February 6 - February 12, 2011

	Tuesday February 9, 2011 The weather has been warm so we may have an early Harvest if the high temperatures stay in the 70's in the next two weeks. In my 32 years here at this vineyard I have seen two years where I saw green growth in the 4th week of February. Of course that is concerning because that time is usually a few weeks from the end of the normal time for a frost. A frost would kill any green shoots. Both those Februarys saw no frost in March or beyond so the season progressed fine but we saw Zinfandel ripe by the end of August. It looks like we may have rain sometime next week which would slow down bud break.   I was out to dinner last Saturday at my Mother's 89th birthday celebration. Of course I brought along a few of my wines and was charged for corkage. I decide to purchase two bottles of wine from the restaurant, one was a Sauv Blanc and was nice. The other wine was a 2007 Petite Syrah from Stags Leap Winery from Napa Valley. I was very disappointed in the wine because it showed no fruit and was very sharp. I expect tannin from a Petite Sirah but I expect some fruit. I assume the winemaker used extended maceration (After a wine goes dry in the fermenter, it is left as much as two weeks before transferring to barrels in the hope of smoothing the wine out.) OR the wine was left in barrels too long OR maybe a slightly bad cork. The wine cost $65 so I was not happy. Remember this is my opinion and some of you may like this style of wine.
	Dave david@coffaro.com
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