Cameron Hughes isn’t a winery and doesn’t have a tasting room.  Cameron is a real guy in San Francisco who buys premium already made wine, bottles and labels it, and sells it mostly through Costco and Safeway.

Yep, vintners around California have already made the wine but need to pawn off some for a variety of reasons, such as need money now, too much to sell through their distribution system, or it isn’t quite what their niche market wants.

At the 2008 Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa I was heading to my room in the hotel when two Cameron Hughes staff came toward me carrying bottles of wine.  I told them it was my wife’s birthday and I would love to bring her some wine in our room.  I scored two bottles of Sonoma County Cab.  That was the first I had heard of Cameron Hughes.  We loved the wine!!  Katya was delighted with the gift.

The past couple of years all of our wine, lots of cases, have come from our tasting room adventures.  A few weeks ago I headed to Costco and spent about $300 on various wines in the $8 – $10 range.  I came out with quite a haul and so far we like almost all of it.  Two bottles were Cameron Hughes.

Again, the Cameron Hughes wine, a Napa Merlot (Lot 112), is a favorite and the price is great. You would pay $22 or more in a tasting room.

Buying at Costco lacks the experience of a cozy tasting room and a road trip but hey, this is not to be ignored.  CH wine is a delight and the variety is an adventure.

- jim

Heller Estate is known for their Carmel Valley, Monterey County, CA organic wines. They have a nice tasting room in the Village of Carmel Valley about 11 miles up the valley from the Pacific and the famous town of Carmel.

We were testing our iPhone app and doing a little videography in the area not long ago and noticed temporary signs on Carmel Valley Road to Heller’s mountain winery, not the tasting room in the village. We decided to follow the signs and see what’s up.

They were having a wine club event and barrel tasting and Katya and I crashed it. Fortunately we were welcomed and joined the tastings. Also fortunately we were spending the night at a nearby cottage. There was a lot of wine to try and lots of lively conversation and interesting people to share it with.

The winery is located at the end of a long twisting drive off a long twisting road that branches from another long twisting road – Carmel Valley Road. It is off Cachaqua if you must know and is rarely open to the public. We got lucky. It is soooo beautiful up there!

We tasted who knows how many wines from bottles and barrels. Their rich, bold, and complex 2004 Cab really stood out and we would buy again. We tasted it at home over 2 days and it tastes great, but a bit different, each day. I was tasting chocolate which for me is a special treat in Cab.

Heller’s vineyards are near last summer’s huge wildfire in the Ventana Wilderness. During barrel sampling we tasted smoke and we are really excited about their 2008 vintage. A little smoke in the back-taste is a treasure!

- jim