August 30 - September 19, 2020

	Sunday August 30, 2020 8+ Too much politics so that is one of my big problems in life. I have to be more into the Harvest........... Yes we will do sugar samples in many areas tomorrow. Some! have said we are concerned about Heat taint in our wines??? Last year we had ash all over our grapes and we made great wine SOOOSSSS OO I think this thing about Heat taint is way over the top.................. .my opinion Like I has said i suspect we will ALL be exposed to the Virus, just like we were exposed to the flue?? I am not saying this is as bad as the flu but just think all these crazy people out there who think any shots, including that flu should not be taken.......Seriously.,,, it is obvious.......we will all be exposed and some will not take the cure................. Last year we had a big fire over our hill in the other directions, but more of a problem than this year and we had ash all over and my wine was fine............. Darn TSLA is spitting 5 for one so what will happen tomorrow at 6:30 am my time. I will be up and preparing for Harvest Monday August 31, 2020 It is a good position to be in and A hard decision.......should I sell more of TSLA. Tesla stock is up way more than I suspected and a lot of traders still do not like the stock. I don't know why they think Tesla will fail but maybe they are into OIL? I have made way more money in Tesla than I ever expected, realized gain is now up to $200,000 just this year BUT I have long term gains I could cash in on for $775,000. I have plenty of cash so why would I sell. It is tempting............ We did sugar tests today and we decided to try 2 tons of Block 4 tomorrow. It looks like it is ready but I am confused because Block One is usually ready the same time and it came in at 23 and did swell up to 24.5 sugar, which would still give us over 14% alcohol.........It will be fun. I purchased many bottles of high end Cabs and have tried a blind taste for 3 nights and the one which cost $139 is slightly the best.......slightly. Our 2018 Cab shows real well compared to all the wines and it was just bottled. Pat tells me we have over sold the 2018 so I am grabbing several cases in hope that some of my customers do not pick up on time like before. Most will be happy with the 2019,........ We still do not have back up for the winery, but we may be close. Tuesday September, 01 2020 What is new!!!!!!! It has been an interesting day.................... We were planing to to harvest our first section in Block 4. It was cool here so we decided to delay until tomorrow. It is complicated I have said before we like to add the ML culture before we start fermentation. These so called chemists out there say we should add the ML culture after fermentation. I do not agree. The problem we have had this year is most of the grapes recently have come in to be destemed have been too cold. I know most wineries want their grapes cold. I have know I dear why. Obviously they may know more than I?? I just know what has worked for us for over 10 years,,,,,...........we add the culture when the gapes come in at 65 to 70 degrees............. So to day was cool until 10 this morning so not 65 to 70 degrees SSO tomorrow we will start later for Block 4 and make sure the temp is OK....... In stead of selling TSLA I gave everyone a raise to day................ Wednesday September, 02 2020 7.5 It has been another complicated day in the vineyard. It was so foggy today and so I delayed our harvest. Like I have said before fog and cool mornings are good for our fruit. Wine country thrives on low temps in the night to rest the grapes and then keep the acids in check........or we could be in the Central Valley and have temps in the night at 60+ or more........cool nights are why the Wine Country has the greatest grapes in the Country............Now look at Down Under So I have tasted many great wines from Down Under. I mean Chile, Australia and South Africa, where there are low temperatures at night............. So it was so cold this morning we started at 9 am and picked 2.7 tons  from our best seller section.........Block 4 and the sugar was great at 24.5.  I am sure it will swell up to over 26 so we may have to add water to make sure we can finally keep our alcohols around 15 instead of 16............ Thursday September, 03 2020 I just want to give an update with my cat Catalina gave me 6 years ago. At first he was so be alive an active because he was young and then his sister disappeared and he has been annoying until recently. Pat decided to start feeding him. O other people call him Cory..........so not just a cat So now in the last few months he likes Pat because she is feeding him? That means he does not follow me all over in the evening. I know he wants more Fancy Feast! But now he just sleeps all day until he thinks Pat will give him Fancy Feast.........Oh well he is not bothering me like before......I have other problems to deal with...........  So TSLA is now down to where I think I can buy again I am thinking about purchasing grapes from someone else. It has been many years, since..........This guy in Alexander Valley has 6 tons of Cab and we need it to make a Cab with his vineyard designated. I want to use all our Cab for out Estate Wines........... He is not helping!! He wants me to pick and organize the haul to our vineyard. I told him today he has to step up>>>>>>>>He has hills I have been told so it will be a lot of work for my pickers Friday September 4, 2020 7.5 I did a trade on TSLA today and made about $500 so I did buy some high end wines so I need to make another day trade? They cost me more than that.......... OK, the Harvest!!!!!!!! As you know they are predicting well over 110 degrees here in the next few days so we are irrigating and suspect there will be many varieties ready next week............ I am giving everyone off for the next few days during this heat........On Tuesday we will pick some Zin from young vines and will be blended into our Block 6 Zin. Also on Tuesday we will do more sugar tests, but like I said I suspect we will be harvesting for many days to come after early next week........Harvest is fun........ Sunday September 6, 2020 Susie and Kate are here so we went out and checked the younger Zinfandel and the sugar was 24.8 so it will probably swell up to 26. Tomorrow we will harvest that section and we will do some more sugar tests. By looking at past harvests, I suspect Sagrantino, Merlot and Lagrein will be harvested by the end of the week. There could be other varieties that will be ready. We will be pressing Bock 4 for the next few days.....it will be fun Monday September 7, 2020 Yesterday's high was officially 117 which was where there is a thermometer in an official weather box. Today at 1:30pm it is already 116. We hope it will be cooler tomorrow. We started harvesting some of our younger Zin today and got about 24+ sugar overall. The total was over 3 tons and we finished by 11Am. The quality looks great. This fruit will go into our Block 6 Zinfandel. Tomorrow we will harvest our Sagrantino and a little Lagrein and that fruit will go into our Italiano blend. After that we have many varieties ready including Merlot and Malbec. Also some of our Cab is ready along with all the Lagrein. 7+ Susie and Kate have been here since Saturday and been a great help. Kate went out at 7 this morning when the sun came out and helped me do sugar samples. That is why I know we will be busy harvesting in the next several days. Susie is a big help with our website and is always friendly. I am so lucky to have two daughters who are more intelligent than I. And are great. I am still hoping we can get a new cab from a local grower who has no offerings. Pat said I am being too nice to him but we need cab this year since we need the rest of our Estate cab for our wines. OK, you know what I mean, I am trying to take more fiber in during these stressful times........... Tonight I will go up and escape and look at tennis until tomorrow when I have to also deal with the Market and TSLA...........fun Tuesday September 8, 2020 8 This was the most stressful day of the Harvest, not because of the harvest necessarily. We have two family concerns, not with me and it does not look like a concern anymore, but it does cause stress, but as you know I like stress, it keeps me a live and thinking. The first thing to day was seeing TSLA was down so by the end of extended trading I purchased back some of my short term trades that were at big profits. I bought 125 more shares today and hope it will go back up soon. Then we had all our Sagrantino come today at 28+ sugar and then we picked one ton of Lagrein at 26 which was good.......so what do we do tomorrow after having a temperature here yesterday of 117........??? I know sugars will go up from here........ We also did a check of Grenache and was surprised so our great harvesters went out again and picked a ton of Grenache at 26+ sugar So we will pick all the Grenache tomorrow................ We have so many other sections and varieties ready and we think we can harvest the most important fruit by Saturday.. OK then I was presented with a beery sample of the new cab we are buying and it was over 27 sugar And then we have our cab at 27 and Malbec and Merlot ready.....Saturday, Please, give me a break for Sunday.......NFL......yes we had thought about harvesting on Sunday........sure glad, that will not happen......long story We will harvest the new cab we are buying on Monday and some on Tuesday, then there will be more fruit ready here...............it is stressful, but fun Wednesday September 9, 2020 7.pm First as usual I was down checking Tesla at 6am. It was up a little so I sold 25 of my shares bought yesterday and it went up even more later so I sold another 50.......so I still have 50 left and......see what happens in the next few days. I still have my core long term holding of 1750 shares. As you can imagine I have done well........ Then after 7 Am here we were all confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sun did not come out........and it never came out here.........Sure there was fog in the morning, I guess since it was very cold. We were at 55 degrees for hours, only until the afternoon did we get up to 65. My obviously.........blind Apple watch said we got to 83............It was so dark today, it seemed like winter was here............. Our great harvesters, (what would Trump say, they are Mexicans)....still went out in very little light and started picking. Since it was cool all day we ended up harvesting 5.5 tons, a record for this year. As you may know, we have had a lot of fires near us this year and now there is a new one up North of us and we can't figure out why we can not see the sun anymore. We were making jokes about maybe this will the end of the Earth......especially if Trump gets elected??? Break, time for a beer....Stone Buenaveza, not bad...Pliny is better, but if you like hops like I do at this time in the evening, both are just fine.......... 8+.........pm..........OK I tried the Buenaveza and it is lime based so not my liking at this time of day. I have Tequila with lime but earlier before dinner........so I am back to a great beer, Stone IPA............... OK, back to the Future and of course the past today We harvested all the Grenache left and then all the rest of the Block 6 young Zinfandel. The Grenache came in at 26.5 sugar and the Zin was over 25 so it looks like we will be adding a little water before fermentation to lower the alcohols back near 15%.......remember a lot of our wines for years have been close to 16%. We are trying and it is an adventure everyday. Like I said I am purchasing some great looking Cabernet from Alexander valley. It is clone 341. We have both great clones that many of us are growing. We also have Clone 337. Both these vines were planted in 2003 so we started making wine in 2006. At first I thought clone 337 was better but only the last few years have I preferred clone 341 here. Now that we are trying some new cab and it is Clone 341.......it will be fun........ So today we did bring in a ton of our 341 Cabernet and it was more surprised than we though. We suspected it would be high in sugar but did not know the small berries were turning to raisins. Clone 337 is still out there but we know it is lower sugar and we will harvest it on Saturday. Clone Cab today came in at 28.2 sugar,,,,........,.intense stuff. It wil go into Aca Modot with the Malbec and Merlot we are piking on Friday......tomorrow is Lagrein!! The high today was only 65 degrees, because of smoke up high, what is amazing, on Monday two days ago, we had a high of 117 and my official gauge was 118. Even Colorado does not have extremes. They have snow now........Global Warming!!........not climate change.............  Thursday September 10, 2020 7.pm+, geee now 8 Even i heard Brad said he saw Orange way down in Pasadena. Today here we saw no Orange but little sun also.......... We are still harvesting.............all these scared people are concerned about smoke taint. I think it is over rated. They have stopped harvesting and the back log for testing is off several weeks, but I am making wine and we will see, maybe we will have more toasty oak flavor in our wines and if so when we rack in December we can use less new oak.......I am not concerned........ We harvested ALL the rest of our young Zin which will go into Block 6. Everything is perfect, good acid and sugar. We will press Block One and some Block 4 tomorrow.........no smoke taint so far. We also harvested the rest of our Lagrein and some more Cab. We think we may take ff on Saturday. We need to pick some more cab that is ready and all the Malbec and most of the Merlot. All that should go into Aca Modot.........SO Now that we are making a grower Cab this year, we do not have to save any of our Estate cab and it can be blended into three wines that have Cab in them. The First which was my First award winner is Estate Cuvee. We need a third of the blend to be Cab and then there is My Zin which is the other wine we have made for years and it needs 15 percent Cab............. OK the other wine we make is Aca Modot and I wanted a lot of Cab in that wine,,,,,,,........but  we have not had enough cab lately aSSSO I want to add as much Cab to Aca Modot as possible. They will all be Estate Bottled but we will have the Cab from my neighbor and it will be 100%, Bought, Produced and Bottled.......... TSLA............it will be another day Friday September 11, 2020 7.pm+ I had another nightmare. O I never have good dreams like having........... So this one was not good. I knew I had to get up at 6:30am and  noticed when I finally got up, it was 6:32 Am. I have an internal clock so I suspected I was a little late. I had already did all my TSLA trades so I was good. The dream which has happened many times concerns my loss of my Model S. This time i was in a horrible motel and went out and could not find my Model S...................... Back to reality? We harvested most of the Merlot and cab today and the Malbec. Most of all that will go into Aca Modot. Tomorrow we are trying a ton of Petite Sirah. Some of it is turning to raisins but most is not so we will pick in two sections. There were some raisins on the cab yesterday but really nice fruit Do we need more harvesting next week.........No, we think after tomorrow we will wait for heat. It finally got up to 80 today and we need 90's so we are good. On Monday we will take in our New Cabernet we have purchased. We are only taking half the crop from the top,,,,,,,,,..........yes he has terraces which are a big problem......the fruit on the top gets ripe earlier and the fruit on the bottom takes longer....because the water drains down to the bottom. I love what we have here, mostly flat for 80% of the property until the bottom which is easily managed. As I have heard, many consumers and Winemakers are concerned about heat and fire contamination. I can assure we will taste the wines we are making and I would not release a wine if I think it is not good.......but of course to my tastes, GGGGrin Gee now 7:50, I need to start tennis............................... Sunday September 13, 2020  8:50 The best thing today was The Raiders Won. The last thing today Judy showed up at 7PM when I was doing my pizza........... I know I have an obligation to take all of this new Cabernet, but I am too old to wait for someone to come here at 7pm to pick up empty bins to fill tomorrow. Judy is fun and I had a lot of fun loading 5 bins with some wine in me including Tequila      she has a crew of 25 ladies tomorrow who will harvest 2 tons of this new Cab. I like an escape.................I had a taste of white wine. Later I had a taste of our Block 6 2019, nice and now I am tasting some beer.........soon I will be up to see the Mens tennis final. I will be up early for many reasons, Our Estate Harvest  Sangiovese and some more PS and then Cab from a new grower, but of course, the Market is another matter. I need more beer to settle down and get some sleep.........all my sleep lately includes bad dreams. I don't need much sleep so now 6 is plenty.......... Tomorrow Is Another Day........................... Tuesday September 15, 2020 Yesterday was another complicated day so I did not deal with TSLA,.............. Otherwise we did receive the new Cab from my Neighbor and the sugar was fine at 26 but he still has crop that is lower. He has a hill site, as I said I do not like hillside vineyards because it is complicated to find out when the crop is ready on the top which is drained better and the crop at the bottom which is sitting in water. Gravity is wonderful at times but this vineyard is not easy to figure out. Of course if I was in control I would say cut off the water at times on the bottom. He has rich soils, but not like our vineyard here which has so much rock, and well drained AND mostly flat.......By turning off water early in the season, like in July, he could get all his fruit ready at the same time. So we did receive the new cab from my neighbor. It was one third of his crop, it was 2 tons at 26 sugar so we will have fun to check it out and if it is good we will do a new Cab with his vineyard designation............We will wait on the other 4 tons. We also harvested our Sangiovese and some Barbera which wil go into Italiano. And we took in a ton of Petite Sirah. We have many other varieties close to ready but the weather has cooled down with fog this morning so we will wait for some higher temperatures before we pick. Our second crop which goes into Dave's Cuvee is ready so we are harvesting right now. It is mostly from Old Vine Zinfandel which was not ready 3 weeks ago. 8......... So today was just 2nd crop and we did 2 tons at 27+ sugar so with all the raisins we will have to add water to make sure it does not produce 16% alcohol.......yes the raisins will swell up to close to 30 sugar, my guess. Tomorrow we will harvest the rest of the 2nd crop and then I have to figure out the jigsaw puzzle: what will we harvest and do we do more sugar tests to find out more SSoooo Here is what I know now: This diary makes me think........... We still have Petite Verdot, still one of my favorite wines and most of it goes into Aca Modot, because we do not have a big demand for it. So maybe I save most of it for a Wine Club.....so it was tested and I do not believe yet 26 sugar which we want SO we will wait because I can't believe the results yet.....so we will do another sugar test on Friday. Then we have Carignan and it was 25 sugar so it can wait........it has cooled down here...... Then there is Syrah which goes into Terre Melange and it was 23, and Peloursin which also goes into Terre Melange was at 26.9, but there is very little, half a ton at the most.......remember we need a ton to ferment. And then there is Mourvedre but only part is ready... less than a ton Now Cab Franc?? We have two sections and both were close to 26 which we want. We also have some new Merlot and all of this will go into Aca Modot.....that will be the next one, but now low temperatures are coming in the next few days........so in the past at this time in September, sugars can go back down for a rest while temps go down So As you know I will need more sugar tests to decide........................................ Wednesday September 16, 2020 8 Not much happened to day, sure other problems, not too important.......... We did harvest more Old vine Second crop for Dave's Cuvee. The lot yesterday swelled up to 29 sugar so we need to add water. AND the 1.5 tons today looks much higher in sugar so I am happy we had time this year to harvest the left over crop. Seriously, I really think the Dave's Cuvee is one of our best wines. I am trying a new sour dough bread without added yeast and it is with many wheat flours, like 10 grains so it will be interesting with my alternative burgers on Friday. I started it today and put it in the frig to ferment and I will cook it on Friday. We had a high today of 95 degrees. This time of year we do get higher temperatures than Healdsburg which is only 7 miles South. We had a lot of Fog here this morning, good for the Fruit to rest but it cleared off fast.......Headsburg had a high of 90 late in the day. Healdsburg got more fog from the Russian River.......BTW, the wind is up so we are seeing no Smoke, but it is predicted to come back in on the weekend.........but until then we are predicted to have much lower temperatures, but they have been wrong, like today which was supposed to be 88........... This is only Mid September AND the fire season can get worse in October.....we can always hope if PG&E will not shut our Power off again, like last October.........As I have said we would have internet with Hughes on a back up and we will have water because we have a water solar pump BUT We still do not have the generator running to backup our Winery!!!!!! I have paid $50,000 and I still do not have a backup.......I have been told many times, it is because of PG&E.................I can always hope the power is not turned off.........we still have 3 weeks to finish the last of Pressing.........that would be Montepulciano? So with the uptick to 95 degrees today we need to do another sugar test tomorrow. We will do some Merlot and Cab Franc tomorrow so we will see................I need Stone IPA and I just received more Pliny.....I am sure some of you have heard: It takes Beer to make Wine............I love what I Do Thursday September 17, 2020 7.5 It was warmer than predicted again today, we were up over 90 degrees. I suspect we will be harvesting again next week. It will be cool tomorrow but these people who predict the weather have not been good in the last two days, they said 80's......we have been over 90 degrees and they are still predicting 78 tomorrow......I think they will be wrong, but maybe in the 80's tomorrow here. SSSOOO Catarino is coming on Sunday to do Sugar tests, my Raiders are on for Monday night so I will be with him to see where we stand. I suspect most everything left, only 20 tons will be ready next week................. Not much happening in the Stock Market......Tesla is having an event on September 22 so I will be glued to it live, but after the Market closes So what will happen the next day...........I sure do not know........... So we did bring in one ton of Fruit, Merlot, Cab Franc which will go into Aca Modot. It came in, perfect , at 26 sugar. Italian Open to see now and NFL....I need an IPA Friday September 18, 2020 7+ RBG........I need an IPA As most of you know I am really into politics almost as much as Stocks, and equal to the Harvest. Why? The Harvest is much easier for me to control, obviously I can not control politics and I can control my trades in the market........ As some of you may know the Supreme Court Justice has died. It will be a big battle to see what happens.........there are so many things to happen before and after the election so I will be looking...... But of course I still have the most important.........Harvest, but it is easy............. Sedge, the guy who I am purchasing Cab from says he is getting close to what I want so we are scheduled to harvest another 4 tons on Thursday. The Weather gurus were wrong as usual......we got up to 87 today and we were told it was supposed to be 78 so all our grapes may be ready in the next week.........I love what I do........ Pat and I got married on September 29, 1973. One of my most enjoyable days, then and after. We are still together and still involved with the Winery, we make the final decisions and I get up on my forklift everyday during Harvest.....Since: OK, Pat and I got Married in Marin County, Fairfax, California, the wrong time of year to be in the Wine Business. since we got married and moved up to this great vineyard, for now the 42nd Harvest........AND there has only been two times we we got away for our anniversary, because it is always Harvest time. Now this year we may........may be finished with Harvest by September 29...........BUT WHERE WOULD WE GO!!.........OK, it is 11 days away...........I need some more IPA......Tennis, Politics Saturday September 19, 2020 Too many things in politics and we need to do another sugar test tomorrow, but things are warming up here so we should be harvesting on Monday?
	Dave For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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