Sampler of Champions!

In celebration of the games in Beijing we put together a killer sampler of some of the best wines we’ve released to date.  This Sampler of Champions includes six wines, five of which received prestigious awards recently at the Los Angeles and Riverside wine competitions and one special wine that was the most popular wine sold in Cameron Hughes history…

And the winners are….drum roll please………….

Lot 35 2005 Yountville District Cabernet Sauvignon:
BEST OF CLASS (2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition)

Lot 61 2006 McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon:
GOLD MEDAL (2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition)
GOLD MEDAL (2008 Riverside International Wine Competition)

Lot 68 2007 Margaret River Chardonnay:
SILVER MEDAL (2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition)

Lot 52 2006 Valle de Uco, Mendoza Malbec:
SILVER MEDAL (2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition)

Lot 67 2005 Russian River Valley Syrah:
BRONZE MEDAL (2008 Riverside International Wine Competition)

Lot 60 2005 Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon:
(This was Cameron’s personal stash and is only available through this sampler.  Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.)

This sampler will go quickly so grab one now!

Super-demos are back in a big way over the next two weeks in certain Northern California Costco’s (see below for store locations). Combining limited quantities of Mt. Veeder Cabernet, Chalk Hill Cabernet, Russian River Valley Chardonnay, and Napa Valley Meritage, the next round of super-demo’s feature some of our most extreme value wines all priced under $20. Now, some of you may say “Cameron – what might be considered extreme value?”

Good question: I guess the answer is when the wine(s) featured are priced far less than the two previous vintages of the same wine from the same vineyards (which, coincidentally, received rather impressive scores).

The entire allocation of these wines will be in each store (a pallet of each for each Costco – some of the bigger stores will have 2 pallets each) so be sure to check out your store without delay.

As well (and I am a bit embarrassed to say this since all I do is, effectively, is drink wine for a living), Costco has asked me to do bottle signings so I will be appearing in quite a few stores (with a massive entourage of gun toting security agents). See schedule below…

First, a brief note on the wines, and then you’ll find the entire schedule below.

Lot 72 2005 Napa Valley Meritage
Lot 72 highlights what is best about the Meritage designation, namely flexibility. We started this project with some very pricey Cabernet made by a prestigious Napa Estate dating back to the 70’s and improved it with two fantastic 2005 Napa Merlot’s which, due to being outside the “buy cycle” for bulk wines, we got for a song. This wine is ready to drink now and is a total crowd pleaser. Bring this to your Labor Day weekend events and the word “genius” will be whispered behind your back.

Lot 73 2006 Chalk Hill, Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon
One man’s Loss is another mans Gain. This gorgeous cabernet comes to us from a Chalk Hill vineyard (not to be confused with Chalk Hill Winery) called Windsor Vineyard (not to be confused with Windsor Vineyards, the private label producers). If you are not totally confused yet you will discover a wine of exceptionally conscientious growers growing grapes for a variety of ultra-premium programs. Lucky for us they found themselves freed from a crappy contract on their entire Cabernet production and proposed to make the wine for us. 2006 is our first vintage and I couldn’t be happier with this powerfully structured, hillside cabernet. Cellar this puppy (or store it in your closet – works just fine).

Lot 84 2006 Mt. Veeder, Napa Valley Cabernet
Lot 84 has the potential to be the greatest cabernet we have ever released but you’ll have to be patient. Like the Chalk Hill Cabernet, this wine has tremendous structure born of mountain fruit and elevation (both 73 and 84 were grown at 1400-1800 foot elevations). Its was built for a top-end program but a partnership split gave us an opportunity to raid the cellar of this tasting room and mailing list only winery.

Lot 91 2007 Russian River Valley Chardonnay
The first of several upcoming RRV releases made by a world-famous Russian River Valley producer. Combining 50% barrel fermentation with 80% new oak this is a richer style RRV Chard but still a non-malolactic style. Creamy/toasty from the new oak but not an overtly buttery style, this wine will age gracefully for years to come. Fantastic food wine.

Schedule of Events

The Olympic Marathon of events, these Super-Demos will stretch over the course of two weeks:

• WEEK ONE: August 21st-24th (Thursday-Sunday)
  Mountain View, Santa Cruz, Almaden Rd. (San Jose), Folsom, Danville Richmond, and Livermore.
• WEEK TWO: August 27th-30th
  Roseville, Novato, Concord, Sunnyvale, San Francisco, Foster City

Bottle Signing Schedule:

• Friday, August 22nd
  Almaden Rd 10-12 Mt.View 2-4

• Saturday, August 23rd
  Danville 10-12 Richmond 2-4
• Thursday, August 28th
  Novato 10-12 San Francisco 2-4
• Friday, August 29th
  Sunnyvale 10-12 Foster City 2-4

Greatly looking forward to visiting with you all.

Additionally we have a Super Demo scheduled this weekend down South in the San Diego area at the Rancho Del Rey Costco.  Wines featured for this event are  Lot 66 Pinot Grigio, Lot 35 Napa Valley Cabernet (Yountville), Lot 70 Petite Syrah, and Lot 46 Shiraz/Viognier.

This event begins Friday!

Cheers!

PS – other CHW Lots are available in other stores in the NorCal area – use our Lot Locator for a complete list of wines near you. Please call ahead to make sure as the Lot Locator can only be updated once a week and wines tend to sell out quickly.

No doubt these are two of our most exciting releases all year. The much-anticipated return of Lot 38 is incarnated in Lot 77 2006 101-Year-Old-Vines Shiraz ($18). We also have a Cabernet release from one of Napa’s most revered appellations, Mount Veeder, which is certainly a contender for the best Cabernet we have ever released. First, the Shiraz – I think Lot 38 100 Year-Old-Vine Shiraz was probably the most popular and talked about release last year. I anticipate Lot 77 will be the same even though it’s going to take a bit longer to get there. I’ll explain below.

The 2006 vintage in the Barossa is generally considered good to excellent depending on who you talk to. A late heat wave forced some folks to bring grapes in a little too quickly but those who hung on (like the good folks who made our Lot 77) found a cool spell allowing them to hang fruit well into the Australian Fall. This cool spell also resulted in wines with more classically styled tannin structures versus the ultra-ripe fruit of 2005. These tannins have contributed to an overall structure superior to the Lot 38 but the trade-off is one of accessibility – the 2006, even with 18 months in barrel and over 6 months in bottle, is still unwinding in the bottle. Flavor profiles are much the same, its just gonna take a few more months to get there. Look to crack these puppies later this year.

Moving early last year we were able to secure the entire production of 101 Year-Old-Vine Shiraz and double what we had last year. Hopefully, we will be able to carry on that tradition as we were able to get the price down as well from $20/bottle to $18/bottle. Yeah!

The Lot 84 2006 Mt. Veeder Cabernet ($19) is one of those scores that only come around every now and then and are not part of the usual truffle snuffling we do around the bulk wine market. My banker called me up one day relating an upcoming winery estate sale where the new owner would not be carrying on the brand but was only interested in the property. An hour later our winemaker was knocking on their cellar door looking for samples. He called me up a few hours later and, for the first time, I bought the wines sight unseen. It really wasn’t all that difficult a decision as the original winery was always one of my favorite places to visit in Napa. Especially easy given that pedigree and winemaker David breathlessly jumping up and down on his cell phone (which, if you know David, is a funny picture and sure to be terribly embarrassing for his daughters). I should also mention previous vintages of this wine retail for $60-80 and the 2004 and 2005 vintages have scored 92 and 93 points, respectively, in the Wine Enthusiast. Future vintages will not be available, this is a one-time deal. Tasting notes can be found here.

As you can see from the vintages these are both young wines. Both have about 18 months in barrel and are fairly well developed but, at the end of the day, they are born of hillside grown, elevation farmed grapes and that pedigree is reflected in their structures. Grippy tannins and peeking fruit are just beginning to give way to the savory, dark, oaky fruits at the core of both of these wines (both have exceptional mouth feel, even now, though decanting is still recommended). As well, both wines have excellent cellaring capabilities and are certainly amongst the best wine (aren’t they all) we have ever offered here.

We made about 2,500 cases of each wine though a fair portion of it is allocated to our friends at Costco so be sure to get your orders in quickly and use our Buy and Hold option (for $5) if it’s too hot to ship to your state.

Cheers!

We have a great Meritage in the works from Napa Valley.  Lots 72 from 2005 is certain to blow your mind.

We have two amazing 2006 Cabs, Lots 74 and 75, both coming from Oak Knoll, Napa.

Be on the lookout for Lot 99 very soon!  It’s a juicy 2004 Cabernet Franc from Lake County.  Look for it in early September.

More updates to come soon!

Be the first to know when these wines are released by signing up for the CHWine Insider List.

Stay tuned!

Cam

Dear Friends,

A quick note here on a couple things…Hughes-Wellman 2005 St. Helena Cabernet just received a stellar write-up from Alder Yarrow on Vinography. Out of 10 stars, we received 9-9.5 stars! That’s a solid A (you can read more about Alder’s scoring system here).

Alder’s the new rock-star wine critic/blogger in the wine universe and with good reason – his website is one of the most dynamic places to learn about the world of wine, not only current events but Alder’s musing on the same are excellent. We have about 80 cases left so, if you are interested in first-class, classic Napa Cabernet, do yourself a favor and get some of this wine.

…and secondly, we are down to the end of Lot 71 2004 Alexander Valley Cab. All good lots must come to an end and there’s about 30 cases left on the website. Grab it before it’s gone.

Cheers!

Cameron

We love hearing from our fantastic (and fanatic!) customers.  Here’s a great one from last week:

I have been a loyal customer to a local WineStyles. The folks are nice and friendly and they try very hard.

For several months, my husband and I would go to their tasting, make friends, and purchase a little wine. Then the unfortunate day occurred. I met a CH rep at my local Southlake Costco. After a brief chat, I decided to experiment with what seemed like just a good idea at producing nice little wines. OH MY GOODNESS. At first we started to “cheat” on our WineStyles friend with you. We then went to the affair stage. We knew we had progressed to married stage when we purchased 2 cases of the Dame de Coeur. When we opened it, my husband cried that we didn’t buy more.

I next shared knowledge of your wonderful wines with a friend of mine. I’ve always know I was a good sales person. I didn’t realize how good until my friend called me and told me her first
purchase was over $1,000 at Costco. She was blown away with Lot 60. Every time I go to her home as a thank you for the introduction, she opens a bottle. Her next CH purchase was directly from you for a party. I think she purchased about $2,000 this time.

After getting your emails on local demos, I make time during the weekend to visit Costco. Every time while I’m talking with your rep, people gather around listen to our conversation and start
picking up extra bottles. One gentleman actually came back around and told us that he was  purchasing a case because of our enthusiasm for the wines.

Thanks for all you do.

Angie, Southlake Texas

Thanks Angie!

Do you have a story to share?  Leave it in the comments!

Well, this is our first entry in our blog with the launch of our new site. Instead of this being a blog from us, we want this to be more about you. Your thoughts, comments, ideas. We received tons of emails from our customers (you) all the time and so, we decided that this is a place to put those comments – the good and the bad. This is also a place where you will find information on industry trends and things we think matter.  So, don’t expect us to fill space for filling space sake. We want this blog to be a place where everyone can be heard. If you have the time, comment.

Cheers!

Jess