2009 Cameron Hughes Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 248, California

Another of my impulse buys from chwines.com during their 20% off sale. This piqued my interest due to it being from Anderson Valley an AVA I had yet to sample. I waited for a few months rather than opening it right away and just recently opened it to pair with some grilled meats. This wine pours dark purple in the glass with aromas of cherry, caramel, oak, strawberry jam and just a hint of alcohol wafting up from the rim. I got a little crazy and sampled a small glass without aerating this wine; big mistake. If you purchase this wine make sure you let this wine breathe in a decanter or use an aerating device as it is very tight with lots of tannins and a healthy dose of alcohol flavors/textures. Surprising as it is, this wine didn’t pair very well with the grilled sausages or hamburgers. It lost a lot of flavor with both of those dishes and the only aspects that remained were those of heat, sour red fruit and an alcohol bite. I decided to let this sit overnight in hopes it would improve. The following night I revisited the bottle and found the alcohol bite and heat diminished though the sour fruits persisted. The attack is very streamlined even minimalistic consisting of blackberry, cherry and oak. The tannins rapidly grab the palate bringing quite a dose of astringency and sour fruit flavors. The mid-palate does not last very long, instead giving way to a medium finish with more of the same flavors. Sour cherry, mixed with cola, vanilla, oak and smoke grace a rather tame finish. This is a medium bodied wine that leaves a disappointing aftertaste of wet leaves and cherries.

Overall I was not impressed with this particular wine. It does get better if given the chance to breathe, but not nearly as big an improvement as this wine needs. It has limited flavors and those that do show up don’t really work here. It doesn’t taste bad just very young and limited in spectrum. I think the bottle cost me 11 dollars which isn’t bad, I’ve had quite a few wines that were terrible at that price point and this isn’t terrible. It just doesn’t work for me. It might be the age of the wine or maybe my palate but I can’t recommend this wine. As far as QPR goes, it earns a fair QPR but in all honesty if you are ordering wines over the internet you expect better than fair so I can’t recommend this wine find a CH Cabernet  at your local Costco or Sam’s Club but stay away from this one.

Cameron Hughes Wines 

2008 Montes Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 70%, Carmenere 30%, Chile

Colored decadence…Deep dark red swirling to black at the center

Aromatically limited…Red plum, pipe tobacco, nail polish

Flavors that fade…I bounce around on pretty much everything Montes has to offer that I’ve sampled. I’ll like one wine but can’t stand the next and the third will be smack dab in the middle. There doesn’t seem to be any consistency in any of their sub-20 dollar bottles. I’m sure the more expensive bottles are amazingly complex, warm and textured, I just wish I could count on their wines to give me some kind of reliability where quality is concerned. This wine is no exception to that rule; except to say that this starts out very inviting but the longer you let it breathe the worse it gets. Wait too long (a few days) and you are left with a wine that doesn’t have anything in common with the wine you sipped upon opening the bottle. Sad to say, but this one doesn’t make the grade. If you drain the bottle before 24 hours goes by then you have a pleasant red wine with an attack personified by plums, grass, tobacco and some smoke. The mid-palate is smooth with tannins that ease in and out while the alcohol just brings a slight tingle to the gums and tongue and the astringency doesn’t really play a factor at all. The finish is long and brings back the plums, but adds dark cherry, blueberry and vanilla to the mix. In all it’s not a bad wine, but nothing spectacular. If you waited a day or two to finish the bottle you will now find the attack is a sickly, sweet mess of sugared plums and candied fruit. The mid-palate is thin, acidic and hot. And the finish is still long, but now shows off unripe berries, sour cherries, backed by plum preserves and a streak of paint thinner. Not a pleasant journey at all.(While I understand letting a bottle sit and get air can adversely effect a wine, a few days in the proper conditions should be possible for a red wine like this.)

Overall, this is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of red wines. You can guzzle it down and have an OK experience with the bottle, but if you wait too long it’s going to make you cringe every time you take a sip. I can’t recommend this wine in the least. It gets a poor QPR at 15 dollars for this bottle I overpaid by 10 bucks and honestly feel ripped off. Even had I finished the bottle that first night I would have felt this wine didn’t live up to its price point. For the money the Montes Alpha is much better. Be glad this is “Limited Selection” because it might just fade out completely and make room for something good on the shelves. Leave this one alone!

Vina Montes