Juice Crew Update

Robin, our most on-the-ball Juice Crew member reports on our evolving, 'mighty brick' (AKA Juice Crew Red).

"Hello All,

I finally got down to the new CP digs a few weeks ago to taste our barrel. I asked Kian to join me since he was at the blending fest and had a good sense of what we were sorta kinda looking for. I also got to take a sample home so I could let it sit in a glass for awhile to open up.

The wine is coming along nicely. It still needs more time, but it will be nice and drinkable. I was surprised how mature the fruit tasted, with a touch of licorice or fennel. At first I thought it tasted possibly overripe, prune-ish or oxydized, but I came back to it after an hour and it's like a top layer of alcohol had blown off it and it mellowed into a really pleasant wine. Not sure what that bodes for the finished product, but it's what I observed.

I thought with so much granache it would be far lighter and brighter, but the Eaglepoint grenache is so robust. It has some nice body and I don't think it needs any extra oak more than it's getting now from the Zebra barrel. It'll pick up a little more in the next 5-6 months before bottling, and that should be plenty for this wine.

So all and all, the blend has resulted in what we wanted - a rich rhone style wine with some backbone. The different varietals playing nicely in the sandbox. Great dark color, long sexy legs and built to party.

Beau tells me he's working on wine label design (editor's note: Yeah - any fancy-schmancy designers in the hizzouse?), which is the next major project.

Meanwhile, harvest is on the horizon and I'm wondering if I'll join in any barrels again this year. Let me know if you guys know of any good groups to join. I wanted to make a super-tuscan (Sangiovese with some Cab) but don't know if I can get enough interest for a barrel. Anyone here maybe interested?

Have a good one,
Robin"

Thanks for the update Robin!  We're all excited about the prospect of our Mighty Brick evolving into a Mighty-tasty Brick.