Wine Broker Cameron Hughes, a Wall Street Journal Favorite, At Costco Thursday

Wine broker Cameron Hughes sent a quick note to say he will be in town Thursday, August 5, meeting and greeting at two local Costco locations. He’s bringing some special bottles with him to sell to Costco members — wines that aren’t normally available locally.

As I wrote in an earlier post, if you’ve ever bought wine at Costco, you probably know Cameron Hughes. the budget wine label whose cut-rate bottles are often among the least expensive wines in the store. They’re sold with numbers as names–Lot 164 Rutherford Cabernet or Lot 135 Syrah, for example.

Cameron Hughes owes his company’s success to the world-wide glut of wine, which has enabled him and his company to gobble up 250, 000 gallons of wine–much of it from first-rate producers who sell the same wine under their own fancy labels for several times more–at fire-sale prices. Hughes then repackages the wine under his generic Lot system and sells it for a fraction of what the wine would cost with a different label.

Wine writer Lettie Teague wrote a few months ago in the Wall Street Journal about Cameron Hughes, both the company and the person, explaining that Hughes is a wine broker who was at the right place at the right time with a timely idea–and cash. Hughes buys excess inventory from cash-strapped winemakers “who had bigger crops than they could sell, and Hughes was there with cash to buy their wines.”

“Mr. Hughes takes the $100 California Cabernets that have gone begging for buyers and sells the very same wines under his own labels for $25 a bottle and less. He packages them in generic-looking bottles with names like Lot 164 Rutherford Cabernet and Lot 135 Syrah and sells them on his website and to retailers like Sam’s Club and Costco in 38 states.”

I’ve tasted or purchased dozens of Cameron Hughes wines; some, like the Lot 164 Rutherford Cabernet, were tremendous values. Prices are usually below $15 a bottle, which means they’re always worth a try.

Hughes will be at the West Plano Costco from 10 am till 12 pm, then move to the Southlake Costco to peddle his wines from 2 pm till 4 pm. Pick up some wild salmon while you’re there.