So, Mr. Freeman shows up at my door after drinking a six pick of martinis with four bottles of CH in his hand.
One of them is white and I already have a bottle of a board partipants wine open. I hand it Chris and tell him that and that the winemakers first name is John. He smells it and asks, “is this Zucc’s wine” I look horrified and offended and say “No, John Holdredge”. Proving he has the palate of a yak.
We really liked the Holdredge 2006 Zin I bought off WTSO for some ridiculous price BTW. Buy it if it comes back up. I think I paid about $15 a bottle for it.
Anyway, on to the Hughes wines:
Lot 154 Lake County Zinfandel 2006. This is the biggest, heaping, pile of shit we’ve had from Cameron to date. A complete loser. He’s using oak powder to hide to hide the oak chips to hide the oak barrles he used to hide the shitty fruit he used to make this wine. How hard is to make a drinkable Zin?
Lot 169 Merlot Napa Valley. we got a little currant, red fruit, surgared plum. Pretty merlot typicity. Not a bad bottle of wine at all, Chris says. It was $15 a bottle. At that price, it’s a party wine. If your mother in law decides she needs to celebrate your wifes 45th birthday and invite 50 of her friends, this is a wine that won’t embarress you.
Lot 157 Ca. “This is really a nice wine” Chris says, as he is half asleep on my leather chair in my office. Nose of deep rich chocolate, mocha notes. Dark fruit, cinammon, asian spice. blueberry with integrated but not dominant oak. This is drinkable now, but will improve will about 18-24 months. Chris says he would make this his house wine from 2013-2017. At $17, we’re loading the truck on this one.
I haven’t had the 116, so I can’t comment on that one. Compared to the 143, I’d say this isn’t quite that good. It’s not as concentrated, think valley floor rather than mountain fruit. I think that it compares favorably to the other CH 2007 Cabs I’ve had though, with the exception of the 143 and maybe the Diamond Mountain bottling.
For $17, give it a try. I’m going to order some and let them sit for six months to let them settle a little, then try again.
I had the Lot 136 2007 Napa Cab last night with some bone in rib-eye. Pretty good… A little carmely when it opened but it resolved, some fine tannings too which were good with the steak.
Cameron Hughes is having a 20% off everything sale on 6/23 for 24 hours only. Free shipping on 2 cases and I believe he will hold the wine for $15 storage fee and ship when cooler.
We do need to get together. I was thinking it should be someplace with sand, bikinis, and a dive boat, but we should probably settle for one of our patios in the interim.
I was going to order some of the 157, but am waiting for the sale on the 23rd to load up on some stuff.
Thanksgiving Grand Cayman. . Non-stop from ORD $600 on Cayman Air. Dive with Ocean Frontiers amazing DS. We have a house reserved with a gourmet kitchen. Plenty of great condos to rent 5min away. I think that about coves it. You wear the Bikini. See you there
Oh bullshit. The zin saw about 33% new oak (Saury, Ermitage, Sirugue and Taransaud) and the fruit comes from one of the top vineyards in Lake County. I do not personally believe the wine was overoaked and I can say without reservation the wine never saw dust or chips or barrel inserts, only barrels in their purest form. That said, everyone is allowed their own opinion, yours just sucks . The rest of your opinions are fine.
Hey!
Just saw CH’s retort. Now that I’ve actually read what we wrote (well, craig was typing, I was snoozing) I guess we were a tad harsh with the terms.
Sorry.
To make up for it I’ll do my best to buy a couple of cases of other wines.
I do have 2 more of the Zin and I’m positive I’ll give it another review, this time with less venom EVEN THOUGH I WASN’T at the keyboard…