Cambria Katherine’s Vineyard Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay 2022 – Discover the $15.99 Costco Holiday Treasure!

Hey, welcome. It's Domain Day from CheapWineFindercom again like we always do for these companion podcasts for a wine we wrote up on the CheapWineFindercom website. We write up about three value price wines a week. We're going a little upscale because this is the holidays and today I've got a wine I found at costco, but it's not a costco original um, it was $15.99. It's more like $20.

Speaker 1:
0:32

Elsewhere it's the cambria catherine's vineyard, santa maria valley, chardonnay 2022. Santa maria valley is in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, on the very southern part of the Central Coast. Ava. Catherine's Vineyard is the project of Catherine Jackson of Jackson Family Wines Think Kendall Jackson. They have a whole bunch of wines and she is proprietor of this vineyard and it was planted in 1986 and it was named after her. I think she was just a kid back then, but this is a single vineyard wine in the Santa Maria Valley.

Speaker 1:
1:28

Santa Maria Valley is a really nice place. They have a map of the vineyards on their website. I've got the links to all that in the website and I'm looking at the vineyards around it and there's like, oh my goodness, there's some of the best vineyards in California in this area of the Santa Maria Valley, which is an east-west valley coming up in the heart of Santa Barbara County, ava, and the east-west allows the winds coming off the Pacific Ocean just go flowing right through. So it's a nice, cool growing area. There's a river down there. It's a great place to grow both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I'm gonna take a sip so. So while this is a single vineyard winery, I mean it is part of a big winery. Jackson family has a lot of wines and they're good at what they do, but this is one of the daughters, katie Jackson, does run this winery and it is a winery and it has vineyards. The buildings right there and out the door are their vineyards.

Speaker 1:
2:45

It's traditional. What I like about it is what I have found over the years. I have liked it when they half the juice is fermented in stainless steel and no malolactic fermentation and the other half is an oak barrel and they have full malolactic fermentation. Now malolactic fermentation takes the acidity in the grapes there is natural acidity and it's tart, and the malolactic fermentation takes that tart acidity and turns it into a rounded lactose. It's like milky kind of acidity. So on one hand, you get this kind of tart fruit not tart tart citrus and this rounded fruit and they come together with the exact same grapes.

Speaker 1:
3:33

They age it in oak for six months, or five months, I think that on leaves, and 80% of the barrels for this is new French oak. The reason they don't do 100% French oak, because there'd be so much oak imparted into the Chardonnay, which is a white wine and somewhat delicate though it's not as delicate as others and it would take years for it to balance out. So you can that you can drink it. So then, so it's not making into a butter bomb, just a little bit new, a little bit. Second Phil. Third, third fill, fourth fill, just enough to give you look at them flavors and still be able to be released at a regular, a decent amount of time.

Speaker 1:
4:14

Now I'm going to taste this and it's good. It's got really nice acidity, it's balanced, it doesn't bite, gives the flavors enough time to unfold, because it's a single vineyard and they have a bunch of Chardonnay there. They said this is their flagship wine, but I think it lists on their website for 22, and everything else is 48 to 60. So, while it is their flagship wine, but I think it lists on their website for $22,000, and everything else is $48,000 to $60,000. So while it's their flagship, maybe they have more expensive ones and the winemaker gets to know the grapes After a number of years. You get to know.

Speaker 1:
4:58

In California the climate changes a bit weirdly, like downpours and forest fires. The weather kind of changes. The temperature changes are rare. So they get to know it. So they kind of figure out what's good for the grapes and what's not good and where you're going with that and it's really kind of nice. I'm going to take another sip.

Speaker 1:
5:19

It's got a creaminess to it. It was aged on leaves. On leaves is where you keep the dead yeast in with the wine after it's fermented and if you stir it that's bontanage, it means stick, it becomes creamy and it does have that Also on leaves gives it a nutty, salty thing. I'm not really picking up much on that, maybe a little bit of salt, but not too much. Really well-rounded, really nice mouthfeel.

Speaker 1:
5:53

This is a definite step up from the typical brand Chardonnays. Not that they're bad, I really like them. They tend to be crowd-pleaser, not cloud-pleasers, maybe clouds like them. They tend to be cloud crowd pleaser, not cloud pleasers, maybe clouds like them. But you know they're all rounded fruits and you know. And vanilla, a little butter. This one's got more complexity to it.

Speaker 1:
6:13

This one is more of an individual statement on Chardonnay from the vineyard, and for 16 bucks that's not a bad thing to get, because sometimes you've got to spend more to get that. So you've got a winemaker who knows the grapes. You've got a great vineyard. You've got a vineyard that's actually named after the proprietor, so they're not going to allow the grapes or the vineyard to fall on hard times. You know it's got my name on it. It's going to be good. So there you go. This is the Cambria Catherine's Vineyard, santa Maria Valley, chardonnay 2022. If you can find it at Costco, it's $16. Everywhere else it's a few dollars more. So there you go. Like us, we like your podcast. I've got a couple more coming because the holidays are still on their way, so I'll talk to everybody in a couple days. It's kind of threatening the snow here in Chicago, so stay warm.