March 27 -
April 16, 2022 
Monday March 28, 2022
Pat and I saw the picture Coda on Saturday night and I loved it. The only problem I had was watching it on Apple TV app. I could do that because I have an Amazon Fire stick. I signed up for a free trial and will cancel. I was extremely upset about all the ads Apple shows especially at the end of the movie. At the closing credits, as I hit the pause button to see who was in the movie the whole video went back to the beginning of Apple movie or show options SO I had to start the whole movie again and still the credits were hidden somewhat and went through too fast. This morning I sold my Apple stock and will not buy more. As some of you know I do enjoy my Apple iPhone and Apple Watch and now after selling my stock I have made enough money to own several upgrades.
Tuesday March 29, 2022
Still recovering from the fun, talk, about the Academy Awards.....but As you know I think organization is the most important thing we do in this winery. So I have already been organizing our bottling in August.
So I remembered I had not heard back from one of the the links needed for bottling, the screwcaps. So I called at 9am yesterday with no answer and then at 9:10 with a disconnect. I assume they had a bad weekend? Finally at 9:30 I did get a nice person who was checking why I had not heard back, so that was encouraging, they are disorganized? So yes, they apologized and our screwcaps will be here but not until the first week of August. I have all the bottles ready to ship here soon and the labels will be ready in 6 weeks SO the only thing holding up our usual bottling are the screwcaps............
I did sell all my short term trades in TSLA with a profit of $15,000. I don't need to buy more wine since I have many wines still to try.
We have a customer who loves our 2018 Estate Cuvee in the 16 month version. He has purchased over 200 bottles of the same wine. Last week he had another 3 cases sent to him in Texas BUT, he got the 2018 Estate Cuvee 10 month version. We offered him a big discount if he kept the wine but after tasting the wine he has decided he wants the 10 month aged wine shipped back and he wants the "best wine", the 16 month version..............
We have to respect a customer who loves this one wine so it will happen.......he will get a self addressed label to ship back the wine at our cost.......Sure someone made a mistake packing up the wine but
Bryan and I have tasted the 10 Month and 16 Month 2018 Estate Cuvee over 3 days. I let the customer know Bryan liked the 16 month version each day, but it is close. I preferred the 10 month version, maybe because it was bottled earlier, or just me? Everyone perceives wine differently, that is what makes wine so interesting.
7+ now in the evening........Pat and I are going up to look at the movie about the Williams sisters tonight. I have been following tennis since the 60's. I am not a big fan of Serena but like Venus and I remember some controversy way back when about the Father so it will be interesting to see the movie.
Wednesday March 30, 2022
We stopped the movie last night and will finish it tonight. We have been stressed out. Pat has to make changes all the time and then make labels to assure our Club members receive their wine........Fed Ex, let's hope they come through.
Today, I went off for another blood test.....gee these two doctors, one a Primary and one my cardiologist are checking all parts in my system, like which vitamin?.......what ever........
So today was OK, I love shopping..............most people at Safeway were not wearing masks, so I kept it in my pocket and stayed away from people......I did sneak over to the section that has It's-It, I scored some
Thursday March 31, 2022
I go through this every year, that is why I forget to drop the style so now back to normal. OH, yes I have to input to our accountant everything relevant RE TAXES, oh style, caps........
I love taxes actually, it is a challenge and i try to be fair, look back in the diary to the 1099's......I digress. So it takes me only about a total of 4 or 5 days of easy work to supply all the info these good accountants need. They are concerned about many strange ways I document what I spend, like............I use 5 credit cards and use them for business or personal, I use what ever discount I can get, like Safeway, 5% off if I use a Freedom card, but only for 3 months. THEN They want to know how much work is done by vineyard workers or winery workers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously, we all work in the Vineyard and we all work in the Winery at times even in one day SOSOSOSOSO do they want to go back to the old systems with time cards???????
Oh why not, maybe I have told this story before..........My first job was at the USPS and they used time cards, that was 1962 to when I left in 1968 for the US Army...........I digress
One time in 1968 we 2 friends, Ken and I made a small mistake at the USPS at Rincon in S.F. We were excited as usual to get out early at about 4pm on a Friday and we had timed in earlier with a time card and we had to time out by punching into a machine at the exact time of leaving.........off the clock............Ken took my card and he was 10 people ahead of us. Yes, he was not allowed to stamp my card, so when he did even though all supervisors could see us leaving from work AND would not come back WE were in trouble. I know we were detained then and also at a meting or 2 after that. Of course they really had to back down but they took their time.............Government is usually in control, especially in WAR, thinking about all the people dying, suffering right now..........
Saturday April 2, 2022
I could not wait another 6 months, yes it has been 6 months since I did a deep fry.........so yesterday I did deep fry Frog Legs and tonight we did soft shell crabs SSSSSSSOOOOO good
I dredge in flour first and then egg and then half panko half flour. 100% Panko goes great with chicken but I think more flour is good for most recipes.
Tonight Pat and I will start 2021 West Side Story. When the first one came out I was in love with Natale so this movie can not be as good? I am sure I will enjoy it though.
Has anyone seen Licorice Pizza. It is weird but we did get through it.............
Monday April 4, 2022
So we finished shipping all our Club. It costs us on average to all states about $40 and we give free shipment for our clubs. Wine is too expensive and we are selling wine comparable to any wines out here,............
Tonight I will look at the Basketball final game
Tuesday April 5, 2022
I got in more cabs in the last few days, experimenting, tasting to see how they compare to my new Alex Valley Cab just bottled. it is impressive, I think not as intense to our Estate cabs, but I will see in the next many days because I have made enough money in TSLA short term trades to justify.....buying....12 different cabs much higher prices, as much as $300 a bottle. If our 2020 16 Month cab holds up we are thinking of raising our price of our Cabernet, but not as much as everyone in this Valley. I think ours is good..........time will tell. Let me make this clear, maybe I should purchase some Dry Creek Valley Cabs around here, maybe next week, but how many cabs can I taste???
Nothing much happening re wine making. Jose is preparing to bottle our Sparkling wine and of course that means putting it in a bottle and of course it will take a few months to ferment in the bottle, but then we have to disgorge it. It will have sugar and yeast to ferment out in a few months
Wednesday April 6, 2022
If you go back in my diary, you will see I mentioned tasting some Cabernet wines by other producers. I did it because I wanted to see what cabs were good out there and I justified it because I made money in Tesla trades. Tonight I tried 3 Napa Cabs. I have tried over the last 2 years many expensive ones from Chile and even Sonoma and Paso and they were all good. Then I found a few bottles of our 2018 and 2019 Estate Cabs and tried compared to some very expensive wines from Napa and beyond and found they were of equal quality. I must make this clear, I do like my wines and I make them in the style I prefer, that said, In all the cabs I have tasted, I don't see much difference in quality or even style.
So tonight I opened 4 cabs and one was our newly bottled 2020 Non Estate Alexandra Valley Cab and it stood up to the other 3 wines.
Like I have said I think it is time to raise our prices on our Cabernet Sauvignon wines. I hate raising prices, wine is too expensive but I want some of you, who will purchase these wines, to know you are tasting a Cab that will stand up to even the most expensive. If we keep it at $40 before discount of 40% for the club, most everyone out there will think it is not of the same quality...........
Thursday April 7, 2022
This morning I looked at a few wineries in Dry Creek Valley to see what they are charging for their Cabernet Sauvignon and I was surprised to see all of them had a cab priced at $65. There were even some priced over $100 but were older vintages, I guess not selling well. So Pat and I have decided to raise our 2020 Alexander Valley Cabernet to $50 a bottle, still a bargain if you are a club member with a discount of 40%, thus a bottle for $30. The Future price for our 2021 all Estate Cabernet is now $28 with a discount of 15% for the club comes out to $23.80. The rest of the 2021 Futures prices are going up by one dollar but Pat has not changed the prices yet so hurry up and buy 2021 Futures if interested. We will be offering our pre-harvest 2022 Futures hopefully next week some time.
8, just got back from a scooter trek in the vineyard and saw a lot of green, pre-harvest futures will be up soon............
Monday April 11, 2022
I have been busy in the last several days planning my last trip to Oregon!! I love Oregon and also Washington State but I will soon be 79 years old and driving far, even in my new Model S is becoming more a challenge. This trip up to Bandon will be about 400 miles up and then 400 miles back. We will stop 3 times on the way up and 3 times on the way back. The first leg will be from here to Eureka, 194 miles so the most distance. Pat and I will stop for lunch on that day so it should be not that bad. I will give more info as it gets closer in May.
Pat will be off to Sicily soon and I will have more info on that. I don't know how we will survive without her input for shipping all your wine!!!!!!!
I see TSLA is back down again so I may be trading more stock so I can make more money and thus continue to check out wine from other wineries. Like I have said our wines hold up to all out there, even our cab compared to 100$ + ones.....................
Tuesday April 12, 2022
I know I have said this before>>>::::::: why is the world leaders who have some control of things, letting Putin kill all these people?????? He says he is killing Nazis!!! Why are we not at least doing a fly zone, seriously dose anyone think Putin would use atomic weapons?? If he did I am sure he would die someway and hopefully before he kills more............I assume Russia is more important to him so I can understand if that is why he is willing to die? He wants what Russia had before!!
Jose will be back tomorrow, he is a new father so he has been off for 5 days. Tomorrow he will set up for two critical operations in this winery.
First he will start the procedure for sparkling wine from 2021 and then we will be racking wines to make sure they have no sediment.
I just went out to the vineyard at 7:30 and the sun will go down at 7:46, BUT it was too cold in my shorts and thin short sleeve shirt. I survived out half way but with a wind and 52 degrees even I could not do more. I did see a lot of green in our Pinot so in 2 weeks I will be out more often......not until then? BECAUSE......I hear there could be on and off showers here for several more days, none now but tomorrow is another day......
Wednesday April 13, 2022
I assume most of you do not want me to mention things non related to winemaking, but this is my only diary...........
Again the USA and other nations are letting Putin kill people. Sure we are sending more weapons now, but why has it taken so long, even is a small token?.......I digress
So Jose is back from 5 days of quality time with is new born so he gets paid leave......I am still trying to figure that out re: who pays who?.....I digress
So it was really nice to see Jose today and as usual he had everything figured out, so I just had to say OK!! All the crew here tomorrow will start the process for making real sparkling wine. I probably have mentioned the process before and I will do again, the 2021 Sparkling is ready to start fermenting again...............
Thursday April 14, 2022
Easter near...........Only my opinion, so I hope I do not offend anyone, but I still think besides a God, religion kind, there may be something out there that we are in their body so sure they have an influence on us but that is where the devil comes in, that person we are in, of course very large, bigger than the universe, has some hiccups or problems in health like we do so that is where the devil comes in and people die before their time, but as long as this large person continues to live, this place and all others in the universe will still exist...........I am sorry...........I digress..........
So yes Jose came in today but he says we need more time before we decide to start fermenting our sparkling in the bottle..........long story
For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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