Check us out at http://www.cheapwinefinder.com
or email us at [email protected]
Speaker 1
0:18
wwwDomainDaveCheapWineFindercom flyer . There hasn't been anything new there in a long time . There's wine showing up on there from two years ago but to my surprise they had the honore la farde grand reserve brute champagne for 24.99 . Okay , cheap champagne , no cheap grower champagne . Less than five percent of the uh champagnes coming to the United States are grower champagne and one of the reasons why is they make them a smaller amount . What is a grower champagne ?
Speaker 1
0:54
For the longest time the big champagne houses had all the vineyards bottled up , most of like places like Dom Dom Perignon and Chandon and whatever don't own a lot of vineyards . They have traditionally purchased grapes , long-term contracts with all the little growers there . So to have a wine with , you know , from a bunch of different vineyards is common in champagne . It's kind of like the reverse of most places . Bordeaux napa . You want it to be a single vineyard , single section champagne very rarely , and the most expensive wines might be a single vineyard that the uh the champagne house actually owns . But that's the exception , not the rule , and about 100 years ago they let the growers make their own wine . You know there was a big to-do , they got all mad about it and nowadays grower champagnes are these little boutique champagnes . Now I don't know how much of a boutique wine this is . Checking out this wine on the web , there wasn't much going , but most of the websites had a lot of Asian writing . Champagne is especially big in China and other places , so this might be an export wine that Trader Joe's managed to snag some for the United States , which is excellent , and at $24.99 for a legitimate grower champagne , a kind of boutique-y champagne on top of it . Because if you buy a bottle of Adam this year , there's a million bottles of those every year being sold . You're not getting anything exclusive . It's good , I'm not . I'm not complaining about that , but if you go to Trader Joe's and pick up a $25 one , you're getting something that's fairly exclusive . I'm gonna take a sip .
Speaker 1
3:04
There are different classifications of the Negotiate wines . This is an NM Negotiate , manipulate , which means that they bought the grapes from other , probably other grower producers . They bought it from somebody else and then they did the . They improved the wine , which , again , is common . That's the way things are done there . This isn't any shortcut or way to make it cheaper , though it might be a little cheaper that way , but it's a common practice . You're not getting anything less .
Speaker 1
3:43
In the title it says Grand Reserve , which isn't an approved champagne term . You know , grand Cru and those type of things are all approved . This is kind of like you know , old Vine Zinfandel . There's no rule that says that Old Vine Zinfandel has to be any age at all . It's what they say it is , but it's generally accepted that it's over 40 years old and it tends to be . The reputable Zinfandel producers make sure that's what they have . And with this Grand Reserve , because it's a non-vintage wine and they're taking different vintages , which they're doing supposedly every wine is supposed to be older than five years old , which , with champagne , is good , because the older it gets , the more the bubbles become incorporated , the creamier it gets . Age and champagne tends to raise the price . Now , since it's not an approved and this is a Trader Joe's wine and I don't know and I don't read Chinese , so I can't figure out what's going on with the website and the Bernard Ramey is the , the grower champagne producer that made this and they have their own wines , but I'm not sure if this has anything to do with those . This might be a specialty wine , so I can't really go by how they make their wines , because it doesn't necessarily mean they made this the same way .
Speaker 1
5:15
I'm going to take another sip . It's a tasty champagne . It's dry , it's brute , it's very dry . I'm going to pour myself a little bit more because it's one of those things it's got . It's brute , it's very dry . I'm going to pour myself a little bit more because it's one of those things . It's got that acidity that beckons you , beguiles you , to take another sip , which is dangerous with champagne , especially one that's this affordable . It has kind of firm flavors , a little weight on the palate . This is not a flighty champagne at all . It's got .
Speaker 1
5:56
I actually wrote that the city was zesty , which is not a term I wouldn't necessarily use , but it worked . I mean , it does have that and it's got really good length . It stays with you . The best champagne I ever had disappeared in your mouth at no length . As soon as you tasted it it was gone . It was like a ghost of a champagne which was great . And this one's got length . But it's good too . And that was a lot more expensive .
Speaker 1
6:22
This is $24.99 . And it tastes delicious . Yeah , I mean , um , grower producer . Only five percent of the market in the united states is grower producer . You could chase around your town to all the wine shops looking for an affordable grower producers ? They're out there , but here you just stop by trader joe's and grab one off the shelf and and get some orange chicken and you know what else too . So this is , this is a treat for um new year's . This is legitimate , really good champagne , great for toasting if you're having a party . Rather than spend uh for a couple , to spend uh 100 bucks on two dimes or two chandons , you can get four of these and I think this is the way to go . So , adios , keep it cheap . I got one more bubbly coming up before New Year's Eve and I'll be talking to everybody . So this is the Henri Laford Grand Reserve Brut Chardonnay . Adios , keep it cheap . I'll be talking to everybody in a couple of days . Bye-bye .
