- 2023 Cam X Meritage Lot 05 - USA, California, Sonoma County, Knights Valley (1/26/2026)
Lot 05 Meritage strikes an appealing balance between immediate gratification and disciplined structure. Right now, it's a fruit-forward pleasure bomb. Generous layers of blackberry compote, ripe black cherry, and dark plum dominate the nose, underscored by subtle notes of vanilla bean, sweet tobacco, and crushed rose petal. The palate is sappy and vibrant, with juicy acidity keeping the dense fruit lively and fresh.
Yet beneath all that primary exuberance lies a firm backbone of fine-grained tannins and graphite-like minerality that suggests serious aging potential. The oak integration is polished but present, adding spice and texture without overwhelming the core fruit. While the wine offers plenty of charm today with its plush mouthfeel and long, spicy finish, the components are still knitting together.
Drink one now to experience the vintage's generosity, but cellar the remainder for 3â5 years. With time, those primary fruit notes will deepen into more complex tertiary characters. A smart purchase. 92, with upside. (92 points)
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I have a question for those of you from the wine industry. Do most wineries wait until bottle shock is over before releasing wines for sale? My impression, and maybe its incorrect, is that dN and Cam X futures (unlike most wineries) have to be aged at least through the bottle shock period before being drank.
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Yes, but bottle shock is like 6-8 weeks. Weâre way past that for many Cam X wines.
Brianâs post there inspired me to pop open lot 5 just now. Poured into the decanter and poured a glass right away. This is exactly what Iâve been looking for, something that you can open and drink right away without a needed super long decant time or years of age. Iâll see how it progresses throughout the night.
Easily drinkable right now and tastes great. It is definitely fruit forward right now and just about on the limit of how much fruit I like to see but has a great tannic structure and mouthfeel to it. This is just below lot 27 for me but one of my favorites so far.
Iâm going to buy a few more bottles of this one soon, wish I wouldâve got them before the price hikes though.
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Will bump this tasting, since thereâs chatter about 5. Iâm a big fan.
Norm,
When I worked at a boutique winery in Santa Cruz Mtns, the proprietor used a mobile bottling line, wines pre-filtered and into settling tanks a week before bottling. After bottling, palettes sent to offsite cold storage for 8-9 months before we pulled them into tasting room.
Cheers, Tim
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I think every winery is different but most would ideally store and bottle age before releasing. Storage can be extremely expensive which would eat into what I imagine are already thin margins. If cam had to hold every bottle for a year Im not sure he would have a working business still.
Where I work we absolutely wait for bottle shock, but currently all of our whites are sold out. We are bottling on Monday and we will have to put one of those freshly bottled whites on the tasting menu almost immediately. Not something I like doing but my hand is forced. Iâll usually pop the corks the day before in this case.
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Completely agree that these wines arenât in bottle shock. My experience with dN tells me that the 23âs are now out of bottle shock and have been in a brief window before shutting down in a dumb phase, then theyâll come back around in a couple of years. I plan on doing a big tasting of most of these in the next few weeks then forget about them for a while. Again this is based on my experience five years ago not from tasting these wines.
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The concept of âbottle shockâ is still not truly understood at all. Does it happen? Sure. Can it happen? Sure ? Can we predict if it will happen and for how long? Heck no . . .
So many factors will come into play here - if the wine is filtered or not, red or white, what variety, how long has said wine been in vessel prior to bottling, how often was the wine racked during aging, etc etc ect
I have found that many of my wines drink absolutely beautifully immediately after bottling.
Cheers
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Bottle Shock notes by Cameron Hughes: Wine is stored in either barrel or tank in an oxygen-free or âreductiveâ environment. When wine is transferred from tank/barrel to bottle, it picks up oxygen which creates compounds that act like a layer or blanket on top of the wine, muting its flavors. As well, filtration can break up phenolics that then need to coalesce again in the bottle. So, depending on the wine, getting through bottle shock takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks for light whites to 3-4 months for big reds.
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Thanks Larry, can you provide any insight on the âdumb phaseâ that more structured wines seem to go into? Is this also more myth than fact. I have never understood why wine makers donât try harder to tell people when to drink their wines since a few bad reviews on CT can be so damaging to a smaller brand. Of course thereâs the obvious of just wanting to sell wine and not imply that it will ever be âbadâ, but that seems very short sighted.
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This bothers me too since when I buy higher end wines I expect them to improve with age. Another peeve is when they write âdrink over the next 3 - 10 yearsâ but donât tell you what year that window starts. I prefer the wine reviewers that have a year range such as âbest from 2027 -2040â.
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My lot 13 arrived and wanted to, I dk, be what you want to see in the world 
, but I am struggling with notes.
After double decant 24 hrs open, opened with Lot 27.
I would say dark & red fruit w incredibly drying tannins. I usually perceive it as less astringent than 27, but itâs just like all the moisture in my mouth evaporates, which makes it harder for me to evaluate. I think Cam notes of âmeatyâ and âleatherâ resonate with me.
Iâll do some comparisons with Lot 27 below. To me, Lot 27, which gets high praise here and is in my top tier but below (5,32,24âŚ) can be a bit astringent and closed (on the nose). 13 is less astringent (but more drying) and more open on the nose. Color wise 27 is more brick red, 13 is more red/purple.
But drinking the two together (after 24 hours) almost brings out (to my palate) what I think you all must love about 27. It tastes more layered and complex, I get that cab green pepper along with the rich red fruit and dark fruit and itâs almost lush and soft.
I agree, that 13 is not flawed or bad, but Iâm not necessarily buying more. Iâve heard wines I perceive like this described as âfood winesâ and sometimes I find âold worldâ wines to have these incredibly drying tannins. Probably, you already know if you love that.
Hope this helps. Would love to hear other peopleâs opinions of this wine in part to learn about my own palate. Even describing this wine really challenged me, but I sincerely believe itâs more open on the nose and less âastringentâ in terms of âpricklyâ tannins than 27.
PnP notes below:
13: PnP taste dark red fruit, slightly astringent, medium full âthickâ mouthfeel
27 lighter mouthfeel, red fruitâless dark than 13, less tanic, lingering finish, not showing a lot good or bad
13 slightly more acidic / 27 more chalky
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My big takeaway from doing 3-5 day followings of many of the wines we think to be Krupp (13 Meritage, 14 FM, 16 Syrah, 21 CF, and IIRC 10 and 17 CS?) are made in a style that will need a bunch of time to come together and should probably be no touchy for a few years at least.
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That sounds reasonable. I will say I quite like 21 and am semi bullish on 10 (4th of 12 blind in the cab sampler). Havenât had 16, just received 3, understand the reputation.
But, I agree, you might be onto something. Thanks for commenting.
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I totally agree, I just wonder if the proper instruction for many of these wines would be âdrink over the next six months, then wait three years and start drinking again.â
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Accounting for the closed period would be really good but I wonder if even Cam can predict that. They would still need to put in a year reference as this instruction could be many years old from when the wine was first released.
Jonah,
I wish there was an âexactâ explanation but there really isnât any. Iâve yet to see a scientific study clearly explain what happens - and that makes it somewhat frustrating but also somewhat âmagicalâ and that there is still is so much âunknownâ about about wine that makes it captivating.
As far as âwhenâ to drink wines, this is tricky as well. Historically, for instance, you KNEW not to touch certain wines for a long time because it was well understood that many would be âbackwardsâ in their youths.
Nowadays, wines are being released earlier and earlier due to economics among other things. And add on to that that wines are often being specifically crafted to drink well upon release - extra racking, the use of gum arabic, perhaps some RS to round out the wine and reduce bitterness/astringency.
Itâs rare to see folks âhold backâ wines or offer them with some bottle age - in fact, some wineries get âslammedâ for releasing what some consider âolder winesâ because they have intentionally held them. Lopez de Heredia and a few other Spanish producers come to mind.
For me as a winemaker and owner, I release my wines when they are drinking well but still have upside potential. I do not believe in releasing wines that you KNOWINGLY have to lay down for 5+ years to reach a point of enjoyment. Thatâs one of the reasons that some of my current release âmore structuredâ reds are 2015s and some of my current release âtextured whitesâ like Roussanne and Marsanne are 2016s.
Sorry I couldnât give more precise answers but hopefully this helps?
Cheers
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What if Cam or another winemaker said âdonât touch for 5 yearsâ - would that be a âpositiveâ for many or would you not be happy because you want to consume them sooner?
Many winemakers put VERY large drinking windows on their wines for this reason - drink from 2026 - 2046. Is this helpful?
And just note that these are all âeducated guessesâ anyways - there is no ABSOLUTE way to predict how long a wine will age. AND note that many may not appreciate truly aged wines that get tertiary.
Cheers
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90% of wine purchased in the US is opened within 1-2 weeks
in a supermarket I feel like this would be brand suicide.
Iâve always supported the idea of wineries cellar aging before releasing, although storage can be an issue. I would have greatly preferred the CamX chard I opened a week ago if it was a year older, and I think most of the other random people at Costco would have as well
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