CheapWineFinder Podcast
Talking about remarkable wines that pair nicely with your wallet! Because we like to keep it cheap but excellent.
CheapWineFinder Podcast
Wine Industry Woes Lead to $7.99 Napa Valley Gem at Trader Joe's
Extraordinary wine bargains emerge during challenging economic times, and the Co-Pilots Carneros Chardonnay 2023 from Trader Joe's exemplifies this rare opportunity. Priced at just $7.99, this single-vineyard Chardonnay from the prestigious Napa side of Carneros delivers quality that defies its humble price tag.
The wine industry's current struggles - with sales down nearly double digits and major producers like Duckhorn discontinuing brands - have created a perfect storm for budget-conscious wine enthusiasts. Fior di Sole, a respected family-owned Napa winery, has produced this remarkable Chardonnay that showcases typical American oak influence with appealing vanilla notes and bright lemon curd flavors. What makes this wine particularly special is how the flavor profile evolves with each sip, a hallmark of quality winemaking typically reserved for bottles costing five to ten times more.
Carneros, straddling both Napa and Sonoma counties along the San Pablo Bay, is renowned for producing world-class Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Wines from this region typically command premium prices from $50 to well over $100, making this $7.99 offering truly exceptional. The adorable label featuring a dog wearing a World War II fighter pilot's leather helmet adds charm to what's already an incredible value proposition. If you appreciate quality wine at bargain prices, this is the moment to act - these economic anomalies in the wine market are fleeting, and once this inventory sells through, similar opportunities may not appear until the next market correction. Visit your local Trader Joe's today and stock up while supplies last!
Check us out at www.cheapwinefinder.com
or email us at podcast@cheapwinefinder.com
hey, welcome domain day with a cheap wine findercom and we've got a uh bargain today. Uh, it's from trader joe's and I think it might be from some of the recent uh issues in california, with the wine companies changing what they're doing and sales being down by almost double digits and all that and what we have is the co-pilots. Canaro chardonnay 2023. It's seven dollars and 99 cents. It's from the napa side, the las canaro side. Uh, canaros is on both sides. It's on the uh, it's on the shores of the San Pablo Bay, kind of a little bit inward, and part of it's in Sonoma, part of it's in Napa. This is the Napa part. There was Chardonnay from Trader Joe's last month. That was from the Duckhorn Vineyard and this one is from a respected single vineyard in um in carneros two. So this is that was a ten dollar one. This is a 7.99 single vineyard. Carneros chardonnay, which is you don't get that unless it's bad economic times and it's trader jo. I mean, it just doesn't work that way. And so what do we have here? We have a. Let me take a sip, just because it's probably from a. It was probably going to a fancy brand at some point. But let me take a sip and we'll talk about it afterwards.
Speaker 1:I don't actually have any inside information about the provenance of where the grapes came from or whatever it's who made the wine. For Trader Joe's there's a family-owned winery, fior di Sole. They have done other Trader joe's and costco wines. They they're a family-owned winery out of uh, out of napa. They have their own brands, they do custom brands, so they do a good job. And there are a lot of uh. You know a lot of contracts have been canceled but because the wine industry is off, new brand, existing brands have been terminated. Uh, the duckhorn wine from last month. Duckhorn just put two brands to bed. Uh sold off part of it. You know it's um, that I knew there with the uh, with the trader jo's wine. I think it was one of the Rand reserves or whatever.
Speaker 1:This is just a brand, a co-pilot oh, by the way, and co-pilot. The co-pilot and the label is a very good dog. Uh, wearing a world war, two fighter pilots, a leather helmet. So it's kind of cute. I kind of liked it and I don't know what significance it has, but maybe it tells you where the vineyard is. I'm not sure about that, but it's from a single vineyard.
Speaker 1:Perneros is an elite Chardonnay and Pinot Noir growing region. I mean they have wines that are 50 to 100 and above. Consistently they don't have 799 wines. Let's go take another sip.
Speaker 1:This wine, if it had been a more expensive wine, might have had more aging. They used American oak. American oak has a wider grain. It can give off oak influence faster, so you have to be careful with it. French oak has got a tighter grain and it has more subtle, subdued spicy things. And it has more subtle, subdued spicy things where American oak can have depending on how you flame the inside of the barrel or whatever it can have chocolate and vanilla, which are kind of things that people really like. But you know, wine purists like the French stuff where it's more subtle.
Speaker 1:So this might not have been made in the exact same way that it would have originally been intended to be made. You know I'm not saying this is like a $60 wine and selling for $7.99. It could have been intended to be made that way but maybe it didn't and I don't have any inside information. So maybe it was, but I don't think so, I think thing. So I think take another sip.
Speaker 1:It is a really nice wine. It's got it's got vanilla and a nice lemon curd. The flavors kind of come at you in a different order with every sip, which is a sign of a good wine, and the more I sip it, the more I like it. And 799 these are bargain wines that when you find out about them, you need to buy them. I mean, you're not going to get me. The only time these happen are in bad economic times and with companies like costco or trader joe's or even Aldi, who are in a position to move wine quickly and maybe even they pay up front, they can help the wine companies get cash infusions and then they'll be able to sell these bargain wines to people like us who like value-priced wine. So it's a really kind of a cool thing.
Speaker 1:I also picked up the Canaris Pinot Noir, which I'll be doing in a couple of days, and I'm really interested in that too. A single vineyard Pinot Noir from Canaris is kind of crazy, but this is a Chardonnay which is equally crazy and fun to drink. It tastes good. It has really good flavors. Like I said, the flavors come at you in different formations, so it's all good. So it's the Coppola Canero Chardonnay 2023. It's $7.99 at Trader Joe's I don't know how long they have it for or how much they bought, because I imagine these bargain wines, because of economic problems, they don't always come in large quantities. So I would head out and, if you see it, buy it. If you like it, go back and buy some more because it won't be around forever. So, adios, keep it cheap. This is Domain Dave from CheapWineFightercom. We do three wine reviews a week, then we plug in the podcast and we talk about it. So there you go, adios, keep it cheap. We've got a couple more wines coming up. I'll see you, adios, bye-bye.