4 Joes in the news!  Camarillo Custom Crush  and the 4Joes are featured in this Ventura County Star article!

http://venturacountystar.com/news/2007/dec/21/custom-crush/

The 4 Joes is a winemaking co-op. Born of a late-night tasting session where we were comparing wines made from the same grapes, same vineyard. Someone said, “If we had made this together, we would have had enough wine to fill a ‘real’ 60-gallon barrel.” Six weeks later, we bought a barrel (cheap) and the education began.

We were all good winemakers, but not satisfied with grapes available to “small batch” home winemakers. When you show up with an order for a half-ton of grapes, you get some respect – when you drop-off a half-ton bin to be filled along side ‘real’ wineries, you get noticed.

Our name came from another late-night tasting session. With four winemakers, two named Joe, it seemed a simple case of ‘majority rules.’ It also seems to say quite succinctly who, and what, we are trying to be with our wines.

Education, experience and evolution continue to drive us. From that first, overly pampered, barrel in 1997, we have reached as many as 12 barrels in a single season (not counting the rosés). Why so many? Not only do we seek to improve our craft, we also chase the Holy Grail of winemaking – great grapes. We have, individually and collectively, sourced grapes from the fabled Pinot noir vineyards of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the hallowed soils of Napa Cabernets and on south with stops in Amador, Lodi, Paso, Santa Barbara, the old vineyards of the Cucamonga Valley and even into Baja California for old vine Grenache from the Guadelupe Valley. Our wines have won many medals in amateur competitions. As fun a hobby as this is, we are all ready to step-up to that next rung of our winemaking ‘ladder climb’.

4 Joes Winery is in operation at John Daumé’s Camarillo Custom Micro-crush. Our first few tons of Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache are now released. And as is part of our recipe (see winemaking style), the first few cases of Rhône Rosé are also available. So here we are:

4 Joes wines for sale:

2006 Grenache Rosé

2005 Syrah

2005 Mourvèdre

2005 Grenache

(see the labels )

Thanks, & enjoy!