Fast Facts:
- 2023 Trader Joe’s Reserve Chardonnay Lot #256, Yountville, Napa Valley, California ($9.99 @ Trader Joes, California)
I have worked in the wine business long enough to appreciate that it, like most agricultural endeavors, is cyclical. As of this writing, the wine market is softening. Demand is down. Sounds grim? Well it is if you are a grower or a producer. But if you are a consumer, you are in for several years of incredible wine values like this crazy one from Trader Joe’s.
I mean, a $9.99 sub appellated Chardonnay from Napa Valley – Yountville, no less – is good times people. Oh, and it’s current vintage, not a tired old 2019.
The front label…
Yountville, like its neighbor Oakville, is home to some world famous wineries (for example, Dominus and Domaine Chandon) but it is perhaps even more famous for its restaurant scene as the small town of Yountville has one of the Napa Valley’s highest concentration of fine dining establishments. The French Laundry, for example.
Perfect wine as summer pivots into Fall
Tasting Notes:
Pours a light straw color and offers soft aromas of ripe pears, lemon and melon, with notes of green apple, toasted oak and vanilla in the mouth. Nice balance of fruit flavors, acidity with some nice minerality on the finish. This is not a big butter bomb but a deliciously refreshing glass or two or three. Drink this lovely white as an aperitif or with various food pairings from pear and gorgonzola salad to garlic and butter herbed mussels or a simple garlic and olive oil pasta. ABV = 14.5%
Need More Wine Picks from Trader Joe’s – or Costco?
If your search for this wine lands you in Trader Joe’s, take along our handy Lucky 13 list of TJ’s wine here.
And if your wine shopping excursions land you in Costco, prepare by grazing our most recent reviews of Costco wines here in our Lucky 13 list.
Cheers!
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