The More Halloween Wines 2020 Part 2 for today is the Freakshow Lodi Chardonnay 2018. Freakshow is one of the brands from Michael and David Winery (Lodi, California), there is this Chardonnay, a Red blend, a Cab, and a Zin. Michael and David Phillips are 5th generation grape growers and their family has farmed in…
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The Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay 2019 is sourced from vineyards in Monterey County south of San Fransico Bay inside the Central Coast AVA of California. Cupcake Vineyards is one of The Wine Groups’ sixty-plus labels of wine. Check out the link above, their wines are available everywhere and I figure your local supermarket sells at least…
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The Mumm Napa Brut Prestige is a non-vintage blend of 45% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, and 10% Pinot Meunier and Pinot Gris. Those are the 4 main grapes approved for use in Champagne, France. There are actually a couple of other approved grapes but they are seldom used. Mumm has been in Napa since the…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2019 is actually Carneros Napa Valley Lot #204. There is Lot #205 which I imagine is from a different producer. Some Trader Joe’s get the 204 and others get the 205, both are $9.99. Carneros is an interesting AVA, it is located half in Sonoma and half in Napa….
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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…
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The Story The Peaks and Tides Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2018 is a $9.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards along the Pacific Coast in Northern California. The Peaks and Tides brand also have a Cabernet Sauvignon and I think I saw a Pinot Noir. The Sonoma Coast runs from above San Francisco all the way to…
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The Story The Pico Viejo Reserva Chardonnay 2019 is a $7.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes grown in vineyards located in the Uco Valley of Argentina. The Uco Valley is not actually a valley, it is high plains that butt up against the Andes Mountains. The Uco Valley is one of the best-growing regions in…
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The Story The Divine Carneros Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine. This seems to be a wine that was produced by an actual winery and not another store brand. The back label shows the producer as Kallan Cellars and gives a Kallancellars.com web address. The cork is even personalized with “The Divine” printed…
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In this episode Quake chats clones, guitars, Alexa, and Chardonnay – the Wente Single Vineyard (Riva Ranch) Chardonnay 2018. Wente is the First Family of Chardonnay, and they’re doing something pretty cool – a virtual wine tasting app for your Amazon Echo or Google Home device. So why should we tell you all about this…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Napa Chardonnay 2018 Lot 85 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says “expect to pay twice as much elsewhere for a similarly pedigreed Napa Chardonnay.” And they called this wine producer their winery partner. That sounds about right, if a winery from Napa releases…
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The Story The Arroyo del Imperio Chardonnay 2019 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s wine sourced from vineyards in the foothills of the Andes in the Central Valley of Chile. There usually isn’t much of a story to tell for six buck Trader Joe’s Chardonnay. There is no technical information available concerning the production of this…
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The Story The William Wright Monterey Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 ALDI wine produced for them by Scheid Vineyards in Greenfield, California (Monterey County). It seems that if you see a Monterey County wine from ALDI there is a good chance Scheid Vineyards produced it. Scheid Family Wines has been in business since 1972 and…
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The Story The JaM Butter Chardonnay 2018 is a brand that is part of the John Anthony Family of Wines. John Anthony is John A. Touchard out of Napa, California. JaM stands for John and Michelle Truchard. And this is a “lifestyle” brand of wines. This is a wine that I found (on sale( for $12.99…
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The Story The Wind Song Chardonnay 2018 ALDI is a $7.99 Aldi exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Margaret River district of Western Australia. Most Australian wines in the under twenty dollar price range come from South Australia or Southeast Australia. Margaret River is on the other side of the country, near the city of Perth…
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The Story The Anna de Codorníu Brut Rosé Cava is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay sourced from estate vineyards near the town of Lleida in the Cava D.O. of northeast Spain (near Barcelona). A typical Cava uses the three indigenous grapes, Macabeo, Xarello, and Parelada, but since this is a Rose’ and Red…
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The Story The Meringue Chardonnay Edna Valley 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from the Edna Valley AVA which is located south of Paso Robles along the Pacific Ocean coast inside the Central Coast AVA of California. Edna Valley may not be the best known AVA in California but it has an excellent reputation…
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The Story The Sean Minor 4B Chardonnay 2018 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from several contracted vineyards in California’s Central Coast AVA. Sean Minor Wines do not have their vineyards but have long term contracts with selected vineyards. They have a full line-up of wines from affordable White and Red wines to single-vineyard Pinot Noir, though they…
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The Story The Kirkland Champagne Brut is a $19.99 Costco exclusive produced for them by Champagne Janisson of Verzenany in the Champagne district of France. There was a time when a sub 20 buck real-deal Champagne was unheard of, but ALDI, Trader Joe’s (I think TJ’s French Bubbles has gone up in price) and Costco have…
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The Story The Roederer Estate Brut is a non-vintage Sparkling wine with a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir. Roederer Estate (founded 1982) is the Mendocino County, Anderson Valley in particular, branch of the nearly 200-year-old (founded 1833) Louis Roederer Champagne House in France. Roederer Estate has 600 acres of vineyards and grows…
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The Story The ALDI Monsigny Brut Champagne #3 is a non-vintage $19.99 ALDI exclusive, a blend of 60% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Chardonnay sourced from multiple vineyards in Champagne, France. It seems this is a brand name that ALDI owns and in the past several different Champagne Houses supply the Bubbly for ALDI….
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve North Coast Brut is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 non-vintage exclusive and is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. The North Coast AVA consists of Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, along with the lesser-known Marin and Solano AVAs. This Bubbly is made for Trader Joe’s by Rack and Riddle, a company…
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The Story The Tempest Bay Carneros Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine sourced from grapes grown on the Napa side of Carneros, the Carneros AVA is half in Sonoma and half in Napa. The Carneros AVA is located a good distance from the Pacific Ocean, but its southern border is the San Pablo Bay (the bay…
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The Story of New Mexico Bubbly The Gruet Blanc de Noirs is a non-vintage blend of 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards in New Mexico along with grapes from, I believe, California and Washington. The term “Blanc de Noirs” translates to White from Black, yes, I know, White wine grapes are usually green…
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The Story The Sienna Glen Chardonnay 2018 is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes from more than one California grape growing AVA. This is one of those wines where there isn’t much to say. It is a contracted store brand, they rarely give technical details on their wines. The winery that produced the wine,…
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The Story The Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2017 is 98% Chardonnay and 2% Gewürztraminer sourced from Wente estate vineyards in the Livermore Valley AVA located across the Bay from San Fransico in the northern section of the Central Coast AVA. Wente Vineyards started in the 1880s and has been in continuous operation since then (they didn’t close…
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