French Elegance on a Budget: The 2024 Bouchard Chardonnay Review

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Dive into the wonderful world of affordable French wine with our latest discovery: the Bouchard Aîné & Fils Chardonnay 2024, a remarkable $9.99 Costco find that proves exceptional quality doesn't require a hefty price tag.

When I first spotted this bottle, I thought I'd stumbled upon an impossibly cheap Burgundian wine. While it's technically categorized as "wine of France" (their entry-level classification), this Chardonnay comes from Bouchard, a winery established in the early 1800s and now part of the prestigious Boisset Collection led by Jean-Charles Boisset – recently named Wine Enthusiast's Man of the Year. Talk about pedigree!

What makes this wine special? The careful sourcing from southern and western French vineyards, with select higher-quality Burgundian Chardonnay blended in for complexity. The winemaking shows impressive attention to detail – four separate vineyard plots fermented individually, with one portion aged four months in oak and the remainder in stainless steel on lees. The result? A bright, juicy Chardonnay with delicate creaminess, tropical fruit notes, and balanced acidity that allows the flavors to unfold beautifully. Unlike California Chardonnays, you won't find pronounced butter notes here – just clean, refreshing, French elegance.

The 2024 vintage's freshness is a significant advantage. Having been harvested last fall and quickly brought to market, this wine exemplifies why certain styles benefit from youth rather than age. Perfect for summer sipping, it pairs wonderfully with light fare like salads or seafood tacos, though it truly shines as a standalone pleasure. At just $9.99 at Costco ($12 elsewhere), this bottle demonstrates why exploring value wines can be so rewarding. Try it yourself and discover how "keeping it cheap" can still mean drinking very, very well!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, it's Domain Dave.
Again CheapWineFindercom,another podcast.
We write up three value-pricedwines a week on the
CheapWineFindercom website andafter each one we plug in the
microphone and there we go.
And that's where we're at themoment.

(00:24):
And we've got a wine I pickedup at Costco for $9.99.
I initially thought it was a$10 Burgundian wine, which is
really cheap.
They don't usually go thatcheap.
And this is the Bouchard Annieand Phil's.
I think that's in Suns,chardonnay 2024.
I think that's in Sons,chardonnay 2024.

(00:51):
Bouchard E is a winery that'sbeen around since the early
1800s in Burgundy.
They're a big deal in France.
They are now part of theBoisset Collection, which is run
by Jean-Charles Boisset, jcb,as he is known, and he just
recently won Wine Enthusiasm manof the Year Award.
So this is a very good vineyardfrom a very distinguished wine

(01:21):
company.
And so there you go.
This is their everyday wine.
This is not AOC, this is a wineof France, which is their
lowest denominator.
But it used to be table wine atone point, and now they can
make it kind of like Californiadoes, where California can have

(01:43):
California in a label, or it canbe Sonoma one point, and now
they can make it kind of likethe friend, like california does
, where california can havecalifornia in a label, or, you
know, it can be sonoma, it couldbe lodi, or if you put those
two together it's california.
So this is.
They can now make wine, kind oflike the california winemakers
do.
I'm gonna take a sip of thisone.
This is made to be drink it.

(02:03):
Now.
This is a, a wine, that is,it's a 2024, which we'll get in
that just a second, and it'smade to drink it this summer.
The vineyards were from thesouth and the west of France,

(02:25):
which is interesting because thecheap.
The Languedoc is where a lot ofthe value price wines come from
, and that's on the east, and sothey said they came from the
south and the west, and I'm notquite sure what that is, but
there's a lot of, there's a lotof wine in France, there's a lot
of vineyards in France.
And they also said that theyadded some Burgundian Chardonnay

(02:46):
, some higher-priced ones, justfor sweetener to add it to,
which that does work when youhave value-priced wine, to give
it a little bit of somethingthat's a little bit above this
price range in there.
It does do something to thewine.
They fermented the differentplots separately.

(03:08):
I think there are fourdifferent plots.
One of the plots of wine wasaged for four months in oak On
oak they always say on oak.
I never know what that means.
The other three in stainlesssteel on lees.
Anlis is the dead yeast.
If you stir it it makes thewine just a touch creamy.

(03:29):
I'm going to take another sipof this wine, and this wine is
bright and shiny and new andtasty.
I'm going to take another sip.
So they um, so they harv thiswine.

(03:58):
Harvest this wine.
Maybe last september, octoberwent through the fermentation
process four months from therewe're talking about Maybe it's
done in February, and thenthere's get it over to the
United States and it's justalmost June.
This thing's brand new, which iswhat you want.
If you go somewhere and you seethe 2023 and the 2024 is

(04:22):
available, grab the 2024.
Sometimes you want a wine tohave a little age.
This is one of those times.
You don't.
You want it to be bright andjuicy and alive, and this thing
is.
It's got a really nice nose.
It's got very good taste.
There's a little bit of thatoak in there.
You don't get butter on FrenchChardonnay like you do in

(04:45):
California.
They don't do that.
So this is just really niceflavors I'm getting.
I got a little bit of cream,which could be from stirring the
leaves, if they did do that, orit could just be one of the
flavors.
I'm also been getting coconutmilk from these things too,
because you get tropical fruitand sometimes you get just a

(05:06):
touch of creaminess that lendsitself.
So I'm take another sip.
You know, like I always say, Idon't give numbers, I don't give
grades, but I do take sips.
This was $9.99 at Costco andit's from what I can tell just

(05:28):
looking at the internet wineshops.
It's about $12 everywhere else.
So you know, so Costco's got anice price, but it's not crazy.
And this isn't a wine trying tobe super fancy and not being
super fancy.
This is just a solid, everydayChardonnay that tastes good, has
good acidity, it's well-made,you know.

(05:48):
It's got some length to it.
The acidity allows the flavorsto unfold.
It just does a nice job and ittastes good.
I mean, if you just want asummer sipper and I don't know
if this is eh, you could have asalad, and this would be fine.
Or maybe cold shrimp, that'd begreat too.
And, oh you know, tacos maybe,as long as they're not too spicy

(06:09):
or anything.
Maybe chicken tacos or maybeseafood tacos, but basically
this is a sipping wine.
This is made just to sit around,put a chill on it and just have
a good time and sip it.
It's going to go down reallyeasy.
You're going to want to shareit with your friends.
Ten bucks a French Chardonnayfrom a really good winery and a

(06:33):
good wine company JCB.
You see their wines all overthe place.
I'm going to take my last sipand we'll close this up.
Yep, so there you go.
It's the Bouchard and Eve andPhil Chardonnay 2024.
It tastes really good.

(06:54):
It's well worth 10 bucks.
It's a bargain.
And uh, that's it for me.
Domain Dave, keep it cheap.
We'll come back with some morewines in a couple days, in June,
but so far the summer wineshave been doing really well.
So, adios, keep it cheap andI'll be talking to you Bye-bye.