Every year we host a harvest party in our backyard. The highlight is a grape stomp. I put out about 600 pounds of grapes in a 1/2 ton bin and let our friends go at them. Everyone has a lot of fun and we end up with a lot of juice.
A couple of years ago Stefania thought of the name "Haut Tubee" for the resulting wine. A take off on the hot tub in our backyard and a little play on one of her favorite wine La Mission Haut Brion.
This year we ended up with one full barrel of Haut Tubee. Besides the Cabernet grapes from the stomp I blended in a little of the wine from the house. Some Syrah, Grenache and a tiny bit of Mourvedre. It's all in barrel now at Chaine D'or with 1/2 barrel of Zinfandel that I just finished up today.
There's a pretty good chance I'll blend all of it together into what used to be called a Mistra Negro in California, a 'dark blend' or field blend of red grapes. Right now my plan is to give it away. We'll give some to everyone who came to the harvest party and stomped the wine, and we'll likely give some to people who order our first releases of wine as a thank you gift.
It tastes pretty good at this point, and doesn't have even smell at all like feet.
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