I’m going to first say, “Thank you, God.” Dominick, my grower in California, was in a pinch last fall. “Jim, I need your help. I have some Black Muscat that another winery backed out of and it’s picked.” “Dom, I have no tank space, BTW, what is the price? Oh, okay, I’ll buy another tank and take them from you. Tasting the grapes, dang it, I wish I could make this into a sweet wine. Fermented dry, on skin fermentation for two weeks, yeah, a disaster. What am I going to do with this? David, a great friend and customer, came by today and tried it out of the tank. “That’s terrible.” Yeah, it is….on its own. But blending. Disclosure, I don’t think I had this prowess 20 years ago. Yesterday, Debbie, Angie and I played with a Chambourcin-Cab Sauv blend when all Hell was firing above us with the weather. We knew we had a winner! So today, I blended cab and cham and it was beyond delightful. Debbie and I loved it! But Debbie and I like to play…and play we did! Can we improve it with Mourvedre? Eh…nope. What about Frontenac? Ha ha…no. Hey, Grenache? Go away! Black Muscat? Wait, whoa, what?!?!!? Oh, that’s a freak show of deliciousness. Game on! So we blended, and “Original Capital Red” is the outcome — Chambourcin, Cabernet Sauvignon and Black Muscat. Whoosh! Debilicous!!!
The wine screams vibrant fruit up front with luscious and endless berry notes and with a shocking hint of citrus. The fruit forward varieties laying the foundation are the cab and chambourcin. Then, there’s this smooth spice, courtesy of the black muscat. The wine was fine as a two grape blend of chambourcin and cabernet sauvignon, and would have been a winner for us, but the black muscat, which is terrible on it’s own, took this blend in a different direction and it was a direction we really liked.
WINE SPECS
Vintage: 2021 and 2022 | Varietal Chambourcin, Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Muscat
Vineyard Designation: Turtle Run Vineyards, Indiana Uplands AVA and DePalma Vineyards, Livermore Valley AVA
Acid 0.79 | PH 3.77| Alcohol % 13.5
Aging a combination of oak (cab and cham) and stainless steel (black muscat)
$20 per bottle