CheapWineFinder Podcast
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CheapWineFinder Podcast
Exploring La Crema's Sonoma Coast Chardonnay: A Barrel-Fermented Bargain from Costco
Dive into the world of premium yet affordable Chardonnay with our exploration of La Crema's 2023 Sonoma Coast offering. At just $15 from Costco, this wine delivers remarkable quality that punches well above its price point, making it a must-try for wine enthusiasts seeking value without compromise.
What sets La Crema apart is their consistent house style applied across different growing regions, allowing the unique terroir characteristics to shine through while maintaining their signature approach to winemaking. The Sonoma Coast Chardonnay undergoes meticulous barrel fermentation and ages for six months with a thoughtful combination of 25% French oak (contributing refined spices) and 25% American oak (adding vanilla and butter notes), all while developing complexity through on-lees aging.
The cool Sonoma Coast region, with its fog-covered mountain valleys along the Pacific, creates the perfect environment for a more Burgundian-style Chardonnay. The 2023 vintage experienced a growing season 3-4 weeks longer than usual, resulting in perfectly developed fruit with balanced 13.5% alcohol content – a telltale sign of cool-climate viticulture. Whether you're a casual wine drinker or a serious oenophile, this bottle offers a fascinating glimpse into how location, climate, and winemaking techniques converge to create distinctive character in the glass. Try it yourself and discover why La Crema continues to be a benchmark producer for accessible, high-quality California Chardonnay!
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Hey, welcome, domain Dave. Cheapwinefindercom Another wine review podcast. We do it three times a week. Write a review on CheapWineFindercom, then plug in the microphone and today we've got the La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2023. It's a Costco wine. It's a wine that you should be able to find cheapest at Costco, though I saw someone who had a four dollars cheaper. Then Costco did, but most the time it's four dollars more expensive.
Speaker 1:Look, prima, that is the best is a. Why would they have a? They have a estate vineyard in the russian river valley of um, of sonoma and um, but what they do and they have other, they do other wines, but they specialize in chardonnay and pinot noir and some of the elite growing regions in california, like there's all these uh, avas, sonoma, and there's Canaros in the Russian River and Sonoma Coast, and they even go up into Oregon where they go into the Lamont and that type of thing. And what's interesting about them, since they're doing all these Chardonnays and the Pinot Noir today's just Chardonnay is they have a house style. Is they have a house style? So, if you get a La Crema Caneros wine and a La Crema Sonoma Coast wine, since the winemaking philosophy is the same, the wines aren't cookie cutters, rakes, ask for different techniques to be used, but it's the same philosophy behind it, the same house style. So you're kind of removing that from the equation and getting the differences of the grapes when you're drinking back to back. The problem with that is most wine shops don't carry more than one, maybe two, but crema wines, so you're going to have to look around to get it. But that would be kind of a fun exercise in learning about chardonnay and what these things are, because sometimes you can have, like a Trader Joe's or whatever, has you know, a San Luis Obispo this or Santa Lucia Highlands, that, and it's different People make it every time and that makes everything different.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have a sip of this one. It's a nice blend of citrus and fruit. It's barrel fermented, which I like to see Most of the time. It's nothing wrong with stainless steel tanks, but you can only get so many liters of wine into a barrel where you can get gallons upon gallons of wine in those tanks. So it's a smaller batch. Again, not that that makes that much difference, because a good winemaker doesn't care, you can do it either way.
Speaker 1:But they took the time to to barrel ferment it and then they actually aged another six months in 25 percent french oak and 25 american oak. And when they do those, um, french oak is more subtle and refined. It doesn't give off as much flavor, it's more spices and nuances. And american doesn't give off as much flavor, it's more spices and nuances. And American oak is the crowd-pleasing chocolates and vanilla and the butter and that type of thing they did on-leaves. On-leaves means you keep the dead yeast in with the wine during the aging process and that helps give it a rounded taste. If you stir the leaves, that's batonage, which means stick stirring. Take another sip. Yeah, this is a really solid Chardonnay.
Speaker 1:Sonoma Coast is in the mountain valleys right along the Pacific Ocean. Russian River is east. There used to be an overlap between all these different AVAs but they broke it off because it was. The vineyards on the ridge are above the fog line. The ones in the valley are in the fog, which means that the fog has to burn off before the sun gets to them. So they tend to have a much longer growing time because the sun doesn't get to them much. This one, they said, was like 3-4 weeks late, which gave the in Pinot Noir. You love that Chardonnay too. This is more Burgundian than when they have this long growing period. It's only 13.5 in the alcohol, which tells you it's a cool area, because most of the time it's 14.5. The higher the alcohol rating, the more ripe it gets. So this was a long, cool growing region and a very high-end growing area.
Speaker 1:A lot of the wineries in the Sonoma Coast are boutique type ones, really high end. So, just on it. If you're just going to Costco and you want to get yourself a I think it was $15, $14.99. You know, for a barrel fermented Chardonnay they do make. They have single barrel wines, single vineyard wines, they have the whole thing. But this is one of their more affordable Chardonnays. It's well worth drinking and if you're going to buy it, get it. If you're near a jewel, it's $11 right now. If you're not, you're looking for a nice, nice upscale, really well-made Chardonnay. Costco's the place to grab it. So that's it for me. Domain Dave cheapwinefightercom. If you like us, if you like our podcast, push the button. You will. It helps and we appreciate it. So, adios, keep it cheap, stay cool, because it's getting warm out there. I think it's going to get a little colder this week, but, adios, I'll be talking.