Our take
Toad Hollow Chardonnay California White Wine
- Style
- White wine
- Size
- 750 ml
- Grape
- Chardonnay
- Region
- California
- Shelf barcode
- 0711408713651
Our take
What we make of this bottle
California grows the Chardonnay in this bottle. Chardonnay is a white grape that turns up in both still and sparkling wine, and official category guides say it can stay lighter when it is made without oak, or gain more weight when it is fermented and aged in oak, with the toast, spice and rounder texture that oak and time on the spent yeast can bring counted as choices in the cellar rather than anything the grape guarantees. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine.
Toad Hollow says it was founded in 1993 in Sonoma County, California, by Todd Williams, his wife Francine, and their friend Rodney Strong, and that Todd's wife Frankie Williams now owns and runs it.
The stores we checked in September 2026 had it from $11.99 to $16.49, toward the lower-priced end of the whites we track. As for the fruit, those category guides put citrus and apple at the grape's cooler end and stone fruit or tropical fruit in its riper examples.
Toad Hollow's own product page names Mendocino County as the source for this bottling, part of what the winery calls its Francine's Selection, and lists the alcohol at 13.5 percent. Its technical sheet records residual sugar at 0.022 percent, which in plain terms works out to a bone-dry wine with essentially no sweetness left after fermentation. The winemaking notes are direct about the choice behind the 'unoaked' name on the label: stainless steel fermentation and five months of aging with no barrel contact at all, a style the producer contrasts with what it calls 'the butter-forward style typical of oaked Chardonnay.'
Our call: a sensible pick if you want a confirmed unoaked style at one of the lower prices among the whites we track; the producer states the no-barrel choice plainly and backs it with its own technical numbers. Pass if a shopper rating matters to you before you buy; none has reached our record yet, so the producer's account is carrying the case alone.
The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.
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Read our take →The prices we checked
Dated store checks, not a promise about your store.
- Kroger, Atlanta suburbs, GA$16.49
- Kroger, Cincinnati, OH$15.99
- King Soopers, Colorado Springs, CO$11.99
- Kroger, Richmond, VA$15.99
The regular price can vary by store and date.
From the producer
Family founding
Toad Hollow says it was founded in 1993 by Todd Williams, his wife Francine, and friend Rodney Strong in Sonoma County, California. Todd's wife Frankie Williams now owns and runs the winery.
Research status
What we are still checking
Our overview above draws on the dated store feed, shopper ratings, our region and grape research, and any sourced producer facts. We are still working to confirm the current release, the full producer record, and the bottle itself, and we update this page as we learn more.
Getting to know California.
California on the label is useful provenance but weak detail about place. For these wines, sourcing disclosure, blend construction and house-style consistency carry more decision value than a generic climate paragraph.
What the name means
A state-level appellation, broader than an individual American Viticultural Area. It permits a multi-region blend and does not by itself identify one climate or soil.
How grapes grow here
The state spans cool maritime zones and hot inland valleys. A California designation alone does not reveal which conditions shaped the fruit.
What lies under the vines
At state scale, sourcing and house-style construction matter more than any single soil story.
How large the region is
- Reusable question
- Which counties or AVAs supplied the blend, and did that mix change by release?
Places within the region
- Resolution limit
- County, AVA and vineyard claims begin only when the release names them.
Getting to know Chardonnay.
Chardonnay is a white grape used for still and sparkling wine. It can be made without oak for a lighter shape or fermented and aged in oak for more weight.
Category guide
What to expect in the glass
Official category guides place citrus and apple at the cooler end and stone fruit or tropical fruit in riper examples. Oak and time on the spent yeast can add toast, spice and a rounder texture, but those features are winemaking choices rather than a guarantee.
Sources: New Zealand Winegrowers; Napa Valley Vintners. Checked Aug 10, 2026. See all 116 Chardonnay wines we cover →
Where this information comes from
- Store listing
- Price, package, product identifier. Checked Aug 10, 2026.
- Barcode
- The shelf barcode shown here is computed from the store product identifier. It has not been checked against a bottle.
- Method
- Every price, rating and fact here is a dated observation. How we check.