Another year, another medal, or two, as it were. Such is life at the humble Hueneme Wine Coop. I submitted two bottles of Hueneme Wine to the Orange County Fair Annual Winemaking Competition. Two bottles yielded us 2 medals from among the 600 entries into the competition. Our 2016 Grenache earned a silver and our bastard stepchild 2015 Sangiovese took a bronze. It's kind of funny to think that the Sangio may never have come into being if it weren't for some early trouble with our Dusi Zinfandel.
Fortunately the Zin came through its early troubles as we had hoped. This was not before we stacked our deck with Sangio from Javadi 5 ranch in Paso Robles. Interestingly, the Sangio grapes were the least expensive grapes we have ever bought. Of course, this doesn't mean they aren't good, just a bargain. Our Sangio seems to get more positive reviews from drinkers than almost anything else we've made.
Now this year, is shaping up to be the year for GSM. No, that doesn't involve a lot of leather clothing and ball gags. The vote has not yet been taken but we may be doing a barrel each of Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah. The reason this is so much fun is that each of these varietals is great both alone and blended with one or both of the others.
It should be a really exciting "garagiste festival by the beach" this year