Cabernet

Review | Cameron Hughes Lot 515
Cameron Hughes Lot 515 wine bottle

Cameron Hughes Lot 515

Cameron Hughes Lot 515 | 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

This wine hails from Monte Rosso vineyard in Sonoma Valley A.V.A. which is located in Sonoma County A.V.A.  Searching around on the internet you won’t find much on Monte Rosso vineyard like a company website and social media accounts.  But you will find that a lot of other producers source their fruit from this vineyard.  According to Hughes “Monte Rosso has perhaps been the greatest source for Cabernet in Sonoma County.”  That’s a pretty bold statement.  Let’s take a look at some of the other producers sourcing fruit from the vineyard: Louis Martini – Monte Rosso Cabernet. 92 points Robert Parker $85 (2010). Arrowood – Monte Rosso Cabernet. 93 points Wine Advocate and $80 (2009)

That’s impressive.  And then there’s Cameron Hughes.  This wine retails for $32 on his website, with a total production of just 500 cases.  Lot 515 is a blend of 95% Cabernet, 3% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot and weighs in at a whopping 15.4% alcohol.

The wine is dense and dark and so packed with fruit that over the course of the 3 nights I sampled this wine, the only time I noticed heat was on the last few sips, and even that wasn’t all that unpleasant.  There are some nice mineral notes interlaced in with the predominately blackberry and licorice palate.

The nice thing about this wine is that although it may get better with age, it is really very much a drink now kind of wine.  You won’t be committing wine infanticide by drinking this wine withing the next few years.  Especially if you’ve been used to Cabernets from Napa.  I’m a huge fan of Napa cabs, but Lot 515 is definitely a wine I can appreciate.

Weekly Wine Journal rating 93 points

*wine purchased with my own hard earned $$.

 

 

Review | Cameron Hughes Lot 555

Cameron Hughes Lot 555

Cameron Hughes Lot 555 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

According to Cameron Hughes ( aka “Cam”) this wine was actually the biggest release of 2014 for the wine negociant.  By biggest he does not mean most cases produced.  Only 1,000 cases of Lot 555 were made, what he means is big, as in a BIG wine sourced from one of the top producers in Napa.  The wine was sourced from ” a fantastic estate in Rutherford deeply rooted in classical traditions and family winemaking heritage. Its vineyards are certainly amongst Napa’s finest, and definitely in the discussion for the top 10.” According to Chwine.com.  Interesting, the label says Napa Valley, which tells me that either there was something in the Non Disclosure Agreement with the producer and or the base wine was back blended with other A.V.A.’s to the point that it could longer be considered a pure “Rutherford District”.

The first thing I noticed after opening the bottle is the cork.  I’m not sure if all of Cameron’s wines have switched to the plastic/rubber cork, but I was certainly surprised to see it.  Maybe I’m a full blown wine snob, but for some reason the synthetic cork really rubbed me the wrong way.  This wine retails for $29 and comes from one of the top 10 vineyards in Napa, I thought there was a bit of a disconnect with the “cheap” enclosure.  Maybe I just need to get over it, like I did the screw cap bottles, eventually.

The next thing I noticed is the wine is good.  It’s great.  Classic Napa Valley floor nose and palate.  Rich bold, powerful, notes of plum and blackcurrant intermixed with tart raspberry.  Fine “dusty” tannins and espresso round out the finish.   Right now the wine is very young.  The wine is astringent and mouth puckering at this point even after 24 hours of decanting.  This is definitely a buy and hold wine for the short term to medium term.  I bought 6 bottles of this wine and I’ll revisit Lot 555 in about a year from now at the end of 2015 to see how it’s coming along.  If it plays out like most of Cams other “big” wines, I’ll be wishing I had bought more.  Unfortunately, storage has become a problem for me and without a significant investment in temperature controlled storage, I’m going to have to hold off on adding more to my collection for the time being.

ChWine.com/555

A Visit to Howell Mountain and Red Cap Vineyards

Red Cap Vineyards

Red Cap Vineyards on Howell Mountain

Red Cap Vineyards on Howell Mountain, Napa Valley.

I first came across Red Cap Vineyards at the Taste of Howell Mountain in 2013. Owner Tom Altemus was standing by all by himself, humbly pouring a Sauvignon Blanc and a Howell Mountain Cabernet. Over the past year Red Cap Vineyards has exploded in popularity. This is a direct result of a decision Tom took to embrace the new media. In particular he embraced Instagram. He hired popular wine Instagrammer Michael Nguyen and the Red Cap Instagram account began to really come to life not only with constant artistic updates but with actual real live human updates.  If Gary Vaynerchuk is looking for a great example for his next case study of a company doing it right on Instagram he should take a look at Red Cap’s Instagram account.

Red-Cap-Vineyards-17

The official Red Cap trike.

Last month I got to spend some time with the Red Cap family at their Howell Mountain home and estate vineyard.  The vineyard is located on Howell Mountain road right near the Angwin airport at an elevation of about 1,800-2,000 ft.  The private setting opens up to a family home with a guest house on the side.  As I arrived Tom’s wife Desiree came out of the guest house with a fresh baked parmesan flat bread creation drizzled with duck fat and herbs.

There is no tasting room at Red Cap Vineyards.  That’s the first thing that should be noted by anyone wishing to visit the winery or vineyard.  They are not open to the public for tastings.  I was invited as a friend of the Altemus family.

There is a nice big hardwood table with seating for 8 in the dining room where I sat with Tom his wife Desiree and Michael.   Over the next couple of hours I sampled the 2013 Napa Valley Sauvignon blanc and the 2008 and 2010 Howell Mountain Cabernets.  After some discussions about social media marketing and the rigors of taking the wine tastings on the road, we stepped outside for a tour of the property.

You could be enjoying yourself here, at Red Cap Vineyards

You could be enjoying yourself here, at Red Cap Vineyards

There is a fire pit out in the back yard, which Red Cap Vineyards actually auctioned off at the Taste of Howell Mountain.  The winning bidder won an Argentinian style BBQ for 10 people right there in the back yard!  The thing I really love about the property is how it just feels like your best friends house or your uncles house.  There is a familiarity to it that is really nice.  There’s the deck chairs and stumps of wood around the fire pit.  The wooden swing hanging from the oak tree.  The family dog, Roscoe follows along.

Roscoe!

Roscoe!

We walked around the property and Tom showed me some really interesting trees.  Their bark is smooth and a dark reddish black color, pretty much the same color as wine.  Under the bark the tree is a bright green wasabi color.  At this point says “Here! Let me show you!”  and he began vigorously rubbing the bark off of a tree.

“Here we go!”  Says Michael “Tom’s rubbing the bark off the trees again!”

The tree with the bark rubbed off

The tree with the bark rubbed off

We walk down to the lowest property line where the forest begins and then around to the vineyard in the front lot.  The tiny block has several different micro climates all within the same area which is less than 2 acres, if not less than 1 perhaps.  There is an area that gets direct sunlight all day, an area that only gets afternoon light, an area that gets morning light.  An area at the bottom of the property that gets frost from time to time.

After the tour of the property we headed back inside for some more wine.  The conversation was hilarious.  I can’t repeat any of it here, but these guys are honest and funny.  And all of a sudden out came the Grappa!  The Grappa was a gift from wine maker Rebekah Wineburg made from the pomace of her first vintage.  The conversation if it wasn’t lively before, definitely became lively if not confessional after that!

The Wines

The Red Cap lineup
The Red Cap lineup

2013 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc

This is a blend of 92% Sauvignon blanc and 8% Semillon sourced from Rutherford, Napa Valley. Alcohol weighs in at  14.5%.

red cap 2013 sauvignon blanc bottle

The wine is a pale yellow straw color with good clarity.  On the nose there are ripe citrus notes and a hint of minerality.  The palate is a mix of citrus and apricot with solid acidity and an off dry sweetness.  The mouthfeel is actually more towards the medium bodied side which is quite nice, a fairly weighty feel.

This wine is a very nice expression of what Napa sauvignon blanc can be.  If you’re into the New Zealand style, this wine is not for you.  If you’re looking for an elegant yet easily approachable summer sipper for special occasions, pick up a case.  If you can, only 312 cases were made and this wine retails for $27 so it will probably sell out very quickly.

 

 2008 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon

red cap 2008 howell mountain bottleThis wine is 100% cab, all Howell Mountain fruit, and all 260 cases are sold out.  But I thought I’d just review the wine for aging reference.  This wine saw 24 months in French oak and weighs in at 14.7% alcohol.  The wine is a deep dark purple color.  On the nose there’s blackberry and a foresty pine or cedar element, that might have just been because that’s where I was when I was tasting it.  The palate is rich, smooth, ripe and juicy.  Black berries and mocha, with a nice long finish.  The retail price on this wine was $65 when it was available.  A very good price point for the highly sought after Howell Mountain AVA.

2010 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon

red cap 2010 cabernet bottle

This wine is also 100% Cabernet and all Howell Mountain fruit with 27 months in French Oak, weighs in at 14.87% alcohol. This wine obviously younger than the ’08 but is showing a lot of promise.  The nose is more explosive.  Right away the big black fruits and subtle forest notes jump out while the palate is loaded with that tight tannic yet elegant and polite and structured fruit Howell Mountain is known for.  The palate is loaded with black cherry.  Mouth watering black cherries.  The retail price on this wine is $75 with a production run of 280 cases.

See more pics of the visit here:  Facebook.com/weeklywinejournal

Contact Red Cap Vineyards here: Redcapvineyards.com/contact

Women in Wine | Kristin Belair | Honig Winery
Honig winery winemaker

Kristin Belair, winemaker

Every once in a while you come across a couple that are the perfect match. They seem ideally suited for each other, the whole greater than the sum of their parts. As Jerry McGuire would say, they “complete” one another. Female winemaker Kristin Belair and Honig Winery have one of those special symbiotic relationships.

Honig Winery traces its history back to 1964 when Louis Honig bought a 68 acre ranch in Napa Valley, planting it with Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon vines.  In its early days, Honig focused only on selling grapes to nearby wineries but had dreams of retiring and making his own wine. He sadly passed away before his dream could ever be realized, however his family would ultimately go on to start making wines; a sort of tribute to his legacy.
bottleIn 1981 the family produced a few hundred cases of Honig Sauvignon Blanc which they entered in the annual Orange County Fair wine contest. To everyone’s amazement, they took home the gold medal and later that same year, Honig’s future winemaker, Kristin Belair, graduated from U.C. Davis. She began her career at another Napa Valley staple, Trefethen Vineyards.
Belair, like most young winemakers, would start working from the ground up. Below ground, in fact… working in the cellar, as what’s commonly known as a “cellar rat”. In her understated humorous way she explains that during this internship she perfected forklift driving and cleaning tanks. Not exactly the most romantic ideal that winemaking has come to be known for.
In 1985, Belair moved over to Turnbull to begin an “official” winemaking position, producing both Chardonnay and Bordeaux-styled reds.
Finally, in 1998 Belair landed at Honig, starting what remains today a deep connection between winemaker and winery.  Kristin Belair’s healthy sense of humor and easy going attitude fits right in with the folks at Honig.  Take for example their tradition of yearly themed Christmas cards, which have included “Rock stars”, “Charlies Angels” and “Mermaids by the pool” themes. Belair not only cooperates, but loves the custom.
But don’t let their penchant for humor fool you, these wines are serious.
The 2007 Honig Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which I was fortunate enough to enjoy at a recent female-focused winemaker dinner, is a complex and elegant wine. It features rich black fruit, a hint of sage and creamy vanilla. It’s still young but has silky tannins with a nice, long finish, and can be enjoyed now with a little decanting.  The blend of 95% Cabernet, 4.5% Cabernet Franc and .5% Petit Verdot, aged for 18 months in one-third new French Oak.  I asked Belair about the reasoning behind adding a miniscule .5% Petit Verdot, to which she explained that yields were extraordinarily low from their vineyard that year. In addition, the flavor profile was such that such a small amount had a greater than expected impact. With about 15,000 cases made, consumers will readily be able to find this wine.
In a word, this wine is “complete”.
Edited by Jon Troutman

World Wide #Cabernet Day

If you are on Twitter and enjoy wine you won’t want to miss #Cabernet on Thursday September 2nd, 2010.  With over 50 wineries and over 100 restaurants participating from all over the world this is sure to be the biggest online tasting ever.  You can participate by following the hashtag #Cabernet.  This online gathering is the brainchild of Rick Bakkas and St Supery.  Rick is a  social media expert and works for St Supery winery in California.  Rick has hosted online events like this before, but this one is definitely getting the most “buzz” pardon the pun.

Check out the Event Brite listing to see a list of participating wineries and restaurants.  If you are in the Phoenix Metro area give Morton’s Steakhouse a call  (they are one of the sponsors)  They are offering BV Coastal Cabernet for $6 a glass.

Morton’s Phoenix: 602 955 9577

Morton’s Scottsdale: 480 951 4440

If you are hosting a party or event and want to promote it, please leave your info in the comment section below!  Cheers!

Wineries and Tweetups: How to

I get quite a bit of email from wineries on the subject of Tweetups.

Imagine a Tweetup this big!

I wrote a guest article for Gary Vaynerchuk’s Corkd.com on the subject to touch on the benefits. See the article HERE.  This resulted in a whole bunch more emails with specific questions about the nuts and bolts, the details of how to do the Tweetup thing.  So I put together a quick little reference specifically for wineries based on the email help I provided this weekend.

Participate in every #varietal tweetup #cabernet #merlot #shiraz ect.  Varietal Tweetups promote wine in general and a specific varietal.  Successful examples are @rickbakas ‘s #calicabs which featured California Cabernet’s.  Josh Wade’s ( @nectarwine) #WAMerlot featured Merlot from Washington State.  Shannon Casey (@michbythebottle) put together Tweet and Taste Michigan and used the #hashtag #TTMI so that people could follow along in real time on twitter.

So step one would be to participate in every #varietal tweetup.  The next BIG BIG event is #Cabernet.  This event is being hosted by Rick Bakas and many well known wineries will be participating.  Wineries like Duckhorn, Cakebread and St Supery.  If Cabernet Sauvignon is (or whatever the next varietal tweetup is)  a wine that you make and have in stock then host a tweetup at the winery.  These events are almost always on a Thursday night, and if your winery is a long way for people to travel don’t expect much more than a few locals to attend, but be sure to email, phone and visit people to promote the fact that you are participating and fun will be going on at your winery or tasting room on that night.  Promote the tweetup on Twitter, Facebook, on your website, on Localwineevents.com and Meetup.com
If the winery does not have the particular varietal you can still participate just by yourself by going to another winery in the area who does make/carry that varietal and tweet from there.  Or you can have a private party and people can bring their own wine to taste and tweet about.

For tweetups intended to promote your specific brand I suggest contacting  via Direct Message (DM)   Twitter “influencers” and invite them to your tweetup. Or get their contact emails from their blogs.  Most prominent Twitter personalities have a blog.  Tell them that their tasting fee will be waived and there will be some complimentary food for them.  In order to be considered an influencer I would suggest a minimum 1,000 followers and a ratio of pretty close to 1:1  People who follow 10,000 people but only have 1,000 followers are not very influential. Also suggest some local accommodations incase they want to stay over night. Then come up with a hashtag# to identify the event and DM the influencers with the hashtag a few weeks in advance.  Do a soft launch tweeting information about the event with the #hashtag.  Then begin to actively promote the event about 2 to 3 weeks in advance. I believe that you don’t want to be tweeting about the event every day for months before it happens, it will be overkill and people will tune it out.  I would send out a tweet several times a week leading up to the event and then just before it I would step it up and then the day before and the day of the event tweet more as the event draws closer and tweet often when the event starts. Tweet about who is at the event, what people are drinking, how many people are there, how much fun it is ect.  ENGAGE with others, don’t just blast out your information.  Thank people for retweeting your message ask them if they will be attending, ask who else will be attending, be enthusiastic!  According to Dan Zarrella most Retweets happen between 10am and 12 midnight on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  This is apparently Eastern Standard Time, but I believe the same is true no matter what time zone you are in.
Getting back to hosting a tweetup to promote your winery. I would pick 2 or 3 influencers offer them a free tasting and food.  I would also put out a general tweet to all other Twitters and offer some other kind of discount, possibly complimentary cheese plates.  I would do the same on facebook, wineevents and meetup.com. Then when people show up and mention the discount you will be able to track how people heard about the wine tasting and see which form of media is most effective.
another great way to promote events is thru Eventbrite.com

During the Tweetup I would take lots of pictures for your Facebook Page, and videos for your Youtube Channel which you can embed to your website/blog.  I would limit the length of each video to 1-3 minutes maximum.  People have short attention spans.  If you visit my Youtube channel you will see that I don’t always follow the time limit rule, it’s mainly because I don’t feel like it!

One more useful event to participate in on a regular basis is #WIYG.  Barbara Evans @Seattlewinegal came up with the idea.  It stands for Whats In Your Glass.  Most Friday and Saturday nights if you sent her an @ message with the hashtag #WIYG and a photo of what you are drinking, she will Retweet it.

Please email me any questions or feel free to contact the references below:

Josh Wade @nectarwine Drinknectar.com

Rick Bakas @RickBakas RickBakas.com #Cabernet information

Barbara Evans @Seattlewinegal Barbaraevans.wordpress.com

Shannon Casey @michbythebottle Michiganbythebottle.com

Brian Solis’s post analyzing Dan Zarrella’s information

Cameron Hughes Lot 116, 2007 Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon

Alcohol: 14.5%

Production: 1012 Cases

$22

From the company literature:

“Deep, dark brooding Cabernet, ruby-plum color with deep crimson rim. On the nose blackcurrant hits you right between the eyes with Cassis intermixed with blackberries, chocolate, and damp earth.  Nuances of moist underbrush are braced by cedary oak and excellent fruit purity…charming texture…rich mid-palate tannins…lingering finish and full-bodied elegance…”

Once again this is another wine sourced from an $85 dollar bottle-program.  The wine maker sourced the blend from the vineyards in Mount Veeder, Oakville, Rutherford, and Spring Mountain.  Under it’s original label it receives consistent 91, 92 and 93 point scores.  And this is the really GOOD part… many of Cameron Hughes wines are made from leftover barrel lots from high-end wineries, however, this wine is the actual bottling blend.

It’s tough to decide which one I like more, Lot 164 or Lot 116.  Lot 164 is immediately amazing whereas this wine becomes more and more amazing over several hours.  Until it reaches a peak which I enjoy more than Lot 164.  Great nose of blackcurrant, doesn’t quite hit me like I expected.  And I’m glad it didn’t, I don’t really want to be completely whacked in the face by the wine. Not right away anyways…

definitely rich mid-palate tannins.  And later on they become richer and richer, until the concentrated chocolate is so awesome it literally began to give me goosebumps!  I had this wine with slow cooked Tri-Tip, sautéed mushrooms in worchestire sauce, a green salad and a little bit of Quinoa.  It was awesome!  The wine really came alive and made my steak taste better too. In fact it made it taste so good that I ate a second steak!  It’s the kind of wine that turns you into a ravenous carnivore.  And later on I had to bake some chocolate chip cookies.  I am putting this wine in my top 5 favorite wines of all time right now.  Wow!  Incredible, and by the end of the bottle I was wishing for more, but alas it was about 2am.

Update:

2nd tasting:

I paired it with a slow roasted Filet Mignon.  Once again, it really made the steak come alive.  Rich rich mid palate tannins, but not harsh tannins.  Very well done.  2nd night of the 2nd tasting is fantastic as well.  The blackberries and cedary oak are coming through and it has now been 24 hours since I opened the bottle.  Still no trace of alcohol!

Chalone Vineyard, 2007 Monterey Cabernet Sauvignon

I was in the grocery store earlier this week picking up items to make “Tim’s $5.75 Spaghetti” when all of a sudden I had a hankering for some Tri-Tip.  So I picked up a little 2.5lb steak for 10 bucks and carried on with the shopping.  I ended up in the wine department, as always, and did a quick scan for new items and mark-downs.  I came across a coupon hanging on a bottle of wine, it read:

Buy 3 bottles of Chalone, get $7 off meat purchase.  The Chalone Monterey Cabernet was $16.99 a bottle, but with my VIP club card it was down to $9.99 a bottle. So I bought 3.  One way to look at it is I paid $7.56 for each bottle of wine.

So, was it worth it?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer:

I let the wine breath for 30 minutes while I searched the internet for some information on the wine.  I couldn’t find any reviews or anything!  I found their website but it didnt seem to be working properly.  Wiki provided me with the history of Chalone Vineyard which is quite interesting.

13.5% Alcohol.

First sniff, not much going on.  Really almost nothing.  First taste and swirl, also nothing going on.  I read  the back of the bottle while I pondered whether I had made a wise choice in buying 3 bottles of this wine.  It mentioned vanilla oak.  So just as a test, I decided to add a few drops of pure vanilla extract to the wine!

It gave the wine a definite vanilla aroma, and made the tannins far more chewy.  but it didn’t taste particularly good, so I poured out the glass and rinsed it out and went back to blogging for an hour while I baked my Tri-Tip.

Eventually after close to 4 hours in the decanter this wine revealed itself.  The full force of the vanilla oak was present, the tannins were alive, the fruit and oak were in harmony, and it was actually an amazing wine even I had paid the full price.  It’s definitely not a “pop and pour” wine.  It requires a significant amount of patience if you want to enjoy it right now. Buy and hold.  Who buys $10 wine and holds on to it??  I do that’s who!

Tim