July 24 -
August 13, 2022 
Sunday July 24, 2022
Burn, is it bad? I just got back from a scooter adventure and saw a few bunches with scaling, looking like a little Burn SO, all of you will agree, when you have tasted Burn in food, it was intense, right???? So a little on my great Cab bunches may make the wine more intense!!! I love what I do
Monday July 25, 2022
Let me clarify what I said about Burn. Some in the wine industry say Burn on grapes is not good. I think a little would be just fine.
We just did a test of our Pinot Noir grapes. We have two sections, one North which has richer soil and it is at 19.2 sugar while the section South in more rock is at 21.7. We won't be making Sparkling this year, we have plenty from last year and actually the sugar now is too high, we need 18-19 sugar to start the process. After bottling in August we will test again and look for 25 sugar to make a nice Red Pinot.
Friday July 29, 2022
Yesterday, it was Maia's 6 month birthday so take a look at Maia dressed up and Kate holding her.......
Monday, August 01 2022
Things are always happening here and I am ready for the next thing!!
Was just out in the vineyard and saw a lot of red and some yellow!!
I saw some very ripe, Muscat grapes and the birds are getting after them. Pat wants me to make more varietals so maybe we should make a Muscat? I am already going to isolate the Sauv Blanc to make a French oak aged wine. So why not Muscat and then more new wines with the other white grapes we use in our Luminaire? We already make 21 different wines, do we need more???
Tuesday, August 2 2022
Harvest is near, but not for a few more weeks. The Muscat needs time, but maybe after bottling on August 15 we can harvest our Pinot.
It is more hopeful, the County will approve of my AG Exempt Building so that would be Great.....
TSLA is up so I sold all my short term trade, so I am buying more wine.........
Oh so much.........getting ready, Harvest?, the Press is out and ready, bottling? the bottling line will be out tomorrow....fun, fun , fun
Wednesday, August 3 2022
Breaking News!!
We are harvesting today!! The bees are getting after our Gewurztraminer so we had to get what was left in to see how the sugar is. We are hoping for 21 brix so we will see......more later
12 noon......We only harvested 515 pounds.....First indication, 20% sugar, we could make sparkling!! Probably Not.....we are OK, we will mix some Chardonnay or Viognier with it in a week or so for the start of our 2022 Luminaire.
1:30......we just finished pressing and it looks like we have 21.5% sugar good enough for 13% alcohol. We have about 45 gallons and we will settle the solids so we could have 10 or more cases of finished wine, it would be a nice crisp wine!! The Family could consume all that wine?!!
Update.....we only have 40 gallons before settling, still could make 12 cases?
7+.....Out for a ride on my scooter, be back........Global Warming should we prepare for Mars?
Back, I see nothing but nice colored bunches in Pinot
So this will be the earliest to harvest Pinot Noir, yes Friday. We have 24 sugar, but back a few years we did harvest Pinot at 25 sugar on August 8 so not the earliest if you consider sugar............and the capsules came in today so we can set up for bottling, but when? Tomorrow is another day
Thursday, August 4 2022
From Brad:
Dave never heard Vin Scully. He asked me to say something....
I first heard Vin Scully when I was 7 years old. They had just come to Los Angeles. My father had a radio that he plugged in somewhere in the backyard and we would lie on old wooden lounge chairs and listen. After that, I never was so much a Dodger fan than a Vin Scully fan. In elementary school I would act like I was broadcasting descriptions of kids on the playground playing (eventually I would actually end up on the radio).
I, like so many others, would go to Dodger Stadium with the then newfangled transistor radio. But you almost didn't need your own as Vin's words echoed through the stadium from the thousands of tiny radios (even the players could hear him). Where the fun of going to a ballpark anywhere in the country might be to take in a game, maybe drink some beer and get a few hot dogs (at OUR ballpark, Dodger Dogs! From Farmer John back when they and Union 76 gasoline were the sole sponsors), for so many of us it was to take in the game knowing that Vinnie was up there in the booth (and in our ears) making the entire event a special occasion.
Scully was exquisite with the few words he would speak. Listen to the intensity, yet spareness, as he broadcasts the last batter of Sandy Koufax's perfect game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPOz2kz-PdM
The norm is that there are two announcers, one to call the game and one for 'color'. That was not how it worked. Vinnie worked alone. Yes, he needed a break, so the 3rd and 7th's were called back then by Jerry Doggett. If there was a 10th, Jerry would return. Doggett, who through his career had a rather thankless job said: “I was a journeyman announcer whose biggest break was to spend 32 years with Vin Scully.” Later the great Dodger pitcher, Don Drysdale would take Doggett's place, until that fateful day in Montreal when the Dodgers were playing the Expos. Drysdale didn't show up at the ballpark. Scully was alone and somehow managed to do what he does so well, actually knowing by game time that Drysdale had passed away. I remember hearing his words when he finally made the announcement near the end of the game (they waited until Drysdale's wife had been informed), the depth of his feelings, the pain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNCG5aEImek.
Scully didn't do color. He narrated the game as if it were the Great American Novel. Mark Twain might be remembered by many as the greatest American author, Scully is recognized by the American Sportscasters Association as the greatest sportscaster of all time. http://www.americansportscastersonline.com/top50sportscasters.html
Vinnie's power was the spoken word except when it was the unspoken word. He famously knew that not talking and let the crowd speak for him was far more exciting. He knew when to shut up. (Oh, that others could learn that.) The most famous of many examples was Kirk Gibson's game winning home run in the 1988 World Series. Understand here, that Scully normally worked alone, but back then during the WS, the broadcasters from the two teams would work together. But, even then, everybody knew it was really Scully who was in control. The following clip is over 10 minutes long. Most of it is Gibson's at bat and then some after. It is famous for Scully not saying a thing for an exceptionally long time after the home run. It's the 9th, 2 out and an injured Gibson who couldn't barely run, comes out to pinch hit. Scully says "and look who's coming up". And then he doesn't say anything for 38 seconds. Other broadcasters would have been constantly babbling. What follows continues a master class in broadcasting as Scully artfully and concisely describes (with a few interruptions by the other guy) the at bat as it gets to a full count. And then a miracle (a foul ball followed by the extraordinary homer), after which Scully shuts up for over a minute (66 seconds to be exact)... and then declares one of the most memorable lines in baseball: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.” He stays quiet for another 30 seconds, letting the sound of the crowd tell the story. You get to imagine for yourself just how exciting it was without being told. https://youtu.be/N4nwMDZYXTI
But oh, the stories he could tell! They didn't even all have to do with baseball, but somehow he made them part of the game. And we all were mesmerized. The Show wasn't the game, it was Vin Scully. He was worth more than the price of admission, and, of course, he was actually free. He even brought his skills to a game even slower than baseball when, in the off season, he was tapped to do golf for CBS Sports.
He was a poet, and while always self-effacing, he was a true scholar and historian where sometimes he himself became part of history. What part of fate placed Scully in the announcing booth when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record? Once the ball had gone over the fence and the almost trademark Scullyism, "It is gone!", Scully waited around 40 seconds before saying "What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron, who was met at home plate, not only by every member of the Braves, but by his father and mother." It must be noted that his words didn't talk about the Dodgers (he carefully was never rooting for the team on air, he chose to always be factual), nor even about the game but about matters that were much deeper in a country still torn by its past. https://youtu.be/QjqYThEVoSQ
If Scully had any flaws, perhaps the only I can remember is this: While making commercial announcements that included a very popular Dodger Stadium condiment, Vinnie would always pronounce it Hah-Lah-Pee-Noh instead of Hah-Lah-Pain-Yoh.
There have been many Dodger greats (Robinson, Koufax, Drysdale, Valenzuela to name just a few that immediately spring to mind), but to me and many, Vin Scully is the most valuable "Dodger", ever.. Probably 90% of Los Angeles and a good deal many others achingly mourn his passing. He will not be forgotten.
(If you are interested in what might be considered his greatest calls, check out this page: https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2393866/the-impossible-has-happened-remembering-vin-scullys-greatest-calls)
Friday, August 5 2022
Thanks Brad, I just want to say a few things about baseball. Way back in the early 50's I listened to baseball on a transistor radio. I used to root for the Yankees and not the Dodgers. When Willie Mays came to San Francisco, I went to a few games but mostly watched him on TV. He was the best player I saw. Recently I have been watching San Francisco Giants games and I have been amazed how great Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper tell stories. They are the best broadcasting team in Major League Baseball now. But I must admit I have never heard Scully, mainly because I am not a Dodgers fan and I sure don't want to hear stories by anyone who likes the Dodgers.
We are picking Pinot right now and I will have more to say later.
Saturday, August 6 2022
Of course I am excited about the first Raider game, but it is only one
We start bottling on Monday and we start thinking about harvesting Zin. In the past 33 years here I have seen a few times we harvested Zin before September, I think this could be another.............
Our Pinot came in at 23 sugar so we may get close to 14% alcohol so a nice crisp Pinot with character, yes spice up here in Dry Creek Valley, but I know no one is trying Pinot up this North where it is much hotter than Russian River wimpy wines. Sorry, I have never been a fan of Pinot............
OK, our Pinot has spice and intensity, like I like about Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon and all Italian and other varieties we grow here, but if you want lighter wines from Russian River Pinot like my wife Pat........go for it, not me..........
For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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