Two meals, one fantastic wine

You have to love the prepared meals from H.E.B. Central Market.  We picked up two of them on our way out of San Antonio.  When we finally got home we were faced with a unique dilemma of picking which one to eat and then what wine to enjoy with it.  We decided on the Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese with blue cheese for Saturday night and the Beef Bourguignon for Sunday.  It was really tough picking a wine for Saturday.  A white wine would have gone great with the just the buffalo chicken, but the heavy blue cheese macaroni complicated matters.  Pris did some research and came up with several options that would work well.

Pris ended up selecting a Cameron Hughes 2008 Pinot Noir, specifically Lot 165 from Los Carneros/Napa Valley.  This ended up being a spectacular choice and Lot 165 is an amazing wine, or rather was.  Unfortunately its now sold out and gone forever, but more on that later.  Lot 165 is a luxurious Pinot that has great structure.  The soft tannins in this wine create a smooth, lingering, and lightly fruity finish. 

This wine was a great accompaniment to the mac and cheese dish.  The lightness of the Pinot cooled the heat from the buffalo sauce, but the structure and fullness complemented the blue cheese.  As it turns out, the wine most listed to go with Beef Bourguignon just happened to be Pinot Noir as well.  Needless to say the wine infused beef paired flawlessly with the remainder of the Lot 165.  Of course that should be expected from a wine that won Gold and Best of Class with 94 points at the California State Fair Wine Competition, and Silver at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition and San Francisco Wine Competition.

My uncle, who is a true wine aficionado, first recommended Cameron Hughes to Pris and I just before we moved to Brownsville.  Cameron Hughes isn't a vineyard, but rather they are a wine negociant.  What they do is purchase left over wines  or blending mixes from well known, top vineyards and either produce their own blend or bottle the overstock under their own label.  The actual vineyard is not known, only the region and the date of the wine.  The confidentiality allows the vineyard to continue marketing their higher priced wine, while Cameron Hughes offers huge deals on the overstock under a different label. Doing this allows the company to keep the prices low (much like Priceline) for us the buyer.  The prices are low, and the lot sizes are usually fairly small, so they can run out easily.  For example, the incredibly good Lot 165 is now sold out and gone forever. 

Pris and I ordered a number of these wines sometime back, and we have not had a bad one yet.  We especially enjoy knowing that we are drinking a very high quality wine that costs a fraction of what we would pay for it under the vineyard's label. And you can really taste the quality.  We ordered a lot of wine which included a bit of sticker shock.  There was no buyer's remorse, but we do regret not ordering more of the Lot 165.  

Sometimes Sam's carries Cameron Hughes, but I haven't seen it here.  Pretty much the only place to get it is online at http://www.chwine.com.  If you like wine, its worth a visit to their site.  Shipping is quick and inexpensive, and they even recommend not shipping during the summer to avoid the heat.  So check it out, and stock up for the summer!