A Value Priced Wine U Should Know-Hess Select California Chardonnay 2024

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Hey welcome. Good to be here again. This is Dave from cheapwinefiner.com. Like always, because that's what we do. We like three times a week we we write up a review of a value priced wine under 20 bucks for the most part. In December we might go a little higher, but no reason to because value priced wine is really good. And uh today we've got a wine. I bought it at Trader Joe's, but it's not a Trader Joe's wine, it's available everywhere. Um it's the Hess Select California Chardonnay 2024. It was$10.99 at Trader Joe's, but I checked the web, and the average price on the internet is$12, so it's in the ballpark. So Hess has been around. Donald Hess started it in Mount Veter Napa in the late 70s, and um Mr. Hess passed away in like 2023, and his stepson and stepdaughter, and the company is now actually called no, no, it's not just S winery, it's Hess Pearson, uh P-E-R-R-S-O-N. Um the new generation added their name, which is only right. So this is a family winery, second generation, or kind of second generation, and this is their entry level. Uh they have Napa Chardonnay, they have Central Coast Chardonnay, they have other ones. This is this is a cup company that has been a fixture in California. I'm gonna take a sip of this one. And this is just a wine, not just a wine, but this is a wine that's sourced from different ABAs throughout California. Now, for a company that's been around since I think it was 1978, this isn't a business deal to get grapes as much as it is friends dealing with friends, calling people up, hey, uh you I need this amount of uh grapes um, you know, every year. Can I get a contract with you? And they go, Yeah, well, yeah, of course you can. Uh come on down and you can pick out the plot you want because we'd like to supply your grapes. And that's literally how it goes. I mean, there are corporations involved now, and it's not that way as much, but that is still in in wine and pretty much everywhere you go. I mean, people deal with people. I mean, it's it it is a uh you know, it isn't a megalomaniac thing. I mean, it can be, but it isn't. Let me take a sip. As their entry level, you know, it's it's having grapes mall over is not the worst thing because if you pick right, you're bringing a lot of different characteristics into your wine. I mean, Central Coast is gonna be one thing, and you bring in uh Chardonnay from Lodi, it's gonna be something else. You're gonna do Sonoma, you're gonna do Mendocino, whatever you're thinking of. All those grapes are gonna bring different uh characteristics to the wine. One thing about this at a value price, and I think it's$16 is their list price on their website. The websites always are higher than what it was selling in the store because they don't want to compete with the store. Makes the stores mad if you can buy it cheaper from them. 30% of the juice is both fermented and aged in French oak barrels. Or inexpensive wine, that's a pretty good detail. And why is that a big deal? Uh stainless steel is what the other 70% do. And that's not only is it watertight, that's airtight. You know, what goes into stainless steel and you clamp down the uh top, that's what stays. An oak barrel, while it is waterproof, isn't exactly airproof. That oxygen that gets in, and not a lot of oxygen, because too much oxygen will oxidize the wine, and oxidized wine tastes like crap. Just enough changes the flavors. And so this is 70-30, 70 stainless, 30% oak. So you're adding, not only are you getting different flavors from all the different areas, all the different vineyards they used, the production is adding different flavors, which is the way it's supposed to be. I'm gonna take a sip. So what you get is a value-priced California Chardonnay, and a lot of them are kind of like they're usually good, but maybe boring. This one isn't. This one's got a little flair. This one is medium-bodied and full flavored, and it's um 2024 was a uh had some hot uh hot area uh during the summertime. It got really hot, and grapes can get ripe, and you don't want them to get too ripe, you want it to be a long, long time. And the uh and the harvest happened like a couple weeks early, which isn't good. If you're spending$150 for a wine, you probably don't want the$150 bottle that's had to be picked two weeks early. But for a$11 wine,$1099, yeah, you're probably gonna get more flavor. I mean, it's it's you might not get more nuance, but you're gonna get more flavor. Another sip, it's good it tastes good. Now this is a wine that is a sipping wine. Uh you can sip it uh it's getting patio time, it's gonna be in the 70s tomorrow in Chicago, which in spring is like the equivalent to 90s in the summer. And um, it's also a food wine because it's got enough body, it's a medium body and it's full flavored. So if you're having like a uh a roast chicken, you're having um um anything that's a chicken burrito, this might be this is gonna be way better than a red wine. Um, you're having a shrimp uh poor boy, you're you you know, you're doing something Asian, you're doing some cool things, you're gonna have some fun here because this has got enough acidity. It's got really good acidity, it's it uh it's got enough acidity to um uh support the flavors uh and make this a nice structured wine, but not to get spiky or bite, it doesn't sting the lips. So this is a um really good, this is a well-made the Hess Select California Chardonnay 2024. It's a flavorful, well-made Chardonnay that is well priced, that is versatile, and has a bit of personality. And I wasn't expecting things. I mean I've I've seen this around for a while, and it turns out I've never, we've been around since 2008, and I have never reviewed this wine, and we reviewed everybody, and uh I was like, what was I thinking? Because I don't know what I was thinking. I just I saw it everywhere and figured, oh, it can't be that good, but it turns out I really like it. This is a good wine, this is a recommended wine. So adios, this is Delmain Dave, cheapwineflatter.com. I've got a Zimfandil, 100 year old Vine Zimfandil from Klein coming up, and plus a couple other surprises. So adios, keep it cheap. I'll be talking to you. Bye bye.