TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Chardonnay

Does anybody know where to get Chardonnay at a reasonable price. At home we drink Kendall Jackson, or something similar. So not really high end...the prices have gone up so much over the past few years. I am hoping to find a place that sells Chardonnay at a reasonable price, or if someone knows of something similar to KJ we could try that. We always stay at Flamingo but know the island pretty well..Thanks

Most grocery stores have a large selection and prices are reasonable and probably less than at home in many cases.

Booze it Up is located very near you and would also have a large selection.

The store JD has referenced has a 2010 Kendall Jackson for $24.80

Just a note, I've found that US wines tend to cost more there than at home...because of importing. But you can find delicious French or Chilean wines that you may not find affordable at home..they are cheaper in St Maarten.

Agreed, US wines are expensive in SXM. Go French!!

But I hope that it is not a Chardonnay! 6 Six years is a long time for a white wine to lay around.......

To the OP, You will find a selection of Chardonnay in all of the grocery stores, many at very reasonable price points.

Try one of the large grocery stores on the French side - you are on your own as far as choosing one - some you may like and some not, but they are so reasonable it is fun to experiment.

Grape Wine located in Hope Estate is a very nice wine store. The couple that runs it are very friendly, speak good English and will help you find something you like.

Market Garden usually has a buy two get one free promotion on Chilean or other country wines at pretty decent prices. Usually a Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot and Cab. We have had them all and have never been disappointed.

I agree (gasp) with Scuba's suggestion of the Chilean wine specials at Market Garden. Actually, Grand Marche usually also has the same special. US wines are definitely more expensive on the island than at home. We prefer a Marlboro Savignon Blanc or a French Sancerre Blanc over a Chardonnay, but if I remember correctly the Chilean chard was decent back when I was drinking that.

Select Wine Cellar in the Orange Grove shopping center in Cole Bay has a large selection of wines, and I'm sure you will find one to your liking. Sylvain is a very knowledgable young man & will help you in your selection.
http://selectwinecellar.com

French Chardonnay and California Chardonnay have different flavor profiles.
Try the French by the glass before committing to a bottle.
We prefer the French. Crisper I think.
Cheers
irina

Irina, if I'm not mistaken, isn't French Chardonnay unoaked?

I believe so. I was going to say less oaky but couldn't be sure. To me it's preferable to the California.
And I find it less oaky.
Maybe the OP should try a White Bordeaux.

Ah that's the fun of exploration. Do a little research before you go. Most wines around the world are named after the prominent grape used. So in the Americas you will buy wine called Chardonnay or Merlot. In France the wine is named by region such as Burgundy or Bordeaux. Yes there are some exceptions but I am trying to be general.
Look for Burgundy or Bourgogne Blanc in the store. Pouily Fuse is a chardonnay that drinks well.
The best thing to do is head for a wine shop such as Bacchus and chat them up. Buy one and then see what you can find at Super U that is similar

TravelHat as got you pointed in the right direction!

The French use geography not grape type to label their wines, if Chardonnay is what you want, the French would say White Burgundy. Almost always White Burgundy is 100% Chardonnay. Some of the lesser offerings will add the grape Aligot�. In fact, you can find bottlings that are primarily Aligot� and are labeled as such which will save you $s and can be very rewarding.

When in SXM I would definitely go French. White Burgundy can be very expensive in the US, and very few wines that are less than $20 bucks a bottle represent Burgundy well (Maybe None). So while you are in French region, I would go French, because the cost can be significantly less than what you find here.

The Burgundy region runs north and south, with Chablis in the far north down to Macon in the South. The wines from Burgundy evolve from the north to the south. In the north the wines are normally dry, crisp and have wonderful minerality. As you move South they tend to get lush and take on viscosity and even some tropical flavors rarely found in Chardonnay. When you reach the south (Macon) one finds wonderful drinking wines that are usually the most affordable from the Burgundy region, but sometimes lack the grandeur of their northern brothers. The very high end wines from the C�te de Beaune will use oak, but most of the regions of White Burgundy do not. They rely on the freshness of the taste and the minerality. Honestly in wine circles White Burgundy is pretty much accepted as the queen of wine, while the red Bordeaux wines sit on the King�s throne.

You will find other Chardonnays from France on the shelf. Normally from the Languedoc region where the French wine laws are not as rigid and the product is usually for export.

I can tell you that I was lucky enough to enjoy a Corton-Charlemagne, which as sub region of C�te de Beaune, that is probably the best white wine I have ever had. I had no idea what it cost when I had it, and after I found out I just wished I made enough money to make it our house wine.

The one hint I will give you when buying wines in SXM. I would not buy a white vintage older than 2012 and definitely feel the top of the bottle. If you can feel the cork above the lip it usually means it has been under some heat and/or a second fermentation may be occurring.

Enjoy your trip and drink French.

ah yes Puilly Fuisse! Strange I don't care much for US Chardonnay but I do like Puilly. Must be that "oak thing" Irina mentioned.

Pouilly-Fuiss� comes from the M�connais region in the far south of Burgundy. The wines from this region are almost never oaked and are very affordable. I read somewhere that Pouilly-Fuiss� is one of the best starting points into enjoying White wines from Burgundy.

In addition to French wines labeled as Chardonnay, all French Chablis is made from Chardonnay grapes, as are many white Burgundies (the various Montrachets and Meursault come to mind). I like them all, but my wallet likes the Chablis best. I've found reasonable pricing on several Premier Cru Chablis.

I remember walking into Simply outside of Grande Case the first time. I was like a kid in a candy store. 2009 burgundy for about 8 euro. Unreal. We fell in love with Rose on that trip and still enjoy back home.

The OP should invest in a pocket guide to wine around the world and look them up as you go. I have an app on my phone that you take a picture of the label and it gives you average price and ratings. Not sure if it would work on island.

All you guys are correct but the OP likes California "Chardonnay". Specifically KJ.
That does NOT taste at all like Puilly Fuse
or a French Chardonnay.
I too go for a French Chablis.

I am just surprised this hasn't turned out to be a sounding board on people's views of KJ. It's a comfortable wine that is popular and a safe buy. The OP should look for an white burgundy by Louis Jadot maybe a Macon Villages or Chabli Premier Cru. Always consistent and should please.

Who needs a sommelier when you have TTOL!

Lol! I was thinking something similar. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I LOVE this thread.

Maybe we are all just winos! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />

Here's a wine thread for you...it has been running for over 10 years!
http://www.chowhound.com/post/wanted-buttery-chardonnay-everyday-drinking-330325

A great TTOL get together would be a bring a bottle. We got together with friends one night and did a blind tasting. We put a dollar amount on what you could bring. Funny that the least expensive one won hands down. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />

I am surprised no one mentioned Booze it Up next to Market Garden. They have a great selection so does Market Garden

Rural carrier included the web link in the second post of thread. It looks like a good place

I went in a couple of times back in March and got some nice Cotes du Rhone.

Really not that surprising. I firmly believe if you like a wine it is a good wine. But... that does not mean it is good Chardonnay for example. It may be say Chardonnay on the bottle but because it was chosen it does not make it a good Chardonnay.



Many of the lower cost wines tend to use bulk grapes that require some to a large amount of chemistry to make a drinkable product. Many over use the process of adding sugar (chaptalization) to not only raise the alc % but to insure their product taste exactly the same every year.



Many wine consumers like the safety of pulling a cork or unscrewing a bottle top to find the exact same taste that they have been drinking for the last 5 years. To reach that level of repeatability the taste of the actual fruit named on the label is compromised. Hence in this example the quality of Chardonnay is lost to the process.

Once again I will never bad mouth a wine some on likes. If they like it is good wine - but please remember it may not (probably not) be a good representation of what the label says it is.

And I will end this editorial with this important acronym: IMHO. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

You can look at the list of available wines and see the difference in prices between the USA wines and the French. Some great picks!

Serame is a line of wines offering many varietals, including chardonnay. You can buy it at (forgive any misspelling) Le Gout du Vin in Marigot and it runs around 6-8 Euros a bottle.

Le Taitu offers this as their house wine for lunches, and Momo at Ti Bouchon keeps some on hand at times for his wines by the glass.

I find buying blindly in the grocery stores to be a frustrating experience, since there is so much bad inexpensive wine on the shelves.

And, if you are looking for better chards, I second Pony600's suggestion of Select Wine Cellar, finding Sylvain better understands our tastes in wine and can make the appropriate suggestion.

Now, you didn't hear this from me, lest the above-mentioned Sylvain permanently bar me from his shop, but try a bottle of JP Chenet to see if you like it. It runs around $5-6.

You might consider contacting Jeannie at Shopndrop. We've gotten some excellent bottles through her at excellent prices. Se get her wine form a distributor ,, not a store. Sh might be able to get s nice French wine for you in the style of a KJ.

Yes, don't tell Sylvain about the PJ Chenet. that's our little secret!

Not a big secret. Probably the number 1 selling wine in the world. Just look for that crooked neck bottle and enjoy. The rose is yummy.

Hmm. JP Chenet?

That"s a lot to say about a wine I have never heard of and I go through a lot of fine wine.

Scubaman, this is not fine wine, so you wouldn't encounter it if that's all you drink. For the price of around $5 ,it is a great wine to drink on the beach on a sunny day, even for sunset viewing, but I wouldn't have it with a nice dinner.

I drink cheaper everyday wine too. Just hard to believe it's the number 1 selling wine in the world.

I don't think they export to US. They put that on their website. I thought it was funny. Barefoot was the number one in the world for 2015 According to The Drinks Business magazine.

It is available in New Hampshire's Liquor and Wine Stores run by the State. Not sure about the supermarkets that also carry wine.

We are KJ fans exclusively and have never found it on the island. My only suggestion is to bring it with you in your checked luggage if you can make some room--kind of a reverse souvenir. I have a friend in CA with a friend who likes KJ so much she named her two kids Kendall and Jackson. French Chard does not use oak barrels and they purposely avoid the oak. In the states, the oak makes all the difference. In VA we can get it under $10 a bottle, but the price can be near $20 around the US. Chilean wines seem to be the best prices on the island and we see as much of that as French. If you do find it on the island, we'd love to know where.

I beg to differ. The French wines are aged in oak barrels.
The difference is the barrel. French oak barrels give the wines a more subtle oak note and let the other flavors develop as the American oak barrels bring the oak flavors forward. There is probably more American Chardonnay made in stainless tanks with oak chips thrown in the tank than anywhere else in the world.