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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2023 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer indicates that the 2023 vintage returns after a six-year absence.
Carneros is a high-end wine district, and the California wine business has been booming in the last few years. However, the boom is turning into something of a bust now, with some growers contemplating uprooting vines and planting a different crop to sell. That could be a reason for the return of this Chardonnay.
The back label says this wine was cellared and bottled by Paradise Vineyards and Winery, but I couldn’t find any reference to them on the internet. Not that that matters much, cellared and bottled by basically means they bottled the wine and not much more.
Trader Joe’s does give us a little information on the Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2023, it is sourced from four vineyards in Carneros. If all the vineyards were on the Napa side of Carneros they would say this was a Los Carneros wine. So some of the grapes probably came from the Sonoma side of Carneros.
This Chardonnay was aged eight months in French oak barrels and was bottled unfiltered. Value-priced wines are almost always filtered, this takes the dead yeast and solids out of the wine. The thinking is that if you remove something from the wine you also remove flavor. Expensive wines are often unfiltered, they want the full experience.
Is this a clue that this wine was originally intended to be sold at a higher price? I guess the tasting portion will tell that tail. The alcohol content is a ripe 14.5%
The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2023 Tasting Notes
The color is a see-through gold. The nose is pretty, there is peach, pear, crisp apple, a hint of vanilla, pineapple, melon, and candy spice. The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2023 is a food wine, think Thanksgiving, there is plenty of flavor and acidity to stand up to a Holiday feast.
This Chardonnay tastes like a stew of apple, melon, lime, and peach, along with a little tropical fruit. The mid-palate adds guava, spice, lemon curd, and a late hit of sweet pear.
The acidity does its job well and allows the flavors to fully unfold and helps give this Chardonnay excellent length.
The Summary
- The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2023 tastes more expensive than a $12.99 wine.
- It is funny, that value-priced wines can be crowd-pleasing, and expensive wine can be a little challenging.
- This is a mid-bodied, full-flavor, ripe Chardonnay and loads of fun to drink.
