Delicious Wine Alert - Willia Willamette Chardonnay- Trader Joe's

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A $12.99 Chardonnay from Willamette Valley that actually overdelivers? We pop the cork on Willa Creek 2023 and trace the bigger story behind Oregon’s quiet Chardonnay comeback. For years the region leaned on California clones that struggled to ripen in cooler sites, yielding lean, austere wines. The switch to Dijon clones—and a clearer read on site and style—has unlocked balance, lift, and flavor, and this stainless-steel, unoaked bottling shows how far things have come.

We break down the tasting profile in plain terms: a clean mix of orchard fruit and citrus framed by crisp acidity, no oak, and a texture that starts soft and expands across the palate. If you avoid buttery Chardonnay, this is your lane. We also decode the label: “produced and bottled by,” the fresh Willa Creek trademark, and Precept Wine’s role crafting store brands for Trader Joe’s and beyond. The paperwork might be new, but the winemaking knows what it’s doing, and the result punches above its price.

Planning the holiday table? This is a smart pour for turkey and rich sides. The acidity cuts through creamy dishes, the fruit stays friendly, and the finish stays clean. Beyond Thanksgiving, it’s a weeknight match for roast chicken, lemony pastas, and sushi. More importantly, it signals where Oregon Chardonnay is heading: focused, bright, and increasingly reliable at value prices. Give it a try, see how it blooms in the glass, and tell us what you taste.

If you enjoy the show, follow, rate, and share it with a friend who loves finding great bottles under $15. Your rec keeps the reviews coming—what value Chardonnay should we open next?

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
It's Domain Dave, cheapwinefinder.com again with
another wine review, like wealways do.
Uh value price wines uh that areum easy to find.
This one's from Trader Joe's.
It's a new one, brand new one.
So Willia Creek, W I L L I ACreek, Willamette Valley
Chardonnay 2023.

(00:22):
It's$12.99.
For Willamette Valley, that's agood price.
Uh there's a story aboutWillamette Valley.
I'll tell that right away whileI'm thinking of it.
Normally, if an area is verygood at growing Pinot Noir,
those conditions are alsooptimal for Chardonnay.

(00:43):
It's that way in Burgundy, it'sthat way in Santa Barbara,
California, it's that way inMonterey, it's that way in um
Sonoma Coast, it's not it's thatway in Carneros, it's that way
in uh every single area, RussianRiver.

(01:04):
There's they go hand in hand,but in Oregon, the white wine
was always Pinot Gris.
Pinot Gris is Pinot Grigio, butmade in the French style, not
the Italian style.
And in uh Chardonnay just didn'twork up there.
And it turns out that they hadbeen planting the California
clone, and that's probably theWente clone, but there could be

(01:29):
other ones involved, and theyjust didn't work for that
climate, they weren't gettingripe enough, they were too
acidic, they weren't fun todrink, and they finally figured
out that you need the Dijonclone, which is from Burgundy,
and that for some reasonWillamette Valley and Burgundy
have more in common than theythought, even though I think

(01:50):
they thought they had somethingin common, because both are
world famous for making uh PinotNoir and Chardonnay now, and now
so this is something relativelynew.
You know, they're kind ofthey're still making Pinot
Griege, not Grigio Gris, uh, butChardonnay is coming online and
they're starting to get the hangof Chardonnay too.

(02:10):
I mean, it takes a while tofigure out what the grapes in
the vineyard are telling thewinemaker.
There is a learning period, butit it shouldn't be that hard for
them to start getting on withthe thing.
So there you go.
This is a good Chardonnay.
It is a um unoaked Chardonnay.
It's uh d uh it's fermented andaged in stainless steel.

(02:35):
So they're not introducing anyoak flavors into it.
Uh which, you know, people whodo not like buttery Chardonnay
are gonna like this.
And it's a nice mix of flavors.
It there are good fruit flavorsand nice citrus flavors.
So you're getting that kind offruity type of thing, and then
you're getting that tart thinggoing on, and it kind of is a

(02:59):
nice touch.
Oops, I almost knocked my glassover.
Let me take a sip.
Yeah.
The flavors kind of bloom inyour mouth.
It starts off slow and theybuild.
It's kind of a nice thing.

(03:19):
Certain some wines don't dothat.
Some wines you know either tastegood or bad from the get-go.
And other wines kind of evolve,and this one kind of grows.
This one uh flavors start offsoft and then become bigger as
as it hits all the parts of yourpalate, which is one of those
signs of a really good wine.
You know, you kind of want that.

(03:40):
So that's uh that's somethinggood about a$12.99.
Now, uh Willa Creek.
Willa Creek is from Precept.
Precept wines.
Precept wines owns GrovetChampagne or Sparkling Wine and
a bunch of other brands.
And they make a lot of wines forTrader Joe's and Aldi's and all

(04:01):
those, so they they they do anice job of these uh of these uh
store brands uh making brandsfor somebody.
And this Willia Creek, this is a2023 vintage, and the back
bottle said produced in bottledby on the label.
Produced in bottled by meansthat they didn't necessarily
grow the grapes, but theycrushed the grapes, they

(04:23):
fermented the grapes, they agedthe wine, they bottled the wine.
But Willia Creek is a trademarkof precept, and it wasn't
trademarked until like December10th, or not December, October
10th.
So, how does a 2023 vintage winecome from a somebody who wasn't
only in business for the lasttwo weeks?

(04:46):
So that's kind of uh I don'tknow what that means.
Wine labeling is so weirdnowadays.
You just don't know what's Imean, it's still precept.
Precept did something with it.
They have a lot of good wines,they know what they're doing.
They actually have a uh theyhave an actual um they have
their own vineyard in Oregon,though I don't know if it's

(05:06):
well, this one doesn't say wherein Oregon it's from.
So, I mean it could be fromtheir own vineyards there.
I don't know.
But the Willia Creek, who knowswhat they are?
I'm gonna tell you they'resipping.
We'll lock this one up.
In the um written review, wealways write a review on

(05:28):
cheapwinefinder.com.
We have been doing that for Ithink like 18 years now.
17, 18.
And um, I mentioned on that thatthis is a wine you might want to
keep your eye out for theThanksgiving meal.
It's really kind of light, soit's not gonna if you actually
have turkey.
Turkey is all doesn't have a tonof flavor.
So if you're having turkey, uh alighter wine, but has good crisp

(05:51):
acidity and good flavor, andwould kind of they say it will
cut through, you know.
Sometimes you get some kind ofgooey, really, well, delicious
eye dishes that go along withthe turkey and the dressing and
all that.
And this will do a good jobthere because it tastes great
and it's$12.99 and it's fromWillamette Valley, so it'll
impress your friends andneighbors.

(06:12):
So Adios, keep it cheap.
This is the William CreekWillamette Valley Chardonnay
2023, Trader Joe's$12.99.
And this is Domain Dave Like Us,we like your podcasts.
We got more wines coming up, andI will talk to everybody in the
next couple of days.
So keep it cheap, adios, andbye-bye.