What if your next favorite wine is a delightful $8.99 bottle from Trader Joe’s? Prepare to meet La Chateau Chenin 2023, a captivating Cabernet Franc hailing from the storied vineyards of Chenin in France’s Loire Valley. We’ll explore how this underappreciated grape, often overshadowed by its more famous relative, Cabernet Sauvignon, stands out with its robust AOP classification. Our chat reveals fascinating tidbits about its rich history and contribution to the wine world, courtesy of the GCF Group JP Chinette, one of France’s largest wine exporters.
Get ready to experience a tapestry of flavors as we savor this vibrant wine’s red fruit notes and intriguing spices. Imagine pairing this wine with comfort food or enjoying it during a Netflix binge—it’s versatile enough for both. Our tasting notes reveal hints of green pepper, raspberry, blackberry, and more, capturing the essence of this charming Cabernet Franc. Pour a glass and let us transport you to the heart of French winemaking tradition, all from the comfort of your couch.
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0:07
Hey, domain Dave CheapWineFindercom. Another wine review. Today we've got an 899 Trader Joe's French wine. It's the La Chateau Chenin 2023. If you see Chenin on the label, well, that means it's a Cabernet Franc. Chenin is a very famous town in the Loire Valley of France and in the vineyards surrounding that town they make Cabernet Franc wines. Cabernet Franc is also the third grape used in Bordeaux. Bordeaux is basically the interplay of Cabernet, sauvignon and Merlot, but most of those wines add some Cabernet Franc to it and occasionally Cabernet Franc is the one and only grape in those wines. So this is an AOP wine, which is the top standard. There is higher standards inside AOP wine, which is the top standard. There is higher standards inside AOP, but this wine conformed to all the rules and regulations for the vineyards and in production.
Speaker 1:
1:13
La Chateau is the negotiant brand for GCF Group JP Chinette. They're the largest exporter of French wines. They're a huge group. Being a negotiant, their website part of it's in French, so I don't know much about what they're saying, but they deal with 450 vineyards and 100 different domains or wineries. So a negotiant buys excess wine, excess grapes, excess, gets it for a lower price and doesn't tell them who they get it from and then they sell it for a really good price. This is $8.99 because Trader Joe's also sells it for a really good price because they're basically a grocery store who's also a wine shop. So the groceries at one time the wine brought in people to the grocery stores and what have you. So this is a kind of a fancy place for Cabernet Franc.
Speaker 1:
2:17
A little Cabernet Franc history Way back when and I don't think I'd be sure exactly when, but they crossed Cabernet Franc with the Sauvignon Blanc and the offspring was Cabernet Sauvignon. So Cabernet Franc is a very old grape and everybody, I think Cabernet Sauvignon has kind of passed it by. But it's still here and it's still a good wine and it's still the wine of Chandon. Yeah, I intentionally didn't put Cabernet Franc on the title because you're supposed to know if it's Chandon. That's what it is. I mean, it's one of those things if you see the name. Okay, now I get what it is Prosecco, that's the sparkling wine from Veneto. You know, it's that type of thing. I'm going to have a sip.
Speaker 1:
3:16
There was a time when Cabernet Franc was a tannic wine. It was actually used as a blending wine to give structure to wine. You know, if it was a year where the you know, in France or in Bordeaux, when the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Merlot were really not that structured, they'd add this and they'd tighten everything up. Now let's say spicy wine. It's got good red fruit, it's got really nice, good slap of spice on it, which is kind of nice. It's a fun wine.
Speaker 1:
3:50
There's Cabernet Franc and have a little bit of green pepper in there. And this one has a hint. You don't get it all the time, but sometimes you take a sip and you go, hmm, there's a little bit of, because you get black pepper and you get that type of thing, but here you get green pepper too. Take another sip there's raspberry, there's blackberry, there's soft plum, some blueberry. It's a nice wine. I mean, this is more of a netflix wine than it is uh, fine dining. You could, of course, uh, comfort food would go really really well with this, you know, and you could actually have a steak with it. I mean, that kind of thing too, you, you could do it, but the place is probably watching serial killer documentaries on Netflix than that, which is perfectly fine, because there needs to be wine for that. You can't sit through that perfectly straight. It'll drive you crazy. So there you go. This is an actual Shanon at $8.99. A good entryway, I mean, they don't typically sell for $8.99. A good entryway, I mean they don't typically sell for $8.99.
Speaker 1:
4:59
And Chenin is a really great way to try out Cabernet Franc, because it is a very drinkable, very good Cabernet Franc. And this is a good way to go. And this is from. You know, this is from a big wine French wine producer. We don't know which actual domain, as they call them, made this wine and what La Chateau did to it. Sometimes they add a little something, something or whatever, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:
5:33
It's a good and expensive Chenin Cabernet Franc wine from the Laura Valley. Take another sip. Yeah, it's worth buying. It's kind of fun. It's not a Zinfandel but it's got that good fruit and spice thing going that Zinfandel often has. So if you kind of like that type of thing, you don't always get that from a French wine. So it's kind of fun to get it from this wine because it does have some spiciness to it and it has some good red fruit to it. You know it's not the most, it doesn't have the most depth and complexity or anything, but it's not a bad wine at all for $8.99. I mean, it's, I don't, it's a solid buy. So, adios, that's it for me. Domain Dave cheapwinefightercom. Like us where you like your podcasts. We're going to be going back to try to get some more different sparkling wines and what have you, and maybe try some of Trader Joe's expensive platinum ones in a couple of days. So, adios, keep it cheap and I'll talk to everybody in a couple of days. Stay warm, adios.
