August 29 - September 4, 2010 

	Sunday August 29, 2010 Dave's second sparkling wine Pinot, Syrah & Peloursin
	Monday August 30, 2010 The North wind has been up for several days. When the North wind is up it should to very HOT weather again but it has been delayed.  Harvest is near though!! It is now forecast to be 100+ again on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday September 2, 2010 Harvest is here!! We are harvesting today. I am encouraging an experiment with our Pinot Noir. No one has been successful in growing and especially achieving a great Pinot Noir in Dry Creek Valley. I want to be the first one. The media was not interested last year. I sent e-mails to four writers from our local papers and internet. I think I got one reply with vague understanding. I digress.  I am announcing again a year later a slightly different prediction. We are the first this year to Harvest a premium Dark Pinot Noir in Dry Creek Valley and we probably are the first in The North Coast to harvest grapes for red wine production.  This is an experiment so we are harvesting a half ton and will age one barrel. Come and taste the results after we press into the barrel. I expect 27+ brix and a PH of 3.45. Yesterday morning was one of my busiest and stressful times. Besides getting ready for Harvest, we had an inspector from Sonoma County question the use for our new storage building. I have not hidden anything. Several months ago we asked for a permit for a commercial storage building along the back of our existing Guest house and storage building. After two months we were told that we could have a residence garage only. It seems that the existing building was never approved for commercial use. That is a very long story!! After long discussions the bottom line is that the County has decided to qualify our existing storage building for commercial use. Of course Sonoma County had 17 conditions and are asking for several thousand dollars......Long story.     We lost another cat to a sudden death on Dry Creek Road, a part of our family who was here everyday for over 10 years. On a brighter note I am a big fan of the TV series Breaking Bad. I am so happy that the two main actors have won an Emmy. Yesterday the high temperature was 103. The prediction is we will be hotter today. 10:30 Am: Decisions, decisions!! It is harvest time. Catarino and Salvador came in at 9:30 with 925 pounds. I was hoping there would still be another half ton to pick but Catarino informs me that it looks like only 300 pounds are left. I had been planning to produce an exclusive Wine Club blend of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Petite Sirah. Right now the Pinot is over 27 brix and the Petite Sirah is only 20% I had to make a decision to pick the rest of the Pinot and maybe blend in some Petite Sirah later. I wanted to ferment the wine together but the resultant sugar would be too low, about 22% and the PH in the Petite Sirah still at 2.90 would result in a wine way too high in acid. Now that we are picking more Pinot we may be able to press into two barrels in about 8 days. Friday September 3, 2010 I was just out in the winery doing some tests and adding the yeast to our Pinot Noir. We ended up harvesting 1433 pounds of Pinot. The sugar today after a swell up over night is 26.2%. We probably will add some water to bring the brix down to 24.5-25. That should give us enough wine to fill 2 barrels. We will evaluate and make our decision after fermentation starts, tomorrow afternoon or Sunday. We can calculate the sugar and check the alcohol to determine the potential final alcohol. We want about 14.5%. Catarino brought me in 20 pounds of Zinfandel from our ripest section. He said some of the bunches are drying out. Overall I got a reading of 22 brix, but way too much acid with a PH of 3.15. We are looking for a PH of 3.4-3.5 and a brix of 24-25. We could be harvesting by September 15 which is only a few days later than normal. It has been very hot recently. Matt has decided to harvest our Barbera, Petite Sirah blend for sparkling wine. He is looking for a PH of about 3.0-3.1 so it looks good for late next week. Also Sauv Blanc will be ready. Harvest is here!!! Dave david@coffaro.com
	Home | Read | Diary | Tell Us What You Think of Our Diary!