February 17 - February 23, 2013

	Tuesday February 19, 2013 This past weekend we had a great response to our First Release Party for wines aged 16 months. This was the 2011 Vintage and we were very surprised since our sales were way up from what we expected. I am assuming the 2011 Vintage was more approachable to most who tasted the wines AND I agree..........I love the 2011's now compared to the 2010 Vintage and we aged wines 16 months for the 2010 Vintage also. The 2010 Vintage was a big challenge as I have said before. The acids were way too high for me but we did have many customers who were thrilled by the high acid which will age the wines more than any other vintage that I have produced before. I love some of the intense wines produced by Varieties that are tannic and concentrated. The Zinfandel based wines were high in acid so we reduced the acids in those wines when we released the 16 month Versions. For 2012 we are offering both options on Futures, 10 Month and 16 Month. Matt and I just got finished tasting some 2012 barrel samples. As I said last week, I was concerned about the low acid numbers for some of our 2012 wines in the barrel. The 2012 vintage overall looks great. We compared the Escuro to the Lagrein and decided the Lagrein is a little low in acid but not by much so we will just top off the barrels with Escuro which has a little more acid and brightness. Similarly, I thought the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were a little flat so we will top off with Aca Modot or Cabernet Sauvignon if we can spare some. The only wine we will add a little acid to is the Peloursin which we only have one barrel. Our new Block One is wonderful but could use a little My Zin to bring up the brightness. We will do the same with Matt's Select this year. That wine is a blend of 60% Lagrein which I said was a little low in acid and 40% Block 6 Zinfandel so we will add some My Zin to the blend. Let me make this clear..........after tasting today, the 2012 vintage is superb. Each wine has it's own character. Like I have said the 2010 and 2011 vintages were different from what we usually make. Most of the wines from the 2010 vintage have a similar character of higher acid than usual and a sort of cracked pepper taste AND the 2011 wines all show very high fruit character. I am enjoying the 2011 wines right now and will hold the 2010 wines for another year or so. The 2012 wines have better balance and have tastes that distinguish them from each other, even though a few wines are a little low in acid. As you can tell it is a little hard to describe these three vintages with words, taste is what it is about. Don't forget about the first blend of two vintages we are selling. I have already in the bottle a blend of 50% 2010 RaiZin and 2011 Estate Cuvee (High Acid with High Fruit) and we are selling it on Futures (SOLD OUT) until we have labels in a few months....Dave's Cuvee.......
	For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com Dave
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