Hess Select Cabernet Sauvignon California Red Wine

The store listing names the grape and the state but says little about who stands behind the wine. The number it does give plainly is the one that matters at the shelf: across ten stores in our September 2026 checks, the lowest we saw was $15.99. The maker's story we can attach is the company's rather than this bottle's, since Hess Persson Estates says its history starts with Donald Hess, who established the Hess Collection winery in 1978 on Mount Veeder.

The grape is the part our grape research can speak to, and it keeps things general: Cabernet Sauvignon is a red found across many wine regions, typically firm in structure and frequently part of a blend. That marks out a direction rather than a promise, with just 1 shopper rating so far, 1 out of five, too few to read much into. The dearest of those same September 2026 checks came to $24.99. Who made this particular Cabernet is not something the record settles, so the name and the numbers are what a shopper has to go on here.

Hess Persson Estates' technical sheet for the current release gives real numbers behind the blend: 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon rounded out with 12 percent Petite Sirah, 5 percent Merlot, 2 percent Malbec and 1 percent Cabernet Franc, finished at 13.5 percent alcohol after 18 months of time in oak, a quarter of it new French and American barrels. Senior winemaker Stephanie Pope describes the result in the producer's own words as opening with “rich aromas of dark fruit, clove, and a subtle touch of toasted vanilla” before “mouth-coating tannins” carry through to black cherry and blackberry.

Hess Select is the producer's value line, sourced broadly from California and priced, the producer says, for “everyday enjoyment,” a different estate story than the high-elevation Mount Veeder vineyards Donald Hess first planted in 1978; that founding story belongs to the company's flagship wines more than to this bottle. The producer's page also lists Wine Enthusiast scores of 90 and 91 points, but those scores went to the 2018 through 2020 vintages, not the 2022 now on shelves, so they describe the label's track record rather than the bottle in hand.

Our call: choose this if the detailed blend and technical numbers the producer publishes are reason enough to buy an inexpensive Cabernet: 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, four supporting grapes named and measured, 13.5 percent alcohol, and 18 months of time in oak. Pass if a single shopper's score matters to you; the only rating on our record is a low one, 1 out of five from a single taster, too thin to call a trend but not a number to wave away either.

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