Cristina Salas-Porras, Mary Ellis LaGarde, and Lee Hudson

Spec’s and Philippe Restaurant  teamed up to host a Napa Valley doubleheader for Houston wine lovers last night.

Hudson Vineyards

Lee Hudson and his beautiful wife, Cristina Salas-Porras, poured their 2010 Hudson Vineyards Chardonnay and 2010 Hudson “Pick Up Sticks” for the enthusiastic crowd at Philippe Restaurant.  Both wines are remarkable and highly praised by wine critics.  My first impression of Lee Hudson was that of a happy man who loves the life he is living and is passionate about his 2000-acre Hudson Valley Ranch and Vineyards located in the Carneros region of the Napa Valley.   He introduced himself as “just a farmer.”  I later learned that Hudson is a native of Houston and is anything but “just a farmer.”   Hudson’s youth was one of privilege.  His mother, Cecil Blaffer “Titi” von Fürstenberg, was a patron of the arts and a member of a family that combined two great Texas oil fortunes.  Titi was the daughter of Robert Lee Blaffer, a founder of the Humble Oil & Refining Co., now Exxon Mobil. Blaffer’s wife, the former Sarah Campbell, was the daughter of William Thomas Campbell, a founder of the Texas Company, later known as Texaco.

Lee Hudson and Lenoir Josey

Hudson had all the advantages necessary to ensure failure later in life.  A lesser man might  have been spoiled by the wealth and celebrity of his family.  To the contrary, Lee Hudson has worked hard to achieve perfection in everything he does.  He strives to grow the perfect grapes, produce the perfect free range eggs, grow the perfect vegetables, and produce the perfect olive oil.  He has been described by food and wine writers as a renaissance man.  But if you ask Lee Hudson, he’ll proudly tell you he’s just a farmer.

Seavey Vineyards

Arthur Seavey

Arthur Seavey, general manager of Seavey Vineyards, poured his family’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 Merlot, and 2009 “Caravina” Cabernet Sauvignon.  Seavey Vineyards was founded in 1881 by the Franco-Swiss Farming Company and was purchased by Arhtur’s parents William and Mary Seavey in 1979.  Robert Parker described the 2009 Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon as a wine that “explodes from the glass with deep, resonant fruit. Incense, smoke, tobacco and melted road tar flow effortlessly from this big, full-bodied wine. There is no shortage of fruit or tannin in this large-scaled, firm Cabernet Sauvignon.” Seavey’s wine lived up to Parker’s description last night.  Located in Napa Valley’s St. Helena, Seavey has been described by the Robb Report as “one of the great hidden values among the region’s Cabernets.”

Dr. Antonio Moretti

If you look closely over the left shoulder of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, you’ll spot the Buriano Bridge, the seventh bridge on the road out of Florence. The bridge inspired the name of a well-known Italian vineyard, “Tenuta Sette Ponti“.  The owner of the vineyard, Dr. Antonio Moretti, was in Houston last night to share his wines with a large group of wine lovers at Spec’s.

Dr. Moretti began the evening by discussing his new properties in Sicily and the wines he is producing under the Feudo Maccari label.  One of them, the Grillo is a full-bodied white wine with lots of fruit and a creamy texture.  It is made from Grillo grapes  grown on vines that are Alberello trained (bush trained).  Spec’s Italian specialist, Joseph Kemble, and Spec’s Fine Wine Buyer, Nate Rose, both declared that Dr. Moretti’s Grillo is the best they’ve ever tasted. 

Dr. Moretti’s best known wines come from his vineyards in Tuscany.  He spoke with passion about his Crognolo Toscana, a very fine Tuscan Sangiovese wine that garnered a 90 points rating from Wine Spectator.  His Poggio al Lupo Maremma is a Cabernet Sauvignon, Alicante, and Petit Verdot blend which also received a 90 points rating.

Orena Toscana from Tenuta Sette Ponti

The highlight of the evening was Dr. Moretti’s 2006 “Oreno Toscana”, a wine that received a 96 point rating from Wine Spectator which also ranked this wine as # 15 in its Top 100 wines list.  When the gathered crowd heard that Spec’s had a very limited supply of the Oreno, a mad dash ensued.  Doctors, lawyers, engineers, and assorted wine lovers rushed to the exit and raced downstairs to grab the remaining cases of Oreno.

Dr. Moretti ended the evening by autographing bottles of his wine and chatting happily with Spec’s customers in broken English.

If Mona Lisa has a reason to smile today, it’s because of the incredible Italian wines produced by this proud and celebrated ambassador of the Italian wine industry.

Richard LaGarde, Kyle MacLachlan, and Mary Ellis LaGarde

Some people would be content to win a Golden Globe award and to star in Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, The Doors, Sex in the City, and Desperate Housewives.  Not Kyle MacLachlan.  He has a goal that goes beyond being a great actor.  He wants to produce the perfect Cabernet Sauvignon and he wants to do it outside of the Napa Valley.  Now that’s a lofty goal.

MacLachlan was in Houston today as a guest of Nate Rose, Fine Wine Buyer at Spec’s.  He shared his latest release, the 2008 “Pursued by Bear” Cabernet blend with a select group of wine lovers at The Reef restaurant this afternoon.

MacLachlan, was born and raised in Yakima, Washington.  His search for a partner in his wine venture led him to Eric Dunham, vintner at Dunham Cellars in Washington’s Columbia Valley.  The name “Pursued by Bear” refers to a stage direction  (“Exit, pursued by a bear…”) in Shakespeare‘s The Winter’s Tale. 

Mary Ellis LaGarde from HoustonWine.com, Jon Davis from Hear Hear wine distribution, and Nate Rose from Spec’s

MacLachlan and Dunham’s first vintage in 2005 received a rating of 91 points from Wine Spectator.  Their latest release, the 2008 vintage, is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 8% Syrah.  It is silky with a vanilla/butterscotch note.  It has moderate tannins with light oak and a hint of walnut.

MacLachlan’s collaboration with Eric Dunham has resulted in a solid performance that brings him one step closer to being an award winner in yet another form of art.

Cameron Hughes at the Tasting Room in City Centre

[Mary and I attended a Cameron Hughes wine dinner this week.  The dinner was sponsored by The Tasting Room in City Centre.  We enjoyed meeting Hughes and are fascinated by his story of success born of necessity.  We hope you’ll enjoy his life story as well.]

A négociant is the French term for a wine merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and wine makers and sells the wine under his own label. Some of the best known négociants in France include Bouchard Père et Fils, Louis Jadot, Joseph Drouhin and Georges Duboeuf.  A young California wine merchant has now adopted the ancient business model of European négociants and has applied that model to the U.S. wine market. 

Cameron Hughes became an American négociant by necessity, not by choice.  He began his career as a low-level employee at Corbett Canyon in California.  He quickly realized that he was more interested in wine sales than in wine producing. He left to work for a French wine importer where he was introduced to the ancient tradition of wine négociants.   

When his employer went out of business, Hughes decided to try his hand at wine sales.  He bought 500 cases of Napa Valley cabernet, found someone to bottle it under his own label, and began selling the wine out of the back of his Volvo station wagon.  Hughes soon learned that the biggest enemy of wine merchants is inventory carrying costs.  Bankruptcy loomed on his horizon.  Then, in 2004, his fortunes turned. Hughes learned, by necessity, that he could sell his wine even before he purchased the juice.  

Hughes found a Syrah from the Lodi region of California that he could buy and sell for approximately one-third the price being charged by other wineries.  Instead of buying the wine, he took samples to Costco and offered them the exclusive opportunity to sell the wine for a retail price of $8.99 per bottle.  The Costco buyer said “I’ll take everything you have.”  By arranging to sell the wine before he bought it, Hughes defeated the financial monster known as inventory carrying costs.

Hughes agreed not to disclose the name of the source vineyard for his Syrah so he labeled his wine “Cameron Hughes Lot 1”.  Hughes became a self-described “carnival barker” at San Francisco-area Costco stores.  He urged customers to try his Lot 1 and they did.  What began as a risky experiment soon became a wildly successful business model. 

Hughes grew his business from a few Lots in 2004 to approximately 80 to 100 Lots in the past year.  He doesn’t own a vineyard.  He doesn’t own a winery.  Instead, he travels the world looking for opportunities to buy good wine at bargain prices.  He buys wine that other wineries sell for $85 per bottle and sells it himself for $15.  His goal is to bring quality wine to the market at affordable prices.

His nimble business model allows him to take advantage of worldwide climate and currency fluctuations.  “When I saw the 2011 weather patterns in California, I bought up all the 2009 and 2010 juice I could find.”  Now that the U.S. dollar is stronger against the Euro, Hughes is being offered opportunities to purchase French, Spanish, and Italian wines that did not make sense for his business model a few years ago.  “I’m spending a lot of time these days in the Rhone Valley.”   

When asked which wine is his favorite, he provides the politically correct response:  “They’re all my children.”  When pressed, he admits that Lot 285, a Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the Rutherford area in the Napa Valley is one of his favorites.  His wife and business partner, Jessica Kogen, has a favorite as well.  “She really likes Lot 319, the  2011 Moscato D’ Asti from Italy.”  When asked which of his wines do best in Texas, Hughes says, without hesitation, that “Texans like big, rich, full-bodied reds.  My Napa cabs and California zinfandels sell well here.”

Cameron Hughes wines are now sold in over 40 Houston-area wine stores.  If you have a favorite Lot number, you can find the wine by using the Cameron Hughes Wine Locator.

Chef in the Vineyard

John Sarich is the Culinary Director for Chateau St. Michelle.  He has written five books about wine and food.  His most recent book is our favorite.  In “Chef in the Vineyard”, Mr. Sarich  guides his readers through ten of his favorite wine estates. His book dedicates a section to each winery starting with Woodinville, Washington’s historic Chateau Ste. Michelle wine estates, and then journeying to the vineyards of Columbia Crest, Snoqualmie, Col Solare and Northstar. Moving south through Oregon, he visits Erath Winery, and then to California’s Stags Leap, Conn Creek, and Antica Valley Wine Estates. Each winery is featured in a dedicated section, pictorially and with text, presenting the winery’s history and unique qualities. If you are a fan of wines and food from the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, this is the book for you.  We’ve enjoyed enjoyed experimenting with new wines and menus suggested by Chef Sarich.  Friday nights have become our seafood and white wine night thanks to Chef Sarish.  We hope you’ll enjoy this book as much as we have.