March 13 - March 19, 2011

	Friday March 18, 2011    It has been raining for days and it is scheduled to rain all next week. Some of the Pinot is already budding out so as soon as the sun comes out for a few days all the vines will start growing. We are right on time as history shows. Koovy is now not eating and barely getting around so we have scheduled a visit to the Vet and will probably put him down. It has been a hard decision but he does not look happy. I will not report on Koovy again unless we decide to keep trying to see if he improves. 8:30 Pm I said I would not mention Koovy again tonight but I have to say the Vet said he was ready to go so he is gone. It has been real hard on me because I had to take him in. I am suffering tonight mostly because Koovy has been around as a Family member for 12 years, 1999 to 2011. We will miss him. Saturday March 19, 2011 It has now been a week since Barrel tasting. I have gathered the totals for the wines we served. What surprised me was that the 2010 Carignan was by far the best seller. Maybe it was more drinkable than the other wines, maybe we had too many Zinfandels to offer, 8 this year compared to 2 last year. If I total up all the Zinfandels, they sold more than 2.5 times more than Carignan. Of the Zinfandels, Neighbors' Zin (Burnett Zinfandel with some Mounts Petite Sirah) sold the most followed by Two Vineyards Zin (Mounts Zinfandel with some Coffaro Petite Sirah). Russian River, Chalk Hill and Block 6 sold well also. Our 2010 RaiZin Zin was close behind. Block 4, Aca Modot and Estate Cuvee sold about the same amount. Our 2010 My Zin sold more than our Estate Zinfandel which was also a surprise, while Petit Verdot and Lagrein sold as much as our Zinfandel even though they were only served for one weekend. In all our sales were down from last year but up from the two years before. Thank you. I am working on the wines to be sold for our 2011 Pre-Harvest Futures and I am excited to announce that we will be offering all Estate Wines again including for the first time in years a Cabernet Franc (73 Cases). Also for the first time we will offer an Aglianico (73 cases). The other small lots to be offered are Block 6 (123 Cases), Lagrein (123 Cases), Petit Verdot (73 Cases) and Pinot Noir (97 cases). I am also excited to announce we will produce an Estate RaiZin (97 Cases). We will use some of our new Zinfandel planting from Block 6 along with some Petit Sirah. I hope to produce this wine form over 50% raisins and rehydrate to produce a dry wine of about 15% alcohol. As some of you know I am very impressed with the distinct complexity of our 2010 RaiZin. The new 2011 Pre-Harvest offering will be announced on March 26, 7 days from now. I suspect some of these wines will sell out before Harvest so don't delay. In all we will offer 21 wines including a Sauv Blanc, Barbera and of course Zp2C, all Estate Wines.
	Dave david@coffaro.com
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