Talk-A-Vino

An article in Wall Street Journal by  Lettie Teague did put Cameron Hughes and his wines on the wine map for me.  I always valued a good deal when buying wine, and Cameron Hughes held a promise to deliver very good QPR (Quality Price Ratio). I didn’t want to order direct, as shipping cost was quite steep, but then the Cameron Hughes wines started to appear in the places like WTSO,  and afterward simply in the stores.  When I saw Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon in the local Stew Leonard’s wines, I couldn’t resist anymore.

After reading tasting notes in the Weekly Wine Journal, I also decided to use the device called versovino to accelerate “aging” process, or in other words, to help the wine to open up faster. With this – here are my tasting notes.

2007 Cameron Hughes Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 140, Chalk Hill, Sonoma County

Even with the versovino’s help and after a 10-15 minutes in the glass, the first reaction was an alcohol bomb. It was after the first reaction that I checked alcohol content – 14.9% ( I’m sure more in reality). Next, lots of jammy fruit came in, with all sorts of super-ripe berries in the mix, all smothered with very aggressive tannins, covering the whole front of the mouth. Bright acidity was showing quite well too. Interestingly enough, after about 3 hours in the open bottle, the wine became very tight and unexpressive… I would have to attribute this to the powerful wine at very young age, which  will hopefully become better behaved on the second day ( report to follow). Until then the rating is…

Drinkability: 7-