I went into Healdsburg Monday to see my doctor. He is older than I am which has always given me confidence in him, but he is also a health person who has always been thin. I was fearing that he would be concerned about my being on the Atkins diet, but I was wrong. He wants me to lose weight and since I had lost 15 lbs, he was happy. 

While in town I stopped by the Oakville Grocers and spent $500. Besides many great cheeses I bought a case of cabs. The lowest priced wine was a 1997 Hawley Dry Creek at $28.50. Since I have never sold a wine from our winery as high as any of these cabs, I was curious to see how they compared to mine. So far,  I have tried the Murphy Goode 1997 Res Alex vly(90pts) $39, 1997 David Coffaro cab (85pts), 1997 Hawley (87pts) $28.50, 1997 David Coffaro Aca Modot(90pts), 1997 Oakville Ranch (93pts) $50 and 1997 Behrens&Hichcock Napa (95pts) $38. The tannin in the Oakville and the finnish in the B&H made those wines much more intense than my 1997 Aca Modot. I am wondering if I should be adding more oak to only my Aca Modot to bring out more comlexity and maybe intensity. I am looking forward to opening more of these cabs in the next two nights and compare them to my 1996 Cab and 1998 Aca. 

Thursday February 10, 2000

I love Cabernet!!! Pat does not like Cabs. I drank wine tonight--Pat did not! I opened a 97 BR Cohn Sonoma Valley, A 97 Jarvis Lake William and a 98 Coffaro Aca Modot. I thought the Cohn was as good as the B&H last night, but the Jarvis was not my style. The 98 Aca was very intense , but young and disjointed. I felt the Jarvis was well balanced but lacked the intensity and fruit I would expect from my preference in cab. Pat thought it was soft and (even though she is not a fan of cab) prefered it to the others. My ratings: (Tasted Blind) 1997 BR Cohn 95 pts $37.50,  1997 Jarvis 85 pts $?,  1998 Aca 93pts.
 

Saturday February 12, 2000

Last night I opened up the last of the cabs that I purchased at Oakville the other day. I opened a 1996 Raymond Burr, a 1996 Cornerstone, a 1996 Giard, Napa, and a 1996 David Coffaro Cab. The Giard had a somewhat thin beginning, but a great chalky finish (90pts). The Raymond Burr lacked fruit, but was sold for under $30 (85). Cornerstone, medium body with great fruit and balance (92). Our 1996 Cab Is still tasting young. It is filling out , but lacks the oak of the others. I still rated it 94 because of its intensity. It is showing much better than the 97 and 98 Aca now. We went to dinner with my distributor tonight and brought along a bottle of our 1994 Zin at his request. I was pleasantly surprised that it was showing very well. It sure has not faded and showed a great deal of fruit. I am so close to this winemaking thing, but he wanted to know, that because my wines show so well young, whether they would age well. I suppose the balance of my wines has something to do with it.