Cameron Hughes Wine, Lot 200, 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Alcohol: 14.5%
It is important to drink the whole bottle when reviewing wine
Production: 4,000 Cases
Price: $28 Retail
Before you rush out and buy this wine you need to ask yourself a few questions: Am I a wine connoisseur or a casual drinker? Am I familiar with the Cameron Hughes story and business model. Why ask these questions? Because it’s important to understand that this wine, Lot 200 is quite unlike the rest of the wines you might find in the grocery store. This is a serious, SERIOUS wine. What does that even mean? It means it would be a complete waste of this wine to buy it, take it home pop the cork and without decanting pour yourself a glass and pair it with some steak you bought for $4 a pound at your local grocer. This is the kind of wine that you would buy several cases of, put them in a PROPER wine fridge and hold on to them for the next 10 years. And when you decide to enjoy it, you would treat it like a FINE wine. This means serve it at the correct temperature, allow adequate decanting, drinking it out of the proper stemware, preferably your Riedel. Otherwise what you are doing is the equivalent of buying a Lamborghini and then driving up to the Circle K to buy some scratch and wins.
Moreover, this wine is still in its infancy and will age gracefully for many years to come, so buying just one bottle next week will not give you the pleasure of experiencing it throughout its life cycle. This is something that is just not possible with $10 wine. In fact right now it is barely ready to drink, but if you are a connoisseur you will be able to tell what it is capable of. If you are a casual drinker it is unlikely you will appreciate this wine. Does this sound like elitism or wine snobbery? Maybe, but I’m hoping its helpful for you as the reader of this post in determining whether or not you are going to spend the money and buy several dozen bottles of Lot 200.
Now that we’ve asked ourselves a few questions, lets take a look at Lot 200.
This wine is sourced from 3 of Napa Valley’s most well known sub regions: Stag’s Leap, Rutherford and Oakville. In a recent video post on his website Cameron Hughes states that the winery he acquired this wine from does not sell a bottle of wine for under $200 a bottle and has multiple 100 point scores. So once again, we’re not dealing with the level of wine most casual consumers are used to dealing with.
On the nose hints of plum and Cassis, the palate is currently displaying significant amounts of star anise and dark chocolate as well as plummy tannins. Right now this wine is just too young, it is not ready to enjoy to its fullest, although I really did enjoy drinking the bottle, this wine is going to get significantly better over the next year, so some patience and proper storage conditions are a must.
Note: I purchased this wine with my own hard earned cash
Purchase Lot 200 HERE (Cameron Hughes Website)
Weekly Wine Journal 
I had this wine about four weeks ago. Superb bargain in top-notch Cabernet. Your notes are spot-on! This is not some amped up, over-oaked Cabernet; this wine shows depth, texture, balance, and complexity but is an infant. My notes read as the following…
2008 LOT 200 CABERNET (NAPA VALLEY) BRIGHT NOTES OF BLACK- AND REDCURRANT, CRANBERRY, VANILLAN, VERY SWEET ATTACK, SLIGHT HERBAL UNDERTONE, BLONDE TOBACCO NOTES, RICH MIDPALATE, VERY LONG FINISH, APPARENT TANNINS, VERY YOUNG BUT ALREADY COMPLEX, EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE WINE, TREMENDOUS VALUE HERE.
you mean it tastes like a napa cab? blue fruit, herbal, tobacco and vanilla from wood. Typical napa tasting notes. Anything more specific? How was the acidity, balance, integration, viscosity, alcohol content?
The alcohol content is 14.5% Right now I would say the wine is not very specific in nature, its sort of in a vague phase. The only two things that really stood out for me were the bright chewy tannins of the plum and a little bit of licorice. However, if it is anything like the other Cameron Hughes Napa Cabs that I have laid down for a few years this wine will really be rocking by next Christmas
Haven’t uncorked the Lot200 yet, but did some Lot136. Wasn’t paying attention and it went from the bottle to the glass to the mouth. The 136 hit me with a TON of tannin. We decanted the rest of the bottle and let it rest for a couple of hours. It was easily the smoothest, fullest, most mature red I have ever had. Good enough, that I decided I ought to at least look up the reviews on the 200. I won’t do a case, but at least 5 bottle are headed to my wine cellar.
I thought this wine was absolutely fabulous once I let it open up for a few hours in a decanter. My notes are: Torrents of cassis with hints of licorice and leather with stone fruit notes thrusting rythmically to an explosive finale with a tang of sea air and long finish that made me beg for more.
Ι’m gone to inform my little brother, that he should also go to see this websitе on regular basis to take updated from most recent gossip.