Exploring La Crema's Sonoma Coast Chardonnay: A Barrel-Fermented Bargain from Costco

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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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, welcome, domain Dave.
Cheapwinefindercom Another winereview podcast.
We do it three times a week.
Write a review onCheapWineFindercom, then plug in
the microphone and today we'vegot the La Crema Sonoma Coast
Chardonnay 2023.
It's a Costco wine.
It's a wine that you should beable to find cheapest at Costco,

(00:25):
though I saw someone who had afour dollars cheaper.
Then Costco did, but most thetime it's four dollars more
expensive.
Look, prima, that is the best isa.
Why would they have a?
They have a estate vineyard inthe russian river valley of um,

(00:46):
of sonoma and um, but what theydo and they have other, they do
other wines, but they specializein chardonnay and pinot noir
and some of the elite growingregions in california, like
there's all these uh, avas,sonoma, and there's Canaros in
the Russian River and SonomaCoast, and they even go up into

(01:08):
Oregon where they go into theLamont and that type of thing.
And what's interesting aboutthem, since they're doing all
these Chardonnays and the PinotNoir today's just Chardonnay is
they have a house style.
Is they have a house style?
So, if you get a La CremaCaneros wine and a La Crema

(01:28):
Sonoma Coast wine, since thewinemaking philosophy is the
same, the wines aren't cookiecutters, 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 thatfrom the equation and getting

(01:50):
the differences of the grapeswhen you're drinking back to
back.
The problem with that is mostwine 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 funexercise in learning about
chardonnay and what these thingsare, because sometimes you can
have, like a Trader Joe's orwhatever, has you know, a San

(02:13):
Luis Obispo this or Santa LuciaHighlands, that, and it's
different People make it everytime and that makes everything
different.
I'm going to have a sip of thisone.
It's a nice blend of citrus andfruit.

(02:39):
It's barrel fermented, which Ilike to see Most of the time.
It's nothing wrong withstainless steel tanks, but you
can only get so many liters ofwine into a barrel where you can
get gallons upon gallons ofwine in those tanks.
So it's a smaller batch.
Again, not that that makes thatmuch difference, because a good

(03:00):
winemaker doesn't care, you cando it either way.
But they took the time to tobarrel ferment it and then they
actually aged another six monthsin 25 percent french oak and 25
american oak.
And when they do those, um,french oak is more subtle and

(03:20):
refined.
It doesn't give off as muchflavor, it's more spices and
nuances.
And american doesn't give offas much flavor, it's more spices
and nuances.
And American oak is thecrowd-pleasing chocolates and
vanilla and the butter and thattype of thing they did on-leaves
.
On-leaves means you keep thedead yeast in with the wine
during the aging process andthat helps give it a rounded

(03:44):
taste.
If you stir the leaves, that'sbatonage, which means stick
stirring.
Take another sip.
Yeah, this is a really solidChardonnay.
Sonoma Coast is in the mountainvalleys right along the Pacific

(04:06):
Ocean.
Russian River is east.
There used to be an overlapbetween all these different AVAs
but they broke it off becauseit was.
The vineyards on the ridge areabove the fog line.
The ones in the valley are inthe fog, which means that the
fog has to burn off before thesun gets to them.

(04:27):
So they tend to have a muchlonger growing time because the
sun doesn't get to them much.
This one, they said, was like3-4 weeks late, which gave the
in Pinot Noir.
You love that Chardonnay too.
This is more Burgundian thanwhen they have this long growing
period.
It's only 13.5 in the alcohol,which tells you it's a cool area

(04:48):
, because most of the time it's14.5.
The higher the alcohol rating,the more ripe it gets.
So this was a long, coolgrowing region and a very
high-end growing area.
A lot of the wineries in theSonoma Coast are boutique type
ones, really high end.
So, just on it.
If you're just going to Costcoand you want to get yourself a I

(05:08):
think it was $15, $14.99.
You know, for a barrelfermented Chardonnay they do
make.
They have single barrel wines,single vineyard wines, they have
the whole thing.
But this is one of their moreaffordable Chardonnays.
It's well worth drinking and ifyou're going to buy it, get it.

(05:28):
If you're near a jewel, it's$11 right now.
If you're not, you're lookingfor 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 ourpodcast, push the button.
You will.
It helps and we appreciate it.

(05:49):
So, adios, keep it cheap, staycool, because it's getting warm
out there.
I think it's going to get alittle colder this week, but,
adios, I'll be talking.