October 7 -
October 21, 2018 
October 7 -
October 21, 2018  |
Tuesday October 9, 2018 The vineyard has dried out after a week so we have started harvesting again. Yesterday we brought in Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah for our 2018 Terre Melange. Today we brought in more fruit for Terre Melange, Peloursin and this year we are going to add Carignan in our Rhone based wine. Tomorrow we will be bringing in fruit for our 2018 Escuro. That will be all the Tannat, Souzao and Alvarelhao and we may pick a little Aglianico which will go into the Escuro also. The new winery is going into high gear. The Glass doors and Quartz both go in next week. A new air conditioner/heating gizmo went in to the tasting area today. Sure I am buying NIO and TSLA.........tomorrow is another day Wednesday October 10, 2018 I did not buy Tesla today but I did buy NIO yesterday so NIO was OK. The Market went down so I may buy tomorrow...... Of course I have other things on my mind besides the Market? Harvest is always a Jig saw puzzle. Every year is different and I love the challenge......... We took in the Tannat, Souzao and Alvarelhao along with some Aglianico to start our blend of Escuro, looks good and ready. The skins are breaking down so we will harvest everything else in the next 10 days. We have a lot of Second crop left out so we will start making a lot of Dave's Cuvee on Friday.........fun.......fun........fun Thursday October 11, 2018 Hey, i have been harvesting all week so I am organized I will be harvesting on Saturday...........I am making things that we can taste, it is complicated, but easy for me. OK, briefly, I could go on all night, the Stock Market is still one of my top 5 passions..........I am thinking about buying again, maybe..........I am in 90% cash. I have NIO, very little and the rest in TSLA............ It is complicated but we brought in Cab Franc and Merlot and then we blended these nice grapes into a new section of very young Cabernet that was maturing so was on less sugar SO since the Merlot and Cab Franc was at 26 sugar, we could blend in some 23 sugar and make a nice blend, all to Aca Modot............. Tomorrow we will start on Second Crop. It will be part of our Dave's Cuvee. We sell this wine at about $10 a bottle or less if a member. We will go out tomorrow, I will take a look, but these great Mexican workers, walk on to every row, at least 150 in total. They will look for bunches that were left. Most were unripe and now raisins and then there are very ripe bunches that were missed..................I am guessing we could have 27% sugar or more when all those raisins swell up. SOOO There is a second section of Cab that is new, about 22% and some Petit Verdot new vines that we neglected so they have no leaves, they are in stress they could add character. Tomorrow will be fun................. Saturday October 13, 2018 It has been stressful. Yesterday I bought some TSLA and NIO but it was hard to find time with all the adventure around here. The deck is finished but staining has started ans also we have refurbished our old deck at the side of our house. There was some dry rot so a lot of siding has been replaced. They power washed the old redwood and have stated restaining. They will bring in the 10 foot high Glass Doors next Wednesday so Jose and Salvador are making room for them. They are tall and have to be laid down before installing so we need to make room inside the winery in the front where we like to keep fermenters to be pressed. That meant we had to move a lot of full barrels out in the back to make room for the new fermenters to come in in the next week. Catarino and I think we will be through harvesting by next Thursday. WOW..................I was told this morning they want to bring a very caustic lacquer in to stain the cabinets. I exploded!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! Why did they not tell us there would be caustic flying around the room. I think some of it could fall on top of the skins.......The skins rise to the top after a few minutes of pushing them down. Pushing the Caps down makes things move and keeps the skins fresh. After a few minutes the cap rises to the top and could be exposed to something in the air............OH so: We start having fruit flies in October so we sure have a lot now. I have mentioned we have a strong sprayer which can send a non toxic chemical out over our barrels. I have always thought the food grade chemical is not strong enough but we don't want something caustic in our fermenters, but does that mean fruit flies are OK? They sure are captured in our fermenters at times and there sure are spiders and other bugs that come in with the grapes BUT: So lacquer? I really don't know if that could be a problem. Kate and Bryan are suggesting to use a water based stain so we are hoping on Monday that will be an option. Right now they are staining the cabinets before the sealer goes on on Monday. They will put up plastic to seal off the Tasting Area away from the fermenters. Time will tell........... 8;:Pm......it hase beem HARD!!! so some of you know my Mother passed away on June 3, a month after my birthday at 75. Now Kate is going to have a celebration of her wedding on November 3, 6 months after my birthday, I know trivia which I usually do not like. My Mother was the most important person in my life after my Father died in 1953..............long story so back and search if you want to learn more I got up at 6:45 and came down in the office at 7:15 and someone had already came in our locked gate, obviously we gave them the code. At way before thaaaaat time someone came in to STAIN. It was strong but as I said the Lacquer could be much stronger. The workers came well before 7Am. I only saw at 7:15 they had separated the whole Tasting Area with thick plastic and made sure none of the smell of the stain would be a problem. I was impressed. I could go on do I want to see Baseball? Harvest is easy again even with two decks going here today. These great people will be here tomorrow again to finish staining The raiders play at 10 Am in London, will it be 6 pm in London. We are not picking tomorrow so I will just socialize. The puzzle is almost complete. Harvest is the hardest thing I do so this has been more of an adventure. all of sudden My Cat is a problem, he needs someone who will pay attention to him, Cory is so calm and I am not calm. He needs a new home.............. So All of a sudden, Catarino and I decided to pick some stressed out Aglianico.......Catarino cusses I have saved the section when it was Sauvignon Blanc for late Harvest........there are leach fields Most of us know when we live out in the Country we need leach fields. It is clear water processed in two places to get rid of everything, I know because the County is tough.......... The problem..............water on Aglianico, makes no sense!!...........so why did it take me so long? With the extra water in that section it would be better to bud over Aglianico vines to some Semillon, the noble grape in Sauternes...................Late Harvest 20% residual every year......Noble Grapes need a lot of water to make essence............. Sunday October 14, 2018 It is going to be hard!! We have 11............eleven 4x4 foot wide fermenters in the winery now. They take up half the winery and we have to move them around to get ready for Pressing.............. So tomorrow they want to put up caustic stuff so we are negotiating.............. We will be pressing so we will move out a few fermenters every day TO PRESS...........and bring in a few more until the end of next week We will have to figure out how to leave enough room in the front of the winery so THEY will lay out the 5x5 wide by 10 feet high glass doors............seriously that will take up a lot of room and it should not be up in the front where we can't get out to PRESS........ It wil be fine?????, I bought some TSLA so I have to get up early to trade Wednesday October 17, 2018 I sold my trade on Tesla so made a nice profit again.............Harvest is interesting as usual. We are picking everything that is left in the vineyard, we have discorded a few strange bunches which actually tasted interesting..........a lot of compressed ROT, complexity to the wine? I chose to leave it out until tomorrow...............SSSSO The next two days we are going to find everything left out in the Vineyard..........that becomes Dave's Cuvee. Then on Saturday we will bring in Petit Verdot, possibly the best............ Thursday October 18, 2018 Harvest is on schedule but way too many things have been............ Today We had 11 professionals come in and put on some of the pzazz........... The most important thing for me was to replace my projector, The lamp made a big noise and then went dark last night, right in the middle of baseball......oh my I was not haappy.......... .......... MORE important these great athletic 30/40 something guys...........running all over and putting down laminate, quartz and 5 Glass Doors and windows 10 feet high, all this was put in today and of course, I got my projector replaced, a trip to Santa Rosa in my Model S, nice time to go to Best Buy and get my projector, only 1.5 hours out of the day...I did it................ Saturday October 20, 2018 We finished all the 2nd Crop yesterday and today we harvested the last of our grapes. We brought in 2.4 tons of Petit Verdot at 25% sugar. That should make us some nice Petite Verdot wine at between 14.5 and 14.9 alcohol. Most of the wine will go into Aca Modot. We will make about 75 cases of pure Petit Verdot. |
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Dave For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com |
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