Lot 50
2006 Mosel Riesling

Tasted by dom418 on 3/25/2008 & rated 92 points: Bursts with apricot & grapefruit, low acidicity, flavorful finish. Soft sweetness. (237 views) Tasted by jfp on 2/1/2008 & rated 88 points: Light straw and crystal clear, the nose is closed, but shows off some honey, floral, and melon aromas. On the palate, this is prickly and delightfully acidic, with a medium-light body that initially seems fuller due to the slight sweetness. Peach and light lemon pop out before a sweet but short sharp finish. Very good. (373 views)

Bursts with apricot & grapefruit, low acidicity, flavorful finish. Soft sweetness. (92 pts.) - Tasted 3/25/2008. [FIND IT!] Tasted by dom418.

2005 Cameron Hughes Lot 44 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford $13 Run to Costco my friends, do not walk. You will not find another easy going-everyday-drinking Cabernet at this price point for a long, long time. What a phenomenal deal this is. Once it's gone, it's gone. There will not be another release. So how is a Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley being sold for $13 you might ask? Well that's an interesting story. Cameron Hughes does not own vineyards, have a winery tasting room to visit or even ferment wine. He is a San Francisco businessman turned wine guy who has founded a company eradicating the middleman (distributor) and offering great wines for bargain prices. Cool Cameron, we wine folk like that. Why are his wines great? Well, Cameron has an interesting way of sourcing these wines. The Lot Series of wine (as you see above) is purchased as already fermented wine from high-end wineries; in this case the Rutherford Appellation of Napa Valley. In Cameron's words, "these wines are preserved by bottling the wine unadulterated and never backblended to fix flaws". More awesomeness here. In other words, this wine is currently being sold by a high-quality, premium winery for a premium price in Napa Valley but under a different label. Word has it that Lot 44 is currently retailing for around $45 per bottle and has received accolades from Wine Spectator of 90-92 points over the last several years from a high-end, quality driven winery. So how can this be done? I think the answer has to do with available quantity. When you are producing a high-end wine product you work with lots of available fermented juice to assemble your final blend. At the end of the process you have available wine left over that goes onto the bulk market for sale. Cameron Hughes has based his business model on picking up these bulk, high-end wines, bottling them and selling them directly to the retailer for nearly a quarter of the cost. Wow! So this allows a higher quality product to be sold at a much lower price. This is how the wine business is really changing. It's a brilliant idea and the market has room for this type of innovative style and out-of-the box thinking. So let's talk about this particular wine, Lot 44. I want to start off by saying that this a medium-bodied red wine. It is NOT a wine that has layers and layers of complexity and depth that many of the stellar Cabernets from Rutherford posses. But you have to remember that wine with extreme depth and character require aging for up to ten years before it is smooth and fairly drinkable. Let's face it, most wine that is purchased is consumed within days so it's difficult, unless you are collector, to lay down these bottles and give them the time they deserve to age properly. This wine is drinkable now. It's smooth now. It is extremely food-friendly and all around enjoyable. It is pleasing on the palate and is the quintessential bottle to have for all your daily wine adventures. This is a wine you pull out for a chicken dinner or a nice steak on the grill. It would be fabulous with pasta and even better for a casual pizza night. This is a wine you know you can turn to and not feel the guilt of opening on a Tuesday night. And I don't know about you but my wine rack is becoming quite light in the California Cabernet area due to the extreme cost of these wines. Every night I have a staring contest with some of these $130 bottles that sit on the shelf and beg to be consumed but I can't get myself to open them. I feel it has to be the perfect occasion which never seems to come around often enough. This bottle offered me all the glimpses of characters I enjoy in a Rutherford Cabernet; hints of clove, spice, tobacco with a pronounced chocolate note. However, what stood out the most was the minerality and earthy tones that came screaming out of the glass. The Rutherford appellation is most known for it's wines alluding to the, "Rutherford dust" character that exists there. This wine gives you that dusty earth in very certain terms. It's all there, just not in overwhelming expression. I am going to fill my wine rack with this Cabernet and use it as my go to red. My usual go to California Cabernet is $45 a bottle, which is cheap by some standards for wine from this region but let's face it, that is not cheap in any sense of the word. I would also highly suggest this bottle for someone who is interested in learning to enjoy drinking red wine. The shyness of the tannins in this wine (tannins are associated with red wine consumption and often difficult for someone new to drinking red wine), are hidden among the toasty oak and mocha overtones allowing a novice palate to enjoy the varietal character present. Another suggestion? If you are having a large get together this summer, wedding shower, family reunion or a birthday blowout, this is the wine to buy. It will please those with sophisticated palates as well as those who are not so wine savvy. This is not a heavy red wine, so consuming it in the warmer summer months will not be a problem when served at the proper temperature. And one more thing. This wine, Lot 44, impressed Costco buyers so much, they bought the entire Lot and are selling it exclusively at their stores. So like I said, run my friends, run. No Costco in your area? Don't worry, Cameron Hughes has other available wines all with the same premise as Lot 44, all bought from high-end producers and they are sold all over the U.S. and most likely elsewhere for great, great prices. Some to look for in your area: Lot 43 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel Lot 46 Hunter Valley Shiraz Lot 49 Priorat D. O. Q. Lot 50 Mosel Riesling Lot 53 Edna Valley Syrah Lot 54 St. Emilion Lot 57 Carneros Chardonnay Lot 59 Russian River Valley Chardonnay So good luck finding these!

Cameron Hughes is a name fast becoming familiar to the savvy young wino. A producer who sources grapes from all the world, Hughes represents an innovative, enterprising take on the familiar French concept of the négociant. Rather than grabbing up batches of wine from all over a particular region and blending them together haphazardly, however, Hughes takes a more nuanced approach: as phrased in the winery’s press kit, his strategy is buying “super-premium surplus juice from other wineries and growers around the globe” and then “bottling this ’silver bullet’ and branding it as one of our ‘Lots,’ thus preserving its extreme value.” Regions are listed on the label, but not vineyards; the sequential “lot” numbers on the bottles thus also preserve the anonymity of Hughes’ various sources, allowing those wineries to continue selling their wine at whatever price they desire without customers flocking to the less-expensive Cameron Hughes version. These “mystery source” wines have gained a reputation among discriminating, budget-minded boozehounds as offering the quality of top winemakers without the prohibitive sticker price. Previously available only at your local behemoth big-box retailer, Cameron Hughes wines are thankfully now sold direct on the website. The good people at his operation sent the Winos a few bottles to try out. First up was the 2006 Cameron Hughes “Lot 26″ Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough), which exploded upon hitting the glass with a big, grassy, herby nose… classic New Zealand in all its glory. Erik got some pear, Andrew appreciated some mineral, and Noah chased some honeysuckle. As we often anticipate with Sauv Blanc from Kiwi-land, some citrus and tropical fruit made itself apparent as well, but several people noted how very ripe this particular fruit smelled; Noah likened it to an “overripe grapefruit, like that doesn’t even need sugar anymore.” And Erik rounded things off with some floral notes, musing that it smelled like “passing a field of wildflowers along the side of the road.” The Winos found themselves split on the palette of this wine. It must be admitted that I’m a big NZSB lover, and I thought the Lot 26 represented the type really nicely… big ripe grapefruit and a clean mineral element throughout. Andrew, however, is not the world’s biggest Sauvignon Blanc fanboy, and unfortunately this one harassed him with more “tart and citrussy” character than he tends to find tolerable. Noah agreed — a little more tart than usual for New Zealand. He tasted some pineapple, but more specifically “the inside, where it meets the core, not the delicious outer side.” I disagreed strongly with these guys, totally loving the terrific grapefruit and the feature-length, mouth-coating finish. To me, this was a $18-$22 NZSB at least, and even the Winos who didn’t enjoy it as much thought the $11 sticker price was a fair one. (The press kit invited us to compare this wine to the Kim Crawford, which I think was appropriate… in doing so, I found this one riper and a little less manic. Not that I dislike manic Sauvignon Blancs, mind you. Manic is good.) Next up was the 2006 Cameron Hughes “Lot 50″ Riesling (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer). No indication was given of any Prädikat designation (i.e. Kabinett, Spätlese, etc.) that might tip us off to the sweetness level, so we weren’t sure what to expect… but far be it from the Young Winos to cower at the prospect of the unknown. The nose was citrussy without being sharp; I immediately barked out “lemon cake with vanilla icing,” which met with approval. Erik picked up some coconut, and Emily thought there was a honeyed character. The nose changed a bit with some swirling, and began to smell exactly like the “crumble” on top of blueberry muffins (several people pointed out that this substance has a name, streusel… apparently we have some real epicures in our ranks). Max expanded on that note by suggesting the wine smells like the mini Entenmann’s muffins that come in a little bag of four or five. By this point we were starving and decided to drink it. The wine had great body, round and soft; Erik found it a tad syrupy, and I agreed, but it achieves this viscosity without a lot of the sweetness that usually tags along. Emily got lemon notes, Noah enjoyed some “grapefruit with brown sugar,” and Andrew commended the “nice bright fruit.” Max thought it was a bit sour, dropping the trademarks “SweeTarts” and “Sour Patch Kids” as descriptors. I agreed that there was a tartness to it, rendered all the more prominent due to the low sweetness, but I was intrigued by the green, almost limey element, not one I typically associate with German Riesling. Noah and Andrew in particular were big fans of this interesting, distinctive bottle; again, the $12 sticker price seems more than fair for this level of quality, even if it’s not exactly the most typical Riesling in the world. Our next sample took us south to Argentina for the 2004 Cameron Hughes “Lot 51″ Malbec (Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza). This wine scored big on the nose, with coffee and tobacco notes making themselves immediately apparent — to me, it smelled like that dank little cigar room in Dedrick’s Pharmacy when I was a kid, the unmistakable odor of which would completely overwhelm me if I ever managed to get the sliding glass door open before my mom hauled me off. Andrew picked up some “dark, mysterious, inky fruit,” Noah got chocolate, and Erik got prune. Max said it was “earthy” and picked up some blueberry, while Emily joined the fray by citing blackberries. The palate skewed more heavily towards the smoke and tobacco notes; the fruit, meanwhile, wasn’t all too apparent. Max thought it was woody, and Noah appreciated some black pepper and cloves. Emily liked the earthy, spicy character, dubbing the wine “flavorful,” and while Andrew agreed, he was missing some crucial body elements. Erik felt similarly, complaining that the body wasn’t quite there — to him, the palate came in a bit watery. I sympathized with their gripe and also could’ve used a little more weight; however, I couldn’t find fault with the supple smoothness and delicate flavors (Emily echoed these sentiments, finding the wine “not tannic” and “inoffensive”). At $13, this was a nice find, and several Winos expressed interest in pairing it with a pepper steak or a london broil. Last up was our sole domestic offering, the 2005 Cameron Hughes “Lot 43″ Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley). “Now this I like the smell of,” enthused Max upon pouring a glass. The nose was big and welcoming, reminiscent of a chocolate and raspberry tart. Andrew described a dark, smoky character, Emily got figs and papayas, and Max got raspberry and raisins (not to be outdone, Noah got craisins). A big, fruit-forward bouquet, just like you want on a Zin, without some of that fiery alcohol that sometimes attacks your nostrils. The palate came in a little lighter on the fruit than we anticipated; to be fair, the bar was set pretty high after that nose. What fruit there was, however, was nice and round, and complimented by a lively smoke element. Noah observed the lack of “the overwhelming jamminess that some Zins have.” Max thought it was gamey, and would drink it with “roast duck or venison” (he then instructed his personal manservant to buy 30 cases, and to bring around his Rolls Royce). Andrew, a huge Zin fan, was the only member of the assembly who wouldn’t buy the bottle again — he complained that it was a bit hot and had an undesirable “bite.” For $12, though, the rest of us were willing to forgive such an imperfection; Max summed up the general opinion by stating that “this is a definite winner.” We’d discovered several affordable, well-made wines over the course of the tasting, and achieving this kind of consistency from a budget-priced producer is a real challenge. The consensus was that Cameron Hughes appears to be a dependable destination for good bottles at prices we love — even if the wines themselves aren’t as mind-blowing as some of the hyperbolic rumors might have led a few of us to believe. Apparently the label is releasing new wine all the time, and the Young Winos definitely look forward to seeing what’s next.

Costco comes through with decent wines for less than $10 May. 28, 2008 12:00 AM Every time I visit a Costco, the urge to grab overwhelms me. Although I went into the store in my continuing search for recession-busting wine values, I was shocked that I didn't leave with a heaping pile of batteries, vacuum cleaners, soap and ribs. Costco has always impressed me with the selection and prices, so today I was surprised that there were not more wines for less than $10. Still, there are agreeable choices among Costco's lowest-priced wines. 2006 Columbia Crest "Grand Estate" Chardonnay, Columbia Valley, Wash. ($7.89) - The color is nothing unusual, just your standard yellow that we all call white. The aroma is a throwback to old-school West Coast Chards with ripe banana and tropical tones. The taste has some of the fruit from the nose mixed with some apricot tartness and a spicy warm finish. It's solidly average and a good value if you like the Chard flavors of the '80s. 84 points advertisement 2006 Cameron-Hughes "Lot 50" Riesling, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany ($9.99) - With 10 percent alcohol content, this makes for a yummy summer sipper. The color is a pale straw yellow, a lot fuller than your average $10 Riesling. The aroma is muted with a taint of green citrus. The taste is fabulously bright and refreshing with apple and mineral in the finish. It's light but tasty. 87 points 2006 Montes Cherub Rosé of Syrah, Colchagua Valley, Chile ($11.99) - This wine is the color of "passion" pink. It's light with good graduation of color to the finish. The aroma is on the herbal-white pepper end of the spectrum. The taste is dry with tart cherry fruit and some light spicy tones to the finish. 85 points 2005 Kirkland Signature "Meritage," Napa Valley, Calif. ($10.99) - A Meritage is a blend. This one has 69 percent Merlot, 29 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 2 percent Cabernet Franc. The color is dark, dark, dark . . . very concentrated and slightly muddy. The aroma is very ripe and pleasing with dark, juicy berry fruit and some wood and earth. The taste is yammy/jammy . . . a real crowd pleaser. It's too ripe to be a food wine but makes a good all-around sipper. 86 points. 2006 Fontanafredda "Briccotondo" Barbera, Piedmont, Italy ($9.99) - To find a $10 wine from a good Italian producer is not easy these days. The color is a nice dark ruby with black currant tones. The aroma is like a basket of pressed berries on a hot summer day. The taste is very balanced with tartness, richness and a fine structured dryness. This wine is great both with grilled steaks and as an everyday "house" red. 89 points 2006 Escudo Rojo by Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Maipo, Chile ($10.99) - This wine comes from a noble family of winemakers. The late Baron Philippe de Rothschild transformed and modernized Bordeaux, France, in the last century with his Chateau Mouton Rothschild. Then the family took an early and visionary interest in Chile. The color is fine and smooth, like royal velvet (still reading?). The aroma is of baked and dried berries. The taste is both juicy and wooded in a starkly contrasting way. The feel of this wine is more earthlike, with Bordeaux qualities, than gushy, like most New World wines of the day. For this I commend the winemakers. 86 points Reach Tarbell, owner of Mark Tarbell's in Phoenix at wine@tarbell.com.