Monday, November 10, 2008

Cameron Hughes Wine

This past Sunday Greg Dal Piaz from snooth.com had a sampling of some of the new Cameron Hughes wines. Here's their website's mission statement:

With an obsession for quality and innovation, Cameron Hughes Wine, founded by Cameron Hughes and partner Jessica Kogan, is dedicated to building a reputation for delivering the best domestic and international wine values in the marketplace today. Our focus is on buying at the high-end, small available 'Lots' of super premium wine. Because not all wine at the high-end is bottled, we rescue those 'Lots' do some stylistic blending and get it to you at a great price.

Our company produces and markets wine under Cameron Hughes Lot Series, Hughes-Wellman, RockRidge, and Evergreen. We do not own vineyards or ferment wine. Our business model is built around what we call in the industry the “spot” market for super/ultra premium bulk wines. Essentially, what this means in plain English is that we eliminate the middlemen. We use our own palates as guides to deliver delicious, super premium wine that is easily accessible price and style-wise.

Our company is founded on the concept that excellent wine should be available at a value price. We know that it’s hard for the wine lover to know how to navigate the scores, prices and hype about wine out there. By working with vineyards around the globe we bring our customers the finest values and new exciting wines that give them the unique status of truly being "wine insiders."


Sounds to me like a way to get really good wines for very low prices. I believe if purchased by the case (mixed) the average price per bottle is $10. I had the chance to try 5 red wines from Cameron Hughes new "LOTS":

Lot 98, a 2007 Campo De Borja 60% Grenache/30% Syrah/10% Mourvedre blend from Spain: 14% alcohol, jammy acohol on the nose, palate of cherries, pepper, black fruits and oak, mild tannins.

Lot 93, a 2004 Tempranillo from Spain: Deep purple, ultra fruity nose very nice aromas of violets and flowers and red cherries/ red fruit on the palate, really nice.

Lot 86, a 2006 Lodi Zinfandel from California: Nose: warm, wood, jammy on the sweet side of dry, juicy and chewy, also very nice.

Lot 72, a 2005 Meritage from California: Nose: sweet, earthy aromas with a Bordeaux model.

Lot 75, a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa California:, Nose: oak, Fig Newtons (Eric G called it), raisins, slightly bitter on the palate.

All were very good, my 2 standout favorites were the Spanish Tempranillo and the California Zinfandel.

3 comments:

Eric Guido said...

I really enjoyed the California wines here and I'm not a big Californian wine lover. It was amazing how good they could be for this price. I'd say that if you were pouring these at a party that everyone would think they were drinking from much more expensive bottles.

LoanShark said...

I just drove to San Diego (30 Miles) to pick up 3 cases of the Lot 86 Zinfandel. We had a couple of bottles last week and everyone thought it was a $30.00 bottle.
($12.00 online or $9.99 at Costco)

Good stuff!

Dave Trieger said...

Loanshark,

I'd have to agree it's worth the drive. I wish we could buy wines here in NY at COSTCO... great price.

Dave