Lot 13
2003 Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignon

Cameron Hughes Wine wins the Critics Platinum and Gold for its Lot series and listed as some of the most exciting wines placed at the competition this past year. Check out the results. We were psyched! Critics Award - Lot 7 2002 Knights Valley Cab Critics Gold - Lot 10 2002 Sonoma County Cab Critics Platinum - Lot 13 Dry Creek Valley Cab Critics Award - 2003 Lot 8 Pinot Noir

Take the two-buck-Chuck idea -- buy bulk wine in lots, brand it and sell it -- but buy good wine instead of plonk. Slap a handsome label on it. Sell it for cheap. That's Cameron Hughes Wine. If you see it (it's at Costco, among other places), grab a bottle or two. Lot 13 is Cabernet Sauvignon and retails at around $12. Lot 11's the Petite Syrah; Lot 12's the Syrah. GREAT VALUE. If you're in an eligible state, you can buy online.

WINE COMPETITION BROUGHT SOME OF THE BEST TO SAN DIEGO The beauty of the Critics Challenge - last of the three annual wine competitions directed by yours truly - is in the sweepstakes round of judging. This is the point where all the judges taste all of the wines that have been scored platinum, the highest award. Then they vote for best red, best sparkling, and so on, concluding with a vote for Wine of the Year. The finalists typically are a stunning array of wines from around the world, and this year's competition, held in San Diego over Memorial day weekend, was no exception. More than 60 wines (out of 1,334 entered) were in the hunt for the top prize, which was captured by the 1995 Charles Heidsieck "Blanc de Millenaires" Brut Champagne ($95) in a close vote over the 2003 Flora Springs "Trilogy" ($60). Other highlights from the sweepstakes round: The platinum wines are by no means all of the high-priced variety. There were a number under $20, including a couple of my favorite reds from the sweepstakes: CAMERON HUGHES 2003 CABERNET SAUVIGNON "LOT 13" ($12); and Eberle 2004 "Steinbeck Vineyard" Zinfandel ($18).

The continued evolution of the global wine marketplace has made many things possible for many people. Small regional wineries that couldn't survive, let alone exist twenty years ago are now thriving because there are folks out there like me and you that are looking for just the type of wines they are producing. Likewise, the proliferation of estateless wineries (bonded, licensed wineries that own no land and may even rent their winemaking facilities) has exploded in California in particular. Finally, a relatively recent phenomenon for California and the US (though old news to the negociants in France) has surfaced in what I will call surplus winemakers. These folks don't buy grapes to make into wine, they buy wine to make into wine. ch.logo.pngMany consumers are unaware of the large amounts of wine that get made but never get bottled and sold to consumers. This wine is instead sold, by the barrel, so to speak, to other businesses who do everything from make vinegar to make those hotel branded bottles you will sometimes get in your suite. Increasingly, however, there are a whole class of folks who are searching out that surplus wine and turning around to bottle it themselves. Cameron Hughes is exactly that type of guy. He's got a long background in wine sales, and has lots of connections to wineries as a result. Over the years he heard many times from winemakers who had multiple barrels of finished wine that they couldn't sell for some reason -- either there was no demand in the marketplace for it, or for some reason the winery ended up with more wine than they wanted. At a certain point the message sank in -- there was lots of wine out there, and some of it was really good wine, and it was available dirt cheap. So what's an enterprising guy to do? Cameron decided to start a label to sell these wines at what he calls an "extreme value level." Though he won't ever advertise them this way, in public hell affectionately refer to them as "ten buck chuck." His wines, made from vineyards and wineries that by contract cannot be disclosed, and blended by winemakers who by contract cannot be identified, are designed to have an extremely high QPR -- or Quality-to-Price-Ratio. Typically, the wine that Cameron bottles would sell for two to three times the price he puts them on the market for. Cameron has been so successful with these wines that he has now gotten to the point where he's not only being opportunistic and snapping up wine when he hears about it, but is proactively working with winemakers to arrange for their excess juice, and to have some of them help him with final blends. Sound too good to be true? Well, there's a slight catch to all this. You can't exactly run down to any local wine shop and pick these wines up. Most of Cameron's inventory is sold to Costco and to other large retailers in Chicago and on the East Coast. And are the wines any good? This is the second batch of Cameron's wines I've tasted, and I continue to be amazed at the value his wines present. These wines are mostly jammy and fruit forward, which is a conscious choice on Cameron's part, and which may be responsible for why they fly off the shelf at Costco, but they may not be to everyone's taste. Compared to nearly every other wine in their price range at your local supermarket, however, they are truly excellent buys.

The continued evolution of the global wine marketplace has made many things possible for many people. Small regional wineries that couldn't survive, let alone exist twenty years ago are now thriving because there are folks out there like me and you that are looking for just the type of wines they are producing. Likewise, the proliferation of estateless wineries (bonded, licensed wineries that own no land and may even rent their winemaking facilities) has exploded in California in particular. Finally, a relatively recent phenomenon for California and the US (though old news to the negociants in France) has surfaced in what I will call surplus winemakers. These folks don't buy grapes to make into wine, they buy wine to make into wine. Many consumers are unaware of the large amounts of wine that get made but never get bottled and sold to consumers. This wine is instead sold, by the barrel, so to speak, to other businesses who do everything from make vinegar to make those hotel branded bottles you will sometimes get in your suite. Increasingly, however, there are a whole class of folks who are searching out that surplus wine and turning around to bottle it themselves. Cameron Hughes is exactly that type of guy. He's got a long background in wine sales, and has lots of connections to wineries as a result. Over the years he heard many times from winemakers who had multiple barrels of finished wine that they couldn't sell for some reason -- either there was no demand in the marketplace for it, or for some reason the winery ended up with more wine than they wanted. At a certain point the message sank in -- there was lots of wine out there, and some of it was really good wine, and it was available dirt cheap. So what's an enterprising guy to do? Cameron decided to start a label to sell these wines at what he calls an "extreme value level." Though he won't ever advertise them this way, in public hell affectionately refer to them as "ten buck chuck." His wines, made from vineyards and wineries that by contract cannot be disclosed, and blended by winemakers who by contract cannot be identified, are designed to have an extremely high QPR -- or Quality-to-Price-Ratio. Typically, the wine that Cameron bottles would sell for two to three times the price he puts them on the market for. Cameron has been so successful with these wines that he has now gotten to the point where he's not only being opportunistic and snapping up wine when he hears about it, but is proactively working with winemakers to arrange for their excess juice, and to have some of them help him with final blends. Sound too good to be true? Well, there's a slight catch to all this. You can't exactly run down to any local wine shop and pick these wines up. Most of Cameron's inventory is sold to Costco and to other large retailers in Chicago and on the East Coast. And are the wines any good? This is the second batch of Cameron's wines I've tasted, and I continue to be amazed at the value his wines present. These wines are mostly jammy and fruit forward, which is a conscious choice on Cameron's part, and which may be responsible for why they fly off the shelf at Costco, but they may not be to everyone's taste. Compared to nearly every other wine in their price range at your local supermarket, however, they are truly excellent buys.

Bringing Great Wine to the Masses: A Chat With Cameron Hughes By Brad Prescott A lot has been written about climate change and its effect on the wine industry. As someone who purchases wine from myriad wineries and regions, what impact are you experiencing? We are experiencing none yet. Right now, CA vintages seem to be well supplied with very high quality. In the long term, our model is very well positioned to be innoculated from the vagaries of global warming. We source globally and sell the widest possible variety of wines all under one label. If one area becomes unsuitable for production, we just source from the next. To lessen the impact of our operations, we have partnered with CarbonFund.org to purchase carbon offsets to cover the production and movement of not only our wines, but to offset the carbon footprint of our office and employees as well. Our office is located in the heart of SF’s SOMA district and is 100 yards from where I live. We have only one person who commutes to our office and we use natural cooling and super efficient bulbs to light our office. Lastly, what does the future have in store for Cameron Hughes Wine? We are rapidly becoming a one stop for a global portfolio of super and ultra premium wine. Our next two years will be dedicated to fleshing out our sourcing capabilities. Currently, we have bought or have in various stages of production wines from Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Germany. I hit VinExpo in June and should have the world covered by the time I leave! The remaining wines, or blending components, that didn’t fit into their final blends are then placed on the bulk market and marketed to other wineries and negociants like myself. We will select and blend only super-premium like quality lots and we never “blend to extendâ€? as many other negociants do because we are not concerned about making a particular blend last a whole year. As well, we don’t mark up our smaller lot pricing to create artificial scarcity because we have continuous and seemingly endless supply (at least for now). Other wines we buy in “shinersâ€? or bottles with no labels on them and then have our own labels affixed. Wineries often bottle these wines up (to make their balance sheets look better for lenders – wine is far more valuable in the bottle as it is in bulk form) but never put labels on them so they have the flexibility to sell the wine under their label or sell the wines to guys like me. In Europe and Australia shiners are a far larger market than in the US. Some wines are made for us by growers, especially when the spot market for grapes is as weak as it is now. When choosing wine for your latest lot, what criteria do you use to filter out the good wine from the bad? It has to be good and it has to be stable. That said, at the end of the day the final blend has to have excellent structure and balance. I always say any wine with good structure and balance will be a good wine. The great thing about being a negociant is you have literally thousands of wine to choose from to achieve that end. From a sales perspective, if it's great wine and it's marketable (such as cabernet or chardonnay) I’ll buy whatever I can get my hands on. Lesser known wines, say Clare Valley Riesling for example, I am historically more cautious towards regarding quantities; however, we have done a good job of creating the kind of trust it takes to sell a couple thousand cases of just about anything. How do you plan your lots? Right now I cannot keep up with Costco’s demand so we are buying whatever great juice we can get our hands on. We recently completed the purchase of over 60,000 cases of various Napa appellation cabernets including Rutherford, Yountville, Diamond Mountain and Spring Mountain (the bulk of which are in the first two sub-districts). To further fulfill our needs, we are branching out into the international buying scene and buying wines from Argentina, Australia (including some 75 yr and 100yr old vine Barossa shiraz’s), New Zealand, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. As well, there is some thought to seasonality, particularly with the New Zealand SB’s and Spanish Rose’s. other than that, we are buying whatever great juice we can get our hands on from Spanish reds to German whites. Describe some lots that you would love to produce but, for whatever reason, haven't released yet? So far, we have been able to identify from every region exactly what we were looking for two times over. That is, there is so much out there to choose from its like shooting fish in a barrel. The global oversupply of wine has created a situation where never before has there been so much good wine at such reasonable prices. Of all the lots you have produced, describe the one you most wanted to keep all for yourself. My favorites have been the Lot 13 2004 Dry Creek Cabernet, Lot 24 2005 Sonoma Syrah, and Lot 25 1998 Carneros Sparkling wine. Up coming, I cannot wait to sell our Lot 34 Rutherford Cab, our Lot 37 Rose from Campo de Borja in Spain, and finally, what I think will be our best wine to date, the Lot 38 2005 Barossa Shiraz from 100 year old vines. Absolutely stunning wine, I couldn’t believe it was available for purchase. Your business model merges a passion for great wine with a rigid understanding of the economics that drive the wine business. Describe how this plays into the value add you provide to the consumer? As I said before, wine does not cost a lot to make. As well, when you pay $30 for a cabernet, it's not that the winery is ripping you off, it’s just that the wine business is remarkably inefficient. I would go as far to say that the wine business is, effectively, a broken business model particularly insofar as it is strangled by archaic laws and distribution mechanisms. Innovation is tremendously difficult. The $30 cab would cost far less were there not so many hands that have to touch it on the way to the retailer’s store. How did your experiences at the Wine Group and as an importer of wine help prepare you for running your own label? The Wine Group is the leanest and meanest wine company out there. They sell millions of cases of wine per salesperson. They do it by providing the best wine in the box or bottle at the best price. This results in brands that pulled through by consumers versus brands that are pushed through by advertising and distribution muscle. When it comes to delivering value you have got to stay lean and mean. As an importer I learned how much is actually costs to make wine. Here in the states the wine companies put up a sort of Chinese wall between production and sales so that the salespeople don’t have an idea of what the product costs to manufacture. If they found out they would constantly be asking for more discounts to help them hit their numbers. Now, it's not that the wineries are ripping you off, it's just that the wine business is tremendously inefficient with multiple hands coming into contact with a bottle of wine before it hits the consumer. By simplifying the model and selling direct or semi-direct (through a clearing wholesaler), we are able to pass on significant savings in the area of 66% over what it would cost to buy the same wine under another label. You are 6 years into it and sales are growing hand over fist. Looking back, what would you do differently if you knew then what you know today? Nothing, you must suffer for your art. Where can consumers buy your wine? On our website or through Costco. The best way to track new releases and Costco distributions is to sign up for our email “alert listâ€? at www.chwine.com. We will not sell your email address or spam you. Is the Costco distribution nationwide or in select locales? We are currently in CA, AZ, TX, IL, FL, NC, SC, AL and will soon be in WA, OR, MI, MN, IN, VA, MA and others. What is the most disturbing trend you see in the wine industry today? Distributors paying off state legislators to act against the best interests of their constituents by banning the direct shipment of wine to consumers. Think Illinois. Conversely, what is the most encouraging trend you see? Courageous state legislators standing up to those interests and doing the right thing by allowing direct shipment to consumers. Think Florida, at least for now… A lot has been written about climate change and its effect on the wine industry. As someone who purchases wine from myriad wineries and regions, what impact are you experiencing? We are experiencing none yet. Right now, CA vintages seem to be well supplied with very high quality. In the long term, our model is very well positioned to be innoculated from the vagaries of global warming. We source globally and sell the widest possible variety of wines all under one label. If one area becomes unsuitable for production, we just source from the next. To lessen the impact of our operations, we have partnered with CarbonFund.org to purchase carbon offsets to cover the production and movement of not only our wines, but to offset the carbon footprint of our office and employees as well. Our office is located in the heart of SF’s SOMA district and is 100 yards from where I live. We have only one person who commutes to our office and we use natural cooling and super efficient bulbs to light our office. Lastly, what does the future have in store for Cameron Hughes Wine? We are rapidly becoming a one stop for a global portfolio of super and ultra premium wine. Our next two years will be dedicated to fleshing out our sourcing capabilities. Currently, we have bought or have in various stages of production wines from Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Germany. I hit VinExpo in June and should have the world covered by the time I leave!

The continued evolution of the global wine marketplace has made many things possible for many people. Small regional wineries that couldn't survive, let alone exist twenty years ago are now thriving because there are folks out there like me and you that are looking for just the type of wines they are producing. Likewise, the proliferation of estateless wineries (bonded, licensed wineries that own no land and may even rent their winemaking facilities) has exploded in California in particular. Finally, a relatively recent phenomenon for California and the US (though old news to the negociants in France) has surfaced in what I will call surplus winemakers. These folks don't buy grapes to make into wine, they buy wine to make into wine. Many consumers are unaware of the large amounts of wine that get made but never get bottled and sold to consumers. This wine is instead sold, by the barrel, so to speak, to other businesses who do everything from make vinegar to make those hotel branded bottles you will sometimes get in your suite. Increasingly, however, there are a whole class of folks who are searching out that surplus wine and turning around to bottle it themselves. Cameron Hughes is exactly that type of guy. He's got a long background in wine sales, and has lots of connections to wineries as a result. Over the years he heard many times from winemakers who had multiple barrels of finished wine that they couldn't sell for some reason -- either there was no demand in the marketplace for it, or for some reason the winery ended up with more wine than they wanted. At a certain point the message sank in -- there was lots of wine out there, and some of it was really good wine, and it was available dirt cheap. So what's an enterprising guy to do? Cameron decided to start a label to sell these wines at what he calls an "extreme value level." Though he won't ever advertise them this way, in public hell affectionately refer to them as "ten buck chuck." His wines, made from vineyards and wineries that by contract cannot be disclosed, and blended by winemakers who by contract cannot be identified, are designed to have an extremely high QPR -- or Quality-to-Price-Ratio. Typically, the wine that Cameron bottles would sell for two to three times the price he puts them on the market for. Cameron has been so successful with these wines that he has now gotten to the point where he's not only being opportunistic and snapping up wine when he hears about it, but is proactively working with winemakers to arrange for their excess juice, and to have some of them help him with final blends. Sound too good to be true? Well, there's a slight catch to all this. You can't exactly run down to any local wine shop and pick these wines up. Most of Cameron's inventory is sold to Costco and to other large retailers in Chicago and on the East Coast. And are the wines any good? This is the second batch of Cameron's wines I've tasted, and I continue to be amazed at the value his wines present. These wines are mostly jammy and fruit forward, which is a conscious choice on Cameron's part, and which may be responsible for why they fly off the shelf at Costco, but they may not be to everyone's taste. Compared to nearly every other wine in their price range at your local supermarket, however, they are truly excellent buys. Full disclosure: I received these wines as press samples. TASTING NOTES: 2003 Cameron Hughes "Lot 11" Petite Sirah, Paso Robles Dark garnet in the glass this wine has a warm nose of roast fig and leather aromas. In the mouth it is jammy with flavors of fig newtons, dates, and stewed prunes. The tannins are subdued for a Petite Sirah, and grip ever so slightly on the moderate finish. Score: 8. Cost: $10 2003 Cameron Hughes "Lot 12" Syrah, Sonoma Mountain Unfortunately this wine was not available for tasting. 2003 Cameron Hughes "Lot 13" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Medium to dark garnet in color, this wine has a chocolaty, tobacco laced nose that also incorporates floral and oak aromas. In the mouth it is balanced with a decent acidity and primary flavors of cherry. The classic green bell pepper signature of Cabernet creeps in a little, making for a slightly less desirable flavor profile through the finish, but many will hardly notice this light element among the mix of classic Cabernet fruit. Most of the fruit comes from Dry Creek Valley. Score: 8.5. Cost: $10 2003 Cameron Hughes "Lot 14" Merlot, Napa Medium ruby in color this wine has a delicious nose of plum and chocolate aromas. In the mouth it is smooth, with a nice mouthfeel and primary flavors of plum and cherry that lead to a straightforward but pleasant finish. This is a well balanced Merlot that is polished and while not complex, certainly tasty, and an unbelievable value at this price. Score: 8.5/9. Cost: $10 2003 Cameron Hughes "Lot 15" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Medium ruby in color, this wine has a somewhat subdued nose of mineral aromas, black cherry, and hints of wet coffee grounds. In the mouth it presents linear black cherry and plum flavors that are uncomplicated, well groomed and hard to argue with. Most of the fruit comes from Rutherford. Score: 8.5. Cost: $13 2004 Cameron Hughes "Lot 16" Cabernet, Stag's Leap District, Napa Medium ruby in the glass, this wine has a slightly odd nose of caramelized apples and onions, with hints of cherry aromas peeking through the more savory scents. In the mouth the wine is pure cherry shot through with a green wood character that comes close to overwhelming the pleasant fruit. Not my favorite of these wines, but it has just been bottled, so there's a chance that it may improve with a little time. Score: 7.5/8. Cost: $14 2004 Cameron Hughes "Lot 17" Barbera, Lodi Medium purple in the glass this wine has a slightly reductive, raisined nose of dried currants and dates. In the mouth it is soft and velvety with flavors of light plum, raspberry, and other red fruits. This wine is slightly over-ripe to my taste, but not flawed. It too has just been bottled and some of the cooked character may have been emphasized by bottle shock. Score: 8/8.5. Cost: $9 WHERE TO BUY: Check your local Costco if you're a California resident. You can also purchase some of his wines on the Cameron Hughes Wine web site, or if you're really interested, I suggest you contact Cameron directly at 1-800-805-197.