The Taymar Russian River Chardonnay 2019 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for them by DNA Vineyards who have made some of the best TJ’s wines over the years. DNA Vineyards is Dennis Patton and Andrea Silverstein.
Dennis has been a leader in the Mendocino wine industry for forty years and Andrea has been in the industry for 25 years and a part of DNA Vineyards since 2008. Here is a link to DNA Vineyards showing their Trader Joe’s wines and their own wines.
The Russian River Valley AVA is a premier Pinot Noir and Chardonnay growing region. The Russian River started out following east-west but long ago a massive earthquake caused the river to take a sharp right turn going north, It now runs thru Sonoma and Mendocino to the Washington State border.
While DNA Vineyards has long been a Mendocino based wine company they purchased a vineyard in the Sonoma Russian River AVA in 2012. The Taymar Russian River Chardonnay 2019 is not sourced from their estate vineyard, but the grapes are taken from a single well-known Russian River grower.
The Taymor is a 2019 vintage which would categorize this Chardonnay as a young wine. You could probably wait 2 or 3 years to drink this Chard, but the sooner the better. waiting will not yield better results it is ready to go, right now.
One of the fun things about Trader Joe’s wines is that you get to sample wines from top-notch growing regions at an extremely low price. Russian River Valley AVA Chardonnay does not sell for $7.99. At this price, it probably was not produced with the exact same techniques as a $20 Russian River Chardonnay. It was made to a drink-it-now style, but it was made with the same grapes as the more expensive wines.
The difference between a $10 wine and a $20 wine is not a good or bad situation. Drink-it-now style wines have less complicated production and are designed to come together quickly and be ready for sale sooner than more complicated wines.
It is the difference in style that causes the difference in price. not a good wine, bad wine thing. Wines are in the drink-it-now everyday style are the largest selling wines in the world. The reason is not simply the lower price. There are a great many drink-it-now wines that are truly tasty.
So, the Taymar Russian River Chardonnay 2019 seems to be a wine made from grapes that usually make it into more expensive wines but now are made in a more affordable style. It gives you a taste of what the Russian River Chardonnay is all about without the price tag. The alcohol content is a ripe 14.3%.
Taymar Russian River Chardonnay 2019 tasting Notes
The color is a very pale wheat yellow. You can sometimes tell how much oak barrel aging a Chardonnay has by how dark the yellow coloring is. A $7.99 Chardonnay does not figure to have an extensive oak program if oak barrels were used at all. The nose is really nice, this has one of those fruit stands at harvest aromas, there is apple, peach, pear, lemon, lime, even banana, and a little tropical fruit, all bright and juicy.
This is a Chardonnay with an engaging mouthfeel and full, husky flavors. It tastes of a stew of apple, melon, and lemon, followed by peach. The mid-palate offers vanilla, a salty, nutty sensation, pear, and guava.
This is not an oaky Chardonnay, it has some oak flavors, but whatever oak flavoring is here is lightly done. Even though this Chardonnay is not oak heavy there is weight to its flavors. With modern heating and cooling, there really aren’t warm weather and cool weather wines anymore. But I would say this is a fall or winter Chardonnay.
The Summary
- The Taymar Russian River Chardonnay 2019 is an excellent $7.99 Chardonnay.
- At this price, it is hard to say anything against it. It tastes great, it has grapes that you rarely see at this price point and was produce by folks with 40 years in the wine industry.
- Don’t pass this one up.
