Cameron Hughes Tempranillo Lot 93 2004

View Larger

Share this page:

• Facebook
• Twitter

Snoothrank:

Starting at: $21^.00

4 Reviews

Add a review

Winery:

Cameron Hughes Wine

Varietal:

Tempranillo

Region:

Spain > Rioja

Type:

Red Wine

Color:

Drink Dates:

Drink Now - 2016

UPC:

 

User Tags:  fruits, resinous, tobacco, earthy, raspberries, dried, oak, suggestive, spice, chemical 

Customers Also Bought

• Bodegas Alejandro Fernandez Ribera del Duero Pesquera Crianza 2005

  Snoothrank: 4/5 Starting at $25.99 USD
• Condado de Haza Ribera del Duero Crianza 2005

  Snoothrank: 4/5 Starting at $25.50 USD

• Vetus Toro 2005

  Snoothrank: 3.5/5 Starting at $19.99 USD
• Condado de Haza Ribera del Duero Alenza 1995

  Snoothrank: 4/5

What to Expect

The Rioja region of Spain produces one of the world's finest, and most long lived wines: Rioja. Rioja's renaissance, in the latter half of the 19th century, was a direct result of the phyloxera bug that decimated vineyards around the globe. While English merchants came to Rioja to replace their French imports, the wines here actually have much more in common with Chianti. Both wines are blend relying heavily on one grape, in this case Tempranillo. Like Chianti's Sangiovese, Tempranillo usually produces a relatively high acid wine of medium to medium-full body. Tempranillo tends to produce wines with a dusty, leathery edge to its raspberry and blackberry fruit tones. With additions of Graciano, Mazuela and Grancha, the wines of Rioja can take on additional layers of flavor and aroma, but the tradition of extended oak aging for Rioja's great wines contributes to an even more obvious imprint. While the Spaniards have traditionally been fans of the strong vanilla and coconut components that American oak barrels have contributed to Rioja, more and more producers have turned to French oak favoring its more subtle spice tones. Rioja continues to undergo extended aging in barrel with Reserva and Gran Reserva bottlings, representing a producer's highest achievement, spending a minimum of 3 of 5 years respectively in the producer's cellar.

Winemakers Notes

Notes: Holy cow – you’ve never smelled a wine like this. It’s like dessert on the nose with huge notes of toasty vanilla oak, chocolate, cigar smoke and molten licorice. The wine soars across your palate with immense complexity mingling chocolate, earth, and licorice gumdrops. It’s massively structured, intense and concentrated with big, grainy tannins perfectly melded to a mineral component, cigar smoke, toffee and earthy fruit. The finish goes on and on for 2-3 minutes with excellent focus and concentration. Magnificent. Cameron Confidential: Another gem from winemaker John. read more...I remember initially tasting the wine with COO Doug and him commenting “best Spanish wine I have ever tasted”. I have to agree. In fact, I think it is one of the best wines we have ever offered if not the best. The producer is a co-op with over 450 hectares of fruit in production and this wine is the best they have to offer. It has tremendous class and purity and has been rewarded with numerous best of show and gold medals across Europe. The wine is only made in exceptional vintages and has not been produced since the 2000 vintage. This wine has my highest recommendation.    (hide)

Editorial Reviews

Gregory-
Dal Piaz

Hand of Snooth Voice of Snooth

7,117

When I first tried this the aromatics were dominated by sweet oaky notes though there was a layered character to the wine that slowly revealed itself. Once one got past the baking spices there were notes of earth, tar, coffee and smoke perched above a bed of slightly jammy raspberry fruit. Gentle top notes of sassafras, mint, and sweet coffee eased up out of the glass. With several hours in the decanter this settled down into a more classic, integrated array of vanilla and pepper tinged raspberry fruits. As with the nose there was a fair difference from my initial impression here and the results with read more...several hours decanting. Initially this was a tough wine with an extracted feel to the copious austere tannins adding a bitter edge to the deep core of slatey, black cherry fruit. While the tannins did not have adequate time to resolve in the decanter, the wine fleshed out wonderfully with slightly medicinal black cherry fruit joined by notes of tobacco, vanilla and a wonderful hint of bitter almond on the long finish. Absolutely engaging and a pleasure to drink if you prefer an old world style this is an unusually powerful Rioja Crianza that has the potential to age well for a decade easily yet offers compelling drinking today. Very well balanced, classically structured wine. 92pts    (hide)

November 2008

1

Was this helpful?

Helpful reviews are featured higher on the page.

Explore