The Story The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Russian River Chardonnay 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. And this is an unexpected Chardonnay, the Fearless Flyer didn’t have much of anything interesting to say and the front label is the usual Tj’s exclusive label. But the back label tells that these grapes came from a…
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The Story The St. Somewhere AlexanderValley Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s single-vineyard exclusive. Trader Joe’s seems to use the St. Somewhere label when a winery has excess wine to sell. The last time they used the name was an Oregon Pinot Noir that accidentally has 1.5% of California Pinot Noir blended in, their mistake…
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The Story Of The Podcast Dave talks about why Chardonnay is different from other White wine grapes in this price range. Mainly, Chardonnay can be simple or it can be complicated. Chardonnay can go thru varing percentages of several winemaking processes that will greatly affect the overall taste and texture. There is the oak program,…
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The Story The Bogle Vineyards Chardonnay 2018 is sourced from 3 locations, the Clarksburg AVA, the Dunnigan Hills AVA, and the Monterey County AVA. Both Clarksburg and Dunnigan Hills are located in the Central Vally AVA, Dunnigan Hills is east of Napa on the other side of the mountains and Clarksburg is west of Lodi…
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The Story The Purple Moon Chardonnay is a non-vintage $3.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. There is not going to be much of a story here, I am pretty sure which winery produced this wine, and they are a quality winery. But other than that there isn’t…
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The Story The Federalist Mendocino Chardonnay 2017 is like the name says, 100% Chardonnay made from grapes farmed in Mendocino County in Northern California. Mendocino has all of the grape growing advantages of Sonoma, it is directly north of Sonoma, but does not have the name recognition of Sonoma. There are top-notch vineyards and wineries, that…
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The Story The Sphere Central Coast Chardonnay 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Central Coast AVA runs along California coast just north of Los Angeles to San Francisco. The only information we have on this Chardonnay is what is written on the back label, which luckily is informative. It says there is a decadent…
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The Story The Cachai Chardonnay 2018 is a $3.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive sourced from vineyards in Chile. Normally when you see wine from Chile the label will show the Central Valley or some smaller valley as place of origin, but the Chacai (translates to “catch”) just says Chile. That would lead you to believe that…
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The Podcast The Matanzas Creek Alexander Valley Chardonnay 2018 is one of the Jackson Family Wines stable of labels. Matanzas Creek Winery has produced wine for over 4 decades. The grapes are sourced from Estate vines using Clone 4, Clone 76, 72, Wente, and Upper Barn. With most Chardonnay in the value price range, the winemaker…
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The Story The Franciscan Napa & Monterey Chardonnay 2017 is sourced from vineyards in 63% Napa County (mostly Carneros and Southern Napa) and 37% Monterey County (including Arroyo Secco and San Bernabe). These are excellent Chardonnay growing regions where the average Chardonnay is far more expensive than the Franciscan’s $14.99 list price. The list price for…
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The Prayers of the Saints Chardonnay 2017 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards in Washington State. I have noticed that wine that once had Columbia Valley as the place of origin on the label now say Washington State, they must be looking to promote Washington since the Columbia Valley produces 99% of the wine in Washington….
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The Carpe Diem Anderson Valley Chardonnay 2015 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards in the Anderson Valley AVA (about 100 miles north of San Francisco) which runs along the Pacific Coast of Mendocino County in Northern California. Carpe Diem is a joint project between the winemakers of Roederer Estate (the Champagne House’s California holdings in Mendocino) who…
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The Charles Smith Eve Chardonnay 2016 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from Washington State. Yes, I know that is a vague description for grape sourcing, but some of my confusion comes from the label. Typically with Washington State wine in this price range (I found it on sale for $8.99) the label shows Columbia Valley as the…
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Quake and Dave Talk About A Very Tasty Unoaked Russian River Chardonnay From Folks Who Know How To Do Chardonnay Right
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The Eris Carneros Chardonnay 2014 is a $7.99 (this time around) Trader Joe’s exclusive that the front label says is Estate grown from a winery located on the Napa side of the Carneros AVA in Northern California. Carneros is half in Sonoma and half in Napa and has a southern border on the San Pablo Bay…
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The Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay 2017 is sourced from grapes grown in the Côte-Mâconnais district in the south of Burgundy centered around the village of Mâcon in eastern central France. The Beaujolais district is just south of Mâcon. The Louis Jardot Chardonnay is AOC wine and the Mâcon-Villages classification is step up from the entry-level Mâcon wines. In Burgundy the different…
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The Coppola Diamond Collection Pavilion Chardonnay 2016 is a limited edition wine sourced from vineyards in 60% Santa Barbara and 40% Sonoma, the regular Diamond Collection Chardonnay is sourced from Monterey. In a side note, this Chard could have shown California on the front label, since Santa Barbara is part of the Central Coast AVA and…
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The Ferrari-Carano Sonoma County Chardonnay 2015 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from Ferrari-Carano Estate vineyards in Alexander Valley AVA, Dry Creek AVA, the Russian River Valley AVA, and the Carneros AVA all inside the Sonoma County AVA. Those 4 AVA’s are an excellent selection of cool growing areas and warmer regions, giving this Chard a nice taste…
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In this podcast episode, we bring cheap to a whole other level with the Lindeman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay 2017 Listen in to see if real cheap is just too cheap.
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The Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2016 is 98% Chardonnay and 2% Gewürztraminer grown in Wente Estates vineyards in the Livermore Valley AVA just inland from the San Francisco Bay inside the larger Central Coast AVA of California. Wente Vineyards has a very interesting story, they are the oldest continuously (since 1883) operated family owned vineyards and winery…
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In this episode, we review the Poppy Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands 2014. Listen now to hear what we have to say about it!
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The Edna Valley Vineyard Central Coast Chardonnay 2016 is sourced from vineyards in both the Edna Valley AVA (inside San Luis Obispo County, about 1/2 between L.A and S.F.) and the Monterey County AVA, both inside the Central Coast AVA. Edna Valley Vineyards were one of the pioneers of the Edna Valley AVA (founded in 1982)…
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The Wishing Tree Unoaked Chardonnay 2016 is sourced from higher elevation vineyards in the Adelaide District (Barossa, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, and Adelaide Hills) of South Australia. The South Australia growing region provides over 50% of the wine produced in Australia and the vineyards are located not far from the coastline. The reason high elevation vineyards…
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The Noble Vines 446 Chardonnay 2016 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from sustainable farmed Delicato Family Vineyards estate property in the San Bernabe AVA inside the Monterey County AVA below the Monterey Bay in the Central Coast AVA of California. Noble Vines is one of Delicato Family Vineyards (family owned since the 1920s with vineyards in Lodi,…
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The 90+ Cellars Mendocino Chardonnay Lot 122 2016 is a negociant wine sourced from vineyards in the Mendocino AVA, located north of Sonoma and west of Napa in Northern California. A negociant (a French term) buys surplus wine from mainstream wineries and sells these wines at a discount. Because the wines are exactly the same as…
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