a little honey. It was very fresh and clean with great acidity. The finish was long and a little dry with more butterscotch and honeysuckle. Fantastic wine for under $20.

Price: $16
Vintage: 2006
Varietal: Chardonnay
Country: USA – CA
Cheap Wine Rating: 94

Buy it Here: KLwines.com

Yellow Tail Chardonnay 2007

Pay attention to this Chardonnay post. This is probably why you are at this website. I bought this wine from Safeway for $4.40 (along with three other Yellow Tale wines). This one though, I really liked. Its not a wine I would pay over $10 for but at $4.40 its an incredible value. If you have a Safeway grocery store close by go look for this wine. (On sale in November of 2008).

On the nose of this wine I got a very clean sharp aroma of melon, mango and vanilla. In the mouth this wine was creamy and balanced. The only thing holding this wine back is something that I notice in a lot of yellow tail wines… it was a little watery. I can’t say for sure but do you ever drink a yellow tail wine and get the feeling that they added a little water to it? Sometimes I do and I noticed it here again. But whatever it is, its very small and doesn’t interfere with the taste that much. The finish of this wine had just a slight tough of butter, just enough to let you know its a chardonnay. I really like this wine for the price. Anytime you see it for less than $10 is worth buying.

Price: $6
Vintage: 2007
Varietal: Chardonnay
Country: Australia
Cheap Wine Rating: 89

Buy it here: Wine Chateau

Wynns Chardonnay 2005

John Riddoch founded the Coonawarra Estate and planted the first vines in 1891. It was later purchased by where he eventually planted the vines in 1891. David Wynn purchased the vineyard in 1951 and the Wynns family has been producing the wine ever since. You can read more about the vineyard and its history here.

This was a fairly decent chardonnay. I expected a little more out of it given the excellent 05 vintage. The nose has aromas of peach and lime. On the taste I got what seemed like an average chardonnay to me. Just a little citrus and buttery oak. There was a small hint of caramel as well.

Price: $13
Vintage: 2005
Varietal: Chardonnay
Country: Australia
Cheap Wine Rating: 87

Buy it here: winerz

Anakena Chardonnay 2007

All wines from Chile have been of interest to me lately and this one caught my eye. Maybe it was the nice label with the unique layered look. This chardonnay reminded me why I like to try cheap wines and restored my hope in the cheap chardonnay. For me, this is the perfect cheap chardonnay and is the best chardonnay under $20 that I have tried this year (and its under $10!).

The Anakena Chardonnay was fermented in stainless steel tanks, no oak used here. It has a 13.9% alcohol level.

This wine is crisp and has great fresh fruit. Its very smooth and well balanced with flavors of melon, grapefruit and apricot. The finish has a very slight flavor of butter on it but it is only noticeable when tasted at slightly warmer temperatures. Great wine.

Price: $8
Vintage: 2007
Varietal: Chardonnay
Country: Chile
Cheap Wine Rating: 98

Buy it here: 188buywine.com

Concha Y Toro Chardonnay 2005

After trying the wonderful Concha y Toro cabernet I quickly became a fan of the vineyard and have been wanting to try their other wines. The grapes that make up this Marques de Casa Concha Chardonnay were hand picked in March of Read more

Tin Roof Chardonnay – 2006

This chardonnay goes for around $12 in stores and I bought it because I liked the Tin Roof merlot. I thought I’d give their chardonnay a Read more

Columbia Crest Chardonnay 2006

I get a lot of golden butter on the nose but no fruit which makes the nose a little boring to me. In the mouth I tried hard to find some flavor but only found a bronzed butter taste that dominated my palate. If you can’t tell already, I didn’t like this wine.

I bought this wine because it was highly rated and cheaply priced. In fact I bought 3 bottles of this wine before I ever tasted it and learned an important lesson which is – don’t buy a bunch of highly rated wine before you know you like it!

Price: $9.95
Vintage: 2006
Varietal: Chardonnay
Country: USA – Washington
Cheap Wine Rating: 80

Buy it here:  Liquor Outlet

cheap wine reviews, white wine, Chardonnay

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