The William Wright Monterey Chardonnay 2019 is a $6.99 Aldi exclusive, produced for them by Scheid Vineyards located in Greenfield, Monterey County in the California Central Coast AVA. Scheid is a large family-owned winery and this wine does show up in their portfolio on their website. The back label says “This classic Chardonnay was sourced…
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The Curious Beasts Chardonnay 2019 is a supermarket wine, it is made for Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel/Osco, and a host of other stores in the chain. It is produced exclusively for them the same way Trader Joe’s, Aldi’s, and Costco have their wines made for them. The Curious Beasts brand has been around for several years…
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The Mon Fére Chardonnay 2018 is a brand and winery from Taub Family Selections, which are mainly importers but have their own vineyards and wineries. They have a very extensive portfolio of wines. This Chardonnay is sourced from grapes grown in Mendocino, Monterey, and Lodi. That is a textbook example of why the Chardonnay shows…
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The 19 Crimes Martha’s Chard 2020 is a California Chardonnay from the Australian wine label 19 Crimes. The 19 Crimes referenced in the brand name are the number of offenses that would get a criminal in Great Britain deported to the Australian penal colony. The label embraces Australia’s heritage with a photo and a short…
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The Argyle Willamette Valley Brut 2017 is a vintage-dated small-batch estate-grown Sparkling wine made in the Champagne style. Argyle was founded in 1987 and produced exceptional Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Reisling, and Sparkling wines. This Bubbly consists of 55% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir, and 15% Pinot Meunier. The Chardonnay was sourced from the Knudsen Vineyard in…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma Brut 2021 Edition is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. We reviewed this Sparkling wine about one year ago, and I wanted to revisit this Bubbly since we recently enjoyed Trader Joe’s North Coast Brut, which sold for five dollars less at $9.99. Is the Sonoma Brut worth 33% more?…
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The Lovely You Chardonnay NV 2021 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive non-vintage produced for them by Winepress Vintners. This Chardonnay is one of the trendy fitness wines, low calorie, reduced sugar, and alcohol, with no carbs or fat. This summer, Trader Joe’s also had the Slim Vine Light wines, also “diet” wines. A family-owned…
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The Ernest Rapeneau Champagne (Dec. 2021) is exclusive to Trader Joe’s in places where Trader Joe’s sells wine but is otherwise sold all over the world. Ernest Rapeneau has been in the wine business since 1901 and has concentrated on Champagne since 1927. The winery is run by the 4th generation of the family and…
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The Louis Pommery Brut NV is a blend of 95% Chardonnay, and 5% Pinot Noir sourced from vineyards in California. This Sparkling wine is the California version of Champagne Pommery (founded in 1858), with Madame Pommery creating Brut (dry, not sweet) Champagne in 1874. Pommery has had a winery in Napa since 2004. The same…
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The Buttery Barrel Chardonnay 2020 is a $6.99 Aldi sourced from vineyards in California. The back label says, Cattlemen Ridge Wines produced this Chardonnay, and they are owned by Scheid Family Vineyards of Monterey, California. Scheid makes many wines for both Aldi and Trader Joe’s; they produce their own high-end wines and have many value-priced…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve North Coast Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine is a $9.99 Bubbly exclusive produced by Rack and Riddle of Healdsburg, California. Rack and Riddle is a custom wine brand winery that specializes in Sparkling wine. If you have had a value-priced Bubbly from California, it is possible that it was made at Rack…
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The Quarter Cut Bourbon Barrel Chardonnay 2019 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive wine, and it is part of a line of wines aged in bourbon barrels and wine barrels. Aldi owns the Quarter Cut name trademark, but according to the California COLA website, the wine is produced by Fetzer of Hopland, California. Fetzer has a…
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The Hwy 5 Chardonnay 2020 is a $4.99 Aldi wine sourced from vineyards in California. The back label says this wine was produced by a company located in Modesto, California. That typically indicates that some entity of E & J Gallo had a hand in the production. There is no technical production information available for…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Napa Valley Chardonnay 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine seems to come from a producer, ABJ WInes, who I believe is owned by someone who sold their Napa vineyard and winery to produce custom-label wines. This person has extensive connections in Napa, and that is a good sign…
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The Tanner Park Carneros Chardonnay 2019 is $9.99 for Trader Joe’s wine. In doing what research you can do on a Trader Joe’s wine, it seems that the Tanner Park brand may be an older defunct brand, and Trader Joe’s is reusing the name. This Chardonnay uses grapes grown on the Sonoma side of the…
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The Louis Jadot 2020 Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay is sourced from vineyards in the Mâconnais region of Burgundy in France. Chardonnay is THE grape of this area in southern Burgundy. For reference, Beaujolais is the southernmost region of Burgundy and Champagne in the north. Loius Jadot has been in the wine business since the 1850s. They traditionally purchased…
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The Chateau Ste Michelle Chardonnay 2019 is sourced from various vineyards in the Columbia Valley of Washington State. This is a wine that you should find for around ten bucks; I purchased a bottle for $8.99 on sale. The Columbia Valley comprises the vast majority of Washington’s vineyards, and there are 11 different sub-AVAs inside…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Russian River Chardonnay 2020 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s wine made for them by Owl Creek Wine Services, a custom wine company operating in the Russian River AVA for the last 12 years. The Russian River AVA is located near the Pacific Ocean. The Sonoma Coast AVA is west and closer…
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The Toad Hollow Unoaked Chardonnay 2019 subtitled Francine’s Selection is sourced from long-term contracts with family-owned vineyards in Mendocino County AVA in Northern California. Toad Hollow winery was founded in 1993 by Todd Williams and Rodney Strong. Rodney Strong had been a Broadway choreographer and owned a winery bearing his name. Todd Williams passed away…
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The format for this review is going to be different, we typically give our attention to one wine, but the Le Grand Verre 2020 is not about one individual bottle of wine. Instead, the name translates to “the big glass” and is a hand-picked line of single-serve bottles of boutique, small-batch French Estate wines. The…
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The High Guard Chardonnay 2019 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards located in several California AVA’s. This is a wine produced for Trader Joe’s by a custom wine company making wine for TJ’s for several years. I read that half of the wineries in California are faux-wineries, meaning that they do not…
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The Domaine Jean Bousquet Brut Rose is a non-vintage Sparkling wine, 95% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay sourced from Estate vineyards in the foothills of the Tupungato Mountain in the Uco Valley of Mendoza in Argentina. Tupungato is one of the tallest mountains in the Americas, and the vineyards are situated at 4,000 feet. Domaine…
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The Vin Seven Unoaked Chardonnay 2019 is a $4.99 wine that I found at Trader Joe’s, but the 7 in the Vin Seven name stands for 7/Eleven. At one time, the Vin Seven Unoaked Chardonnay 2019 was a 7/Eleven exclusive wine. Sonoma Bespoke makes custom private-label wines for Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, grocery store chains,…
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The Poppy Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay 2017 is sourced from Poppy’s Highland vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands sub-AVA inside the Monterey AVA, which is inside the Central Coast AVA of California. The Santa Lucia Highlands is exactly what the name suggests; it is located in the foothills of the Santa Lucia coastal mountains. This…
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The Los Vascos Chardonnay 2020 is sourced from the estate vineyards of Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) property in the Colchagua Valley of Chile. This is a wine that is often available for under ten dollars, and the 2020 vintage received 90 points from a leading wine critic. You would think that Domaines Barons de Rothschild…
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