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Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $40.95 $46.80
The 2017 Chardonnay Sangiacomo Vineyards opens with aromas of lemon meringue, popcorn, banana chip and stone fruits...
WA
89
WS
88
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $41.32 $47.22
This unique, zero-dosage Champagne boasts the perfect balance of dryness and sweetness resulting in a clean, crisp...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $25.19 $28.79
In 1955, a group of wine growers from the village of Mardeuil, a small village on the hillsides of Epernay, joined...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $28.00 $32.00
This lively Champagne is bright and balanced, with spicy mineral and graphite accents underscoring the poached pear,...
WS
91
VM
90
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $42.00 $48.00
The 2021 Pouilly-Fuissé Tête de Cuvée, a blend of different plots, contains slightly more wood maturation than...
VM
89
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $7.70 $11.00
Aromas of red fruits, jams and cassis complemented by soft notes of pastries and yeast fruit of its aging in contact...
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $36.83 $42.10
Light yellow robe, intense white flower and almond nose with gourmet toasty notes, ripe citrus fruits revealed in the...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $14.78 $17.60
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $26.65 $30.46
Partially fermented in barrique, the NV Franciacorta Brut Rosé is an accessible blend of 40% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot...
WA
91
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $39.55 $45.20
A bubbly with richness and verve, this cuvee offers lilting apple tart, creme brulee and lemon verbena flavors that...
WS
94
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.70 $17.50
This fresh, brilliant pale-gold Chardonnay shows delicate varietal aromas with flavors of apple and melon offset by...
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $40.60 $46.40
This is very subtle and complete with cooked lemons and apples and a complement of straw and gunpowder. Full-bodied,...
JS
95
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $42.00 $48.00
The 2019 Chardonnay Martinelli Road is an attractive, easygoing wine to drink now and over the next handful of years....
VM
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $31.50 $36.00
Shows aromas of fresh black cherry and blackberry that are pure and expressive, accented by wild herbs, cedar, iron...
WS
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
1.5Ltr
Bottle: $15.94 $18.22
This is a simple, refreshing white Bordeaux from importer Guillaume Touton, who works with several hundred producers...
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
375ml
Bottle: $12.60 $15.00
Intense straw yellow eye. The nose is rich and full but is also letting thru pure notes of a salty minerality not...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $56.00 $64.00
Subtle currant, light sandalwood and some cherry aromas. Full-bodied, yet fine-tuned and polished with tannins that...
JS
96
WA
94
Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $29.99 $44.94
Les Pierres is a beautiful, pale straw color with a slightly green hue. This particular vintage is richly aromatic...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $31.50 $36.00
Notions of spiky lemon zest and rounded shortbread vie for dominance on the wine's lively nose. These opposing...
WE
93
DC
92

Champagne Blend Chardonnay Italian Red Blends White Bordeaux End Bin Wine

The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.

Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.

France is widely known as being the home of many of the world's finest white wines, and within France, the name which rings out across the wine world and is always associated with excellence of quality and flavor is Bordeaux. The white wines of the magnificent Bordeaux region are typically blended, and rely on the winemaker's skill and expertise to achieve the fine balance between the primary grape varietals used. Most blended white Bordeaux wines are made up of Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle varietals, although there are actually nine grapes officially allowed by French wine law for the inclusion in Bordeaux white wines. The other six are Sauvignon Gris, Merlot Blanc, Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Ondenc and Mauzac, although the use of these other grapes has been in steady decline over the past century.