de Négoce by Cameron Hughes
de Négoce is Cameron Hughes’s label for his latest wine negotiant company. Remember the old Cameron Hughes label? Well, that company went belly up and, with lessons learned, Cameron Hughes started de Négoce in 2020. de Négoce sources wines in tank and barrel and offers cash up front for the best price on bulk wine juice that can be negotiated.
When there is excess grape juice, vintners seek a way to sell the wine juice on the bulk market. Vintners do not want to over-produce inventory for a variety of reasons. A better option is to put the wine on the bulk wine market. The bulk market presents an opportunity for negotiants like Cameron Hughes to score a deal. A good negotiant must be savvy and have money to wrangle the best possible wine juice available.
Once Cameron Hughes fines a a deal, he ages the wine and offers the wine as “futures.” The consumer buys by the case and waits for bottling and the shipment. The wines sell at around $20 a bottle or below. He claims that the wine from the original winery sells for several times more than his price. To see the wine offerings, wine consumers can sign up at the de Négoce website for email announcements of futures, and then set up an account. There is also the “Bottle Shop” where individual wines are available.
Are the de Négoce wines good?
The Vintage Tasters set out to find out. Vintage Taster Mike Beltran purchased six de Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon wines for our latest blind wine-tasting luncheon. We enjoyed all the de Négoce wines; they are quite good. We judged the wines to be well made and characteristic of a Cabernet Sauvignon wine. The price points were in the $20 range, but tasted much like wines in the $30 to $40 category. Here are the wines we tasted and the order we ranked them.
Six de Négoce Cabernet based wines
- Lot 192 2019 Knights Valley $21 – 100% Cabernet
- Lot 175 2018 Red Mountain $19 – 79% Cab, 11% Merlot, 9% Petite Vedor, 1 % Malbec
- Lot 151 2018 Napa Reserve Meritage $20 – 47% Cab, 39% Merlot, 14% Malbec – Sold Out
- Lot 105 2018 Rocks District Walla Walla $21 – 98% Cab, 2% Cab Franc – Sold Out
- Lot 91 2018 Walla Walla $19 – 82% Cab, 5% Petite Verdot, 5% Syrah, 4% Carmanere, 2% Cab Franc, 2% Merlot
- Lot 240 Red Mountain Columbia Valley $19 – 82% Cab, 11% Merlot, 5% Petite Verdot, 2% Malbec
Notice that four of the wines are from Washington’s Columbia Valley. Some fantastic wines are coming from this emerging wine region of the U.S.
The de Négoce label goes far beyond the Cabernet Sauvignon variety. Many different wine varieties and wines from many countries are available. Check out the de Négoce website and see if this provides an opportunity for you to buy good cheap vino.
I’ve had a few of the de Négoce wines. No question that the value (QPR) is there. I have noticed that sometimes the ABV is very high. I wonder if, in those cases, Cam is getting the hot barrels after the winery blends. Just a thought.