Lot 24
2005 Sonoma Syrah

So what the heck is a Lot-a-palooza or a Cam-a-Thon? Is it when you gather friends and drink a lot of wine? Yes, but it is more than just that; it is when you gather to drink a lot of Cameron Hughes’ “Lot” series wines. When my wife and I were fortunate enough to be invited to a vertical of Cameron Hughes “Lot” series recently, we jumped at the chance. I've had only one Cameron Hughes wine to date (the Lot 25 Sparkling Wine), but had read so many good things about the rest that I was trembling in anticipation as we made the drive to Ann Arbor. Mike Halerz and his wife Allison organized and hosted this event at their home in Ann Arbor, Michigan; they also generously supplied the wine. Mike had been saving a bottle of each Lot series release for a while with the goal of doing a vertical tasting at some point. With 24 different bottles released, the time was right. It took quite a bit of work to track down any that Mike hadn’t been saving and Cameron Hughes generously supplied some of the older bottles from his personal collection. Mike's notes from the tasting can be found here. To date, Cameron Hughes has released Lots 1-23 & 25. We were able to sample every single wine except Lot 2 (Cameron didn’t even have any in his personal collection). But, going above and beyond, Cameron sent out an early sample of the yet to be released Lot 24. Cameron Hughes winesNow you may not be that familiar with Cameron Hughes’ wines as they can be difficult to find at retail. To date, Costco carries them in select California and Florida locations and you can also order them direct from Cameron’s website. They have gotten very good reviews from a variety of sources and are becoming more and more popular as people get a chance to taste them. So what is Cameron Hughes’ Wine all about? I’ve excerpted from their website below: With an obsession for quality and innovation, Cameron Hughes Wine 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 and sold to you, we rescue those 'Lots' do some stylistic blending and the key is, we then sell direct to you or our retailers. So in short: no winery, no distributor and no wholesaler. That's a lot of cost taken out without ever compromising the quality integrity of the wine. Our company produces and markets wine under the Cameron Hughes “Lot” program. 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. In other words, Cameron is able to track down excess wine for a steal of a price and bottle it for his own label. Why is the wine excess or unwanted? Maybe it just didn’t measure up to a high end winery’s expectations for a $50+ bottling, maybe there was too much supply for a winery’s demand, maybe a winery closed or changed directions, maybe there was a legal situation, or maybe someone was just plain dumb and sold off good juice for pennies on the dollar. There are numerous reasons why the wine was available, but the key is Cameron has a nose and palate to find the beautiful unwanted lots. He also has a great reputation and when a well respected winery has excess wine, they will often give him a call first as he will give the wine the respect it deserves and not just throw it into some generic bulk bottling. While Cameron cannot confirm or deny where he sourced the wines from, if you have a detective hat to put on, you may be able to figure it out. Cameron gives many clues as to where the wine comes from and if you have a little too much time on your hands, you may be able to figure out. If anything, it can make for a fun adventure. After tasting through the lots, I have to say that I was very impressed. Most of these wines can be found for around $9-$12 at Costco or from Cameron’s website wine store (some were available for as little as $5). The only wine to date that is going for a bit more is the sparkler which retails for around $20, but is still a steal for that price as it’s original producer was going to sell it for $50. I cannot think of a wine label/series that offers a better wine value. Cameron would take the gold medal in the wine value Olympics, but it is not that the wines are just good values. These are good wines period. At a minimum, each wine tasted performed up to expectations for its price and a large majority far outperformed their price point and drank as if they were $25+ bottles of wine. I wish my local Costco carried these, as I would be loading up and at the prices they go for, you can afford to load up and have a Lot-a-palooza or Cam-a-Thon of your own. I have been to many tastings and I have to say that I enjoyed this one immensely. It is easily up there with the best that I have attended. The value of the wines may not have been at the level of some other tastings, but few of us can afford to drink Krug, Latour, and Grange every day. This tasting showed outstanding value can be found and that there are affordable wines that you can drink for yourself and serve to others (even wine geeks) daily with pride. It really helps you to keep things in perspective and still drink like a king. If you cough up the big bucks, you better get a damn good bottle of wine. Many times, the true joy is in finding the hidden gems that drink big, but cost little.

The hunt for the illusive Napa Valley Cabernet that is both stellar and affordable has left many a wine lover frustrated, with many losing their belief that such a scenario even exists - until today. Cameron Hughes, Negociant extraordinare, has done it again, this time with his limited release Lot 28 which arrived at the Danville Costco today. Treasure Hunters, start your engines, this wine will not be around after the weekend.

I’ve written about how I hate Cameron Hughes because he took an idle daydream of mine and turned it into a business. Now, after tasting four new Cameron Hughes wines, I must admit that my distaste for the man is moving to the next level. Yep, I think I have a serious man crush on the guy. Don’t worry, it’s not a physical thing — you know, like the drooling, swooning effect George Bush and his flight suit had on so many reporters — Chris Matthews, for example — during happier days a few years and a few thousand lives ago. No, it’s platonic. It’s just that these wines are so damn good you absolutely must love the guy for selling them at these prices.

The color was a deep red. On the nose earthy with walnuts oak and spicy pepper. Much smother than I expected. Alcohol I felt on the nose is not obvious. Firm well integrated tannins. Red fruits on the front with a midpalate of black current and a hint of vanilla with pepper and a finish with some tobacco and smoke. Not nearly as fruit forward as I expected. A good balance of new and old and a nice sense of place. 89-91 (90 pts.)

Couldn't wait to pop one of these. Deep, solid purple core. The nose is all plum, smoke, and spicy lavender. The palate is even broader, with black tar, plum, brush fire. Nice bite of acid that promises to do well with food and help this wine age well. Probably a bit of travel shock, but the wine is just a little hot on the finish. Even so, there's a hell of a lot of wine in this bottle for 12 bucks. I'll be ordering more. 91 points Deep garnet color with above-average concentrations. This wine approaches, but doesn't match, CH's Grand Cru Sonoma Mountain Syrah Lot #12. Lot #27 is more perfumed and similar to the expression of Syrah from the upper Rhone Valley of France. For drinking, I prefer Lot #24 for its complexity and the lack of these floral notes. Of course, my male palette is prejudice in this direction. I believe California Syrah produced from Paso Robles to the Russian River would likely trump many of the best French Syrahs in a blind tasting. 92 points

Any recent overachieving wines? Lot 24 Cameron Hughes 2005 Sonoma County Syrah - $9.99 + an hour in the decanter, this is a QPR that can't be beat (on my budget at least!)

One of the oldest and most dubious sales pitches in the wine trade might be “this wine comes from the vineyard right next to [insert prestigious winery name here]. Similar quality, a fraction of the price.” Uh huh. So it was with my eyebrow duly raised that I met with Cameron Hughes. He lures Costco shoppers down the aisle to try his wine by telling them that he’s got a “$30 wine for $9.99.” Based on some rhapsodic reviews of his wines on wine web sites, the claim sounded plausible enough to lure me to meet with him for a coffee one morning on his recent trip to New York City. Hughes is not a wine maker. He is part wine finder, part marketer, and and part salesman. And he’s introducing an innovative way of making and selling wine that is delivering cost-savings to consumers in the form of some easy-drinking, value vino. He honed his skills working for five years in the late 1990s at The Wine Group, a company that few wine consumers have ever heard of despite being the third largest in the US through brands such as Franzia, Corbett Canyon, and Glen Ellen. He sold the wines “from foxhole to foxhole” in the fragmented market that is New York. But it wasn’t until he moved to California to work for an importer that he “learned how cheap this stuff actually is.” He said he saw the importer buying wine for $36 for a twelve-bottle case that ultimately sold for $18 a bottle in stores, or $216 a case. He investigated the California bulk market and found some cabernets that sold for $30 in a store actually cost the winery $4-$7. So he went out on his own and tried to tap the wine glut and introduce efficiencies in the often flabby wine market. After a couple of years on his own, barely breaking even, he needed a new business model. A friend told him that he had a good syrah and wanted a retailer to sell it. Cameron shopped it to Trader Joe’s, known for selling great value wines, and later Safeway. Both declined. Then he went to Costco. Cameron told me that the buyer “loved it and said ‘I’ll buy everything you’ve got.’” The wine was bottled as Cameron Hughes Wine Lot #1 Syrah and the 2,000 cases were sold entirely to Costco. Now on Lot #30, the lot program is a huge success having sold 37,000 cases last year. What’s the secret? Finding the right wines. Like J. Peterman in days of old, Cameron Hughes scours the world for exotica. He often finds his wine bargains in the “spot market” for fine wines. The wines he buys are often not good enough for the top blend for a winery. Or he buys the crop from a vineyard owner who otherwise would have their fruit lost as it upgraded a large blend. So he rescues them, saying “I’m a bird on the back of a hippo—a positive parasite.” “I’m a bird on the back of a hippo—a positive parasite.” Because Cameron Hughes Wines is more efficient, with low overhead and bypassing various tiers, they can often pay a premium to rescue good juice. But he won’t say what it is though, since he buys the wines with the understanding of not revealing their sources. Thus Cameron Hughes is the brand, or as he put it to me, a “super brand.” He called the major wine producers “strap-on marketing machines” who buy wine, bottle it, and ship it. He’s doing a similar thing but on a smaller scale, with higher-end wines, and greater efficiencies. Selling direct. Cameron Hughes Wines are only sold in two places, Costco stores (in California and beyond) and directly over the internet. Even though the wines are fairly limited production, Costco—the largest wine retailer in the country—is still a great retailer for his wines, Hughes says, since the Costco shopper is used to the treasure hunt. Since Costco might have sport coats one day and flat screen TVs the next, it’s not hard to imagine the customers buying up all his wine. And they did just that one weekend in the Danville, CA Costco where 1,000 cases of a new wine walked out the door. Many wine marketers, he told me, don’t like his enthusiastic hawking of his wines on the floor of the store since his actions are forcing them to ramp up staff ready to pour as well. It’s a great image that practically made me want to go to the Danville Costco to witness it myself—me, wine consumer, being serenaded in the aisles by wine marketers. But the Costco shoppers don’t just pick up the wine on a whim. Cameron has cultivated a rich email database that alerts legions of his fans to new wines, available at Costco and through him. Even though Cameron Hughes Wines is a licensed distributor, they also have an internet-only retail license and can sell directly to consumers. It’s disruptive. He says so. “But what’s good for the consumer is good for the wine business,” he said confidently. * * * * * So is there a Cameron Hughes style in the bottle? After our meeting in New York, he sent me some of his wine so that I could put them to the test in the glass. I would sum up the style to say the wines are reflective of their time. The reds are big and the whites are fruit forward. The wines represent some compelling wine values and even though I didn’t like them all, it’s definitely worth taking a flier on them—hey, it’s only ten bucks after all.

One of the oldest and most dubious sales pitches in the wine trade might be “this wine comes from the vineyard right next to [insert prestigious winery name here]. Similar quality, a fraction of the price.” Uh huh. So it was with my eyebrow duly raised that I met with Cameron Hughes. He lures Costco shoppers down the aisle to try his wine by telling them that he’s got a “$30 wine for $9.99.” Based on some rhapsodic reviews of his wines on wine web sites, the claim sounded plausible enough to lure me to meet with him for a coffee one morning on his recent trip to New York City. Hughes is not a wine maker. He is part wine finder, part marketer, and and part salesman. And he’s introducing an innovative way of making and selling wine that is delivering cost-savings to consumers in the form of some easy-drinking, value vino. He honed his skills working for five years in the late 1990s at The Wine Group, a company that few wine consumers have ever heard of despite being the third largest in the US through brands such as Franzia, Corbett Canyon, and Glen Ellen. He sold the wines “from foxhole to foxhole” in the fragmented market that is New York. But it wasn’t until he moved to California to work for an importer that he “learned how cheap this stuff actually is.” He said he saw the importer buying wine for $36 for a twelve-bottle case that ultimately sold for $18 a bottle in stores, or $216 a case. He investigated the California bulk market and found some cabernets that sold for $30 in a store actually cost the winery $4-$7. So he went out on his own and tried to tap the wine glut and introduce efficiencies in the often flabby wine market. After a couple of years on his own, barely breaking even, he needed a new business model. A friend told him that he had a good syrah and wanted a retailer to sell it. Cameron shopped it to Trader Joe’s, known for selling great value wines, and later Safeway. Both declined. Then he went to Costco. Cameron told me that the buyer “loved it and said ‘I’ll buy everything you’ve got.’” The wine was bottled as Cameron Hughes Wine Lot #1 Syrah and the 2,000 cases were sold entirely to Costco. Now on Lot #30, the lot program is a huge success having sold 37,000 cases last year. What’s the secret? Finding the right wines. Like J. Peterman in days of old, Cameron Hughes scours the world for exotica. He often finds his wine bargains in the “spot market” for fine wines. The wines he buys are often not good enough for the top blend for a winery. Or he buys the crop from a vineyard owner who otherwise would have their fruit lost as it upgraded a large blend. So he rescues them, saying “I’m a bird on the back of a hippo—a positive parasite.” “I’m a bird on the back of a hippo—a positive parasite.” Because Cameron Hughes Wines is more efficient, with low overhead and bypassing various tiers, they can often pay a premium to rescue good juice. But he won’t say what it is though, since he buys the wines with the understanding of not revealing their sources. Thus Cameron Hughes is the brand, or as he put it to me, a “super brand.” He called the major wine producers “strap-on marketing machines” who buy wine, bottle it, and ship it. He’s doing a similar thing but on a smaller scale, with higher-end wines, and greater efficiencies. Selling direct. Cameron Hughes Wines are only sold in two places, Costco stores (in California and beyond) and directly over the internet. Even though the wines are fairly limited production, Costco—the largest wine retailer in the country—is still a great retailer for his wines, Hughes says, since the Costco shopper is used to the treasure hunt. Since Costco might have sport coats one day and flat screen TVs the next, it’s not hard to imagine the customers buying up all his wine. And they did just that one weekend in the Danville, CA Costco where 1,000 cases of a new wine walked out the door. Many wine marketers, he told me, don’t like his enthusiastic hawking of his wines on the floor of the store since his actions are forcing them to ramp up staff ready to pour as well. It’s a great image that practically made me want to go to the Danville Costco to witness it myself—me, wine consumer, being serenaded in the aisles by wine marketers. But the Costco shoppers don’t just pick up the wine on a whim. Cameron has cultivated a rich email database that alerts legions of his fans to new wines, available at Costco and through him. Even though Cameron Hughes Wines is a licensed distributor, they also have an internet-only retail license and can sell directly to consumers. It’s disruptive. He says so. “But what’s good for the consumer is good for the wine business,” he said confidently. * * * * * So is there a Cameron Hughes style in the bottle? After our meeting in New York, he sent me some of his wine so that I could put them to the test in the glass. I would sum up the style to say the wines are reflective of their time. The reds are big and the whites are fruit forward. The wines represent some compelling wine values and even though I didn’t like them all, it’s definitely worth taking a flier on them—hey, it’s only ten bucks after all. We had some friends over and here are my thoughts: Lot 23 Meritage 2002: This blend of Sonoma and Napa fruit aromas of maturing fruit, not young any longer but hugely enjoyable still. Rating: quickly emptied. Lot 24: Excellent value Sonoma County syrah. One syrah-loving friend was quick to claim this bottle as his own. When he saw me pouring this bottle around to others, he encouraged me to instead leave it near him and pour Lot 27 to them. Rating: horded. Lot 16 Cabernet, Stag’s Leap: A very solid Napa cab. Rating: quickly emptied. Lot 19 Stellbosch merlot 2004: an interesting merlot for under $20? Small wonder he had to go to South Africa to get it. Crowd pleaser. Rating: emptied. Lot 21 Amador-Lodi zinfandel 2004: gobs of fruit, full-throttle zin, needs grilled meat. Rating: half-empty. Lot 27 Russian River Valley syrah: Competent but see Lot 24. Rating: half-empty.