Cupcake Vineyards Butterkissed Chardonnay, White Wine, 750ml

The name leans on butter, and we cannot confirm yet how the wine earned it. What we do have is the grape, Chardonnay, and a shopper average. 4 shoppers have rated it. Their average is 3 out of five, which puts it among the lowest-rated wines we track. Our September 2026 checks found it between $9.99 and $15.99.

Official guides tie Chardonnay's character to a few things: how ripe the fruit was, whether the winemaker used oak, and time on the settled yeast. By those guides, cooler fruit leans toward citrus and apple, riper fruit toward stone fruit and tropical notes. Made without oak, the wine keeps a lighter shape; fermented and aged in oak it gains more weight, and those guides add that toast, spice and a rounder texture can come from oak and a spell on the spent yeast rather than the grape. Those are winemaking choices, not a guarantee. The name points to butter, yet no oak treatment is on record here.

The producer's own product page answers the question the name raises: Cupcake credits the butter and vanilla character not to oak but to malolactic fermentation, a winemaking step that softens the wine's natural acid and is on its own a common source of buttery, creamy flavor, separate from time in oak. Winemaker Jessica Tomei is named on the page, and the fruit is credited to California's “warm growing season.” A serving, 5 fluid ounces, is listed at 120 calories, and the alcohol content on record for the wine is 13.5 percent.

Our call: buy it knowing exactly what you are getting, a Chardonnay whose butter and vanilla character comes from malolactic fermentation rather than oak, by the producer's own account; that is a real answer to the question the name raises, and winemaker Jessica Tomei is named on the record. Pass if score weighs heavily with you: 4 ratings here average 3, among the lowest we track, so the producer's clear account has not translated into a strong shopper reception.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.