(and the cheap WHITES we’re diggin’ on lately)
The JaM Cellars Butter Chardonnay 2021 is 100% Chardonnay and is a wine I found at Costco selling for $9.99 and is found on the web for 13 to $17. The JaM in the name stands for John and Michele Truchard. John is a second-generation California winemaker his father owns Truchard Vineyards in Napa. In…
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The Les Allies Blanc de Blanc Brut is a French Sparkling wine I found at a local Chicago wine shop selling for $9.99. This is a Cote d’Or wine from Burgundy, France, and is a Vin Mousseux wine meaning it was produced in a method different than the Traditional or Champagne Method. That usually means…
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The Sand Point Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is a wine I found selling for $9.99. The Sand Point brand of wine is part of the Lange Twins Family Winery and Vineyards located in Acampo, California inside the Lodi AVA. The Lange Twins are 5th generation farmers whose families started working the land in the 1870s. The…
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The Cecilia Beretta Millesimato Valdobbiadene Prosecco 2021 is an $11.99 Trader Joe’s wine though it is available at a higher price elsewhere. Cecilia Beretta is a brand and winery owned by the Pasqua family since the early 1980s and they have a history in wine starting in the 1940s. Millesimato means that this is a…
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The Angeline California Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2021 is a wine I found on sale for $7.99 (Binny’s Chicago area), this vintage received 92 points from James Suckling, the leading wine reviewer. Angeline is an affordable line of wines from Martin Ray Winery (family owned since 1990) a high-end winery located in the Russian River AVA…
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The Kirkland Signature Extra Dry Prosecco Rosé 2021 is a 7.99 Costco exclusive. The traditional Prosecco grape, Glera, and Pinot Noir are used for additional flavor and color. This is an Extra Dry or slightly sweet wine, which is the way the Italians prefer it. The natural acidity balances the extra sugar, so this is…
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The Sainte Celine Chablis 2022 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s import wine. It is produced for trader Joe’s by Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard a noted Chablis producer (since 1973) who has made some of the first organic and bio-dynamic wines in Chablis and Burgundy. Chablis is the northernmost growing region in Burgundy and Champagne is north…
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The Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2021 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from sustainably farmed Kendal Jackson Estate vineyards in Santa Barbara County, The Santa Maria County AVA (the northern boundary of the Santa Barbara AVA and Monterey County. To show Santa Barbara on the label 75% of the grapes have to be grown…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Pinot Grigio 2022 is Vegan-friendly. You might ask how can something made from fruit not be ok with vegans? It is the fining process, fining is where the solids, grape skin residue and spent yeast are removed from the wine after aging and before bottling. They have traditionally used…
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The Codorniu Limited Edition Cava Brut Reserva is a Spanish Sparkling wine I found on sale for $8.99. Codorniu is the oldest winery in Spain with a history going back to 1551. This was way before Cava wines very started. In 1872 Josep Raventos brought the Champagne Sparkling wine methods to Spain and Cava was…
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The 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Blanc 2021 is California Sauvignon Blanc, Cali Blanc is simply Snoop’s name for it. There is a history of calling this grape something other than Sauvignon Blanc. In the 1960s Robert Mondavi tried selling high-end Sauv Blanc and nobody was buying. In those days Sauvignon Blanc was the cheap…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The back label says it was made by Ashford Court who also made Trader Joe’s perennial favorite, Cotillion Pinot Noir. The actual producer of Cotillion is Plata Wine Partners of Napa, California. You may have not heard of Plata Wine…
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The Vino Columbia Valley Pinot Grigio 2020 is a wine that should be found for around $10, I saw prices as high as $13 and I found it for $8.99. It is a brand from Charles Smith/House of Smith Wines. The full name of this wine is Vino CasaSmith and these wines are Italian varietals…
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The Woodleaf Ranch Russian River Chardonnay 2020 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. I checked the California wine labeling website COLA and it showed that Rack and Riddle cellared and bottled this Chardonnay. Cellared and bottled means just that, they aged the wine for a certain amount of time and bottled it, but the named producer…
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The Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Organic California Chardonnay 2022 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is produced for Trader Joe’s, or at least “vinted and bottled by”, ASV Wines. ASV Wines is a family-owned winery in business since 1981 and they own 1,500 acres of vineyards. Vinted and bottled by does not indicate that…
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The Charme de Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is a wine from Domaine Jean-Marie Reverdy and Fils, a 4th generation family wine estate located near the town of Sancerre in the Loire Valley of France. Their estate wines are Sancerre (the leading Sauvignon Blanc growing area in the Loire Valley). The Charme de Loire Sauvignon Blanc…
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The Tuatea Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s wine. This wine is imported to the US by WX Imports. It seems this wine sells in places where there is no Trader Joe’s for $13.99. CWF reviewed the 2017 vintage Tuatea and the Fearless Flyer back then mentioned his wine had some oak…
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The Peaks And Tides Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2021 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. The Peaks and Tides name is owned by Aldi, but the back label says it was vinted and bottled by a wine company in Geyserville, California. A quick check of the web showed this wine is credited to Delicato Family Vineyards who…
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The Kim Crawford Hawke’s Bay Rosé 2021 is 70% Merlot and 30% Sauvignon Blanc sourced from vineyards in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand’s North Island. Kim Crawford has been a wine brand since 1996 and was started in Marlborough on New Zealand’s South Island. The majority of the wines Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot…
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The Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2022 sells at Costco for $13.89, on the web for an average of $17, and for $21 on the Spy Valley website. Spy Valley is a family-owned winery founded in the 1990s in the Waihopai Valley in Marlborough of New Zealand’s South Island. This is an extremely rural, isolated location and…
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The Mumm Napa Brut Rosé is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay sourced from up to 50 growers in Napa County. GH Mumm is a Champagne House founded in France in 1827. Mumm Napa was established in the late 1970s. The Mumm Napa Brut Rosé comes from almost 200 years of Champagne-making…
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The Fess Parker Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2021 sells for $13.89 at Costco and an average of $17 elsewhere, though the prices vary greatly. The grapes were sourced from 7 high-end vineyards situated throughout Santa Barbara County. Santa Barbara County is located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, which should be too warm to grow…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Paso Robles Chardonnay 2021 Is a $7.99 limited exclusive wine. Usually, Trader Joe’s wine has no production notes, but this wine is featured in the Fearless Flyer so we have a few things to go on. To make a short story even shorter, Trader Joe’s says that a wine partner…
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The Joel Gott California Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is sourced from vineyards in Sonoma, Lake County, Lodi, Monterey, and Santa Barbara AVAs. Joel Gott Wines was founded in 1996 and specialized in wine from California, Washington, and California. The Joel Gott California Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is #5 on Wine Spectators’ list of top ten value wines…
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The High Guard Chardonnay 2021 Trader Joe’s is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is produced for them by a family-owned winery located in Napa Valley, though the grapes are from California. A wine produced from grapes grown in California must show California as the place of origin f the grapes are not from one…
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