Negociant @ Costco-Courtier California St. Helena Sauvignon Blanc 2025

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Hey, welcome. It's Domain Dave, cheapwinefinder.com, with a good wine today. Um, based on some things that are happening in the wine world, it's we've got a bargain here. This is the uh Cordier California Saint Helena Napa, Sauvignon Blanc 2025. Cortier California is a negotiant. Negotiant's a French company, a French, I mean it's started in France. Um, they get relationships with different wineries in their area, and they purchase excess wine from these wineries, put it under their own name on their own label, sell it at a discount, and it gets rid of the surplus wine for these wineries. They've got to do something with it, and there's an outlet for it, and the money is pure prop because they're making their money off their own labels, and um it works, and the front label list says there's a non-disclosure agreement because you don't want the original more expensive wine, doesn't want people knowing you can buy it for less money, and that'll kill the whole project right there. And that's how this works, and that's how Cordillo California does things, except I went on the California Wine Cooler Registry, that's the uh agency in California that uh regulates uh a tax scene and the labels and all that type of thing. Every wine in sale in California, pretty much from the country, has to go through that. And it says that it was from Charles Krug and uh Robert Mondavi. Charles Krug is the oldest winery in Napa Valley, I think it's 1861. And if I'm not mistaken, uh, I think it's um Mondavi. Mondavi passed away a few years back, but he was like the godfather of California wine. I think he owned it for decades, like from the 1940s. So this St. Um Charles Krug is in St. Helena, that's the AVA it's from. And it looks like this is their wine. Um, I have no inside knowledge. I don't want to see the contracts, I just know that California Wine Call says this is from there, this is a St. Helena um Savillon Blanc, and if you go on their website for Charles Krug, they have a estate Savion Blanc from St. Helena. Now, um Mondavi's got a selection of uh Savillon Blancs. He's the one that came up with the name Fume Blanc, and some of their like that, but they're from different areas. The one thing that's ah, this is a 2025 vintage, and uh Charles Krug does not have a 2025 Sauvignon Blanc at the moment. Uh will it come out later? So is this less aging, though you don't need much aging for these wines? Um, even when Charles Krug's uh wine, it's like $23 at lists for, and a lot of places have it for around $15. So this is $12.99 at uh at Costco. So you're getting a uh a bargain, plus you're getting a um famous Napa Valley State Sauvignon Blanc from a high-end AVA, sub-AVA. I'm gonna take a sip. And this is a good wine. This is a really, really good Sauvignon Blanc. It's not New Zealand, it's more balanced, it's really flavorful. Uh, it's got great acidity, it's bright, it's uh juicy, but it's balanced. It's no flavor bomb, it's just a really nice, well-made Savillon Blanc. Now, Charles Kruger also has a really like a reserve Sauvignon Blanc, which is $60. I don't know if that's this, I doubt it. Though there are those kind of bargains out there right now where wines that don't sell end up under other names somewhere for less money. I'm gonna take another sip of this one. I'm gonna uh just talk here. Uh I have no inside knowledge, but if you're a this was happened in 2008, if you're a um winery, it's high-end wine that isn't moving right now, and you and you gotta get rid of it because if you don't get rid of this year, the next year's gonna stack up on you, and then you can't get rid of it. So there are um so that back then there are people would bottle their wine that was used to sell under one name, bottle under another name for a year, and sell it at a cheaper price to move it, and then there were they would do go to Trader Joe's, they would go to Aldi, they'd go to Costco, they would go to all these different um places where they could retail wine that not really competing because their own wines aren't on those shelves. It just brings to new people, and if it gets out that they're the ones that made it, I mean, you probably aren't looking for Charles Krug, um Savion Blanc's any, you know. If it comes if you come across one, you're all about it. But if you're a um Casco person, I would give this one a try. And it's a true negotiant one. Now, I don't know exactly why this is out before the Krug is. Is Krug not coming out? Uh my bottle is uh 45,000 um they name they number them 495, and I I I don't know, that's like 152 barrels. I don't know how many other bottles are out there, or how many under barrels. I don't know how many um barrels Charles Krug made of this one. They could have done hundreds of them, or this could be again. I'm just shooting from the hip. This could be their allotment for 2025. I mean, just to and they'll go again in 2026 and try to you know do what they gotta do if if conditions are better in 2026. It makes sense. Taylor said. So this is a negotiant wine from a high-end winery with the oldest um winery in California. It's been around for a long time. Uh 180 years or something. I math in my head. Is that good? But there you go. So that's kind of a fun wine to think about that, and then the Mondavi um connection where Mondavi is they they couldn't sell Savillon Blanc back in the day, so we changed the name to Fume Blanc, and it sold. So uh Mondavi is the person who kind of put this on the uh map. So this, and this is his wine because they own that vineyard. So there you go. The Cortier California, St. Hela, Saint Helena, Savion Blanc 2025. Really good wine, really good price. 13 bucks for a for an estate uh Napa wine of any kind is a good price. So there you go, find it, buy it, and enjoy it. Adios, keep it cheap. We talk about