David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery

arrow March 15 - March 21, 2015

Tuesday March 17, 2015

This will be a new adventure. It will be a change. I thrive on changes. In most cases I have been successful. I take chances. I like taking chances........

The most important thing is to make great wine.

I did not ask for Cindi to leave and I did not ask for Matt to leave. Matt is the big dilemma. I need someone to take over for some of Matt's duties. I must step up and help to train the new person.
Matt will be here for 6 more days and train Josh. He says he can come back at bottling. He may be here to consult after that, who knows. He has not said what he will do since the first day he told us he was giving his 2 week notice. He said then he wanted to have his own brand and go to Spain for a harvest. To have his own brand he would need a winery like ours..............he could have a legal bonded place to make wine under his own brand. I will suggest that to him tomorrow. I will miss Matt but we have a new person coming tomorrow, Josh

Josh is about 28 or so. He has a girl friend who is moving from Inglenook in Napa owned by Coppola to marketing here for Coppola in Geyserville (Great place to eat.......We will be at Coppola's restaurant for lunch......all of us Friday in tribute to Cindi and Matt) So that is why Josh and Leah have to relocate from Napa. Josh has some experience in lab and winemaking and I think he will be a great fit. I will have more to say after we see him over the next several days. 

Wednesday March 18, 2015

7:40 pm a short say. We had a good day with our new Josh and we will have lunch, all of us at Coppola's Rustic Restaurant Friday.  More later tonight
 
8:30 pm: Duane knows about changes so I look forward to his input. The Badgers look good

I bought more Tesla stock...........it is down so I have more of my money in TSLA than any other stock. I just bought back AMZN earlier today, the market was up. I have the same amount now in both

Duane we have changes here, but as you know I will step up, Rick, Brad, Dri and all you others who look at this diary, I like what I do........ I love making wine and now I have the chance to change things here again. Matt has made the best wines I have ever tasted. I love what he has done.

So now I have too much in my mind???...............No....no...... never............I need to take control......I have to motivate myself..........All of you know, we have to step up at times so this is a crossroads, I can make better wine

I have to remember............Josh is listening like Brendan and Matt did before him. I trained both Brendan and Matt to make wine in my style. Brendan went off to make his own wine and Matt may do also. Josh is another guy who is new so we will see what the future brings............for sure, better wine, maybe in Josh's style

Thursday March 19, 2015

It has been 10 years since I trained Matt and Brendan helped a lot then. I think we will be fine but I will have to get more involved at Harvest. I know how to make wine, but am I a good winemaker, time will tell. I want the alcohols to come down so I am purchasing a gadget to cool down the fermenters.......

http://gdchillers.com/products/ch-6/


Friday March 20, 2015

Yesterday I was watching the announcement by Elon Musk about a new software update for my Tesla. Matt and Josh came in at 9 right when Elon was presenting and I was looking at the blog from Elon live. So Matt started taking over like he has in the past without asking for a meeting and then he decided to put Josh and I on the spot. Maybe I instigated it by asking him to instruct Josh to know about what we have to put in our fermenters at Harvest, but I meant it could be anytime over the next few days. Then Matt started to be real specific and asked Josh and I a question: If we have three fermenters going at one time, how much yeast do we put in the fermenters soooooooooooooooo I was surprised it was a test for me also right in the middle Of Elon's blog...........long story, I have a lot of TSLA stock. So I was sociable to Matt and made a stab at how much yeast should go into these three fermenters and as I am looking at 9:10 am when Elon announces a convoluted message about extending the range in a Tesla....Long story, I could go on for hours. Matt said I did not get the answer right and of course Josh had an answer also which I did not hear. (I have not done the yeast additions for three years, I have it written down in my notebook).........Then finally they left all of a sudden and I could catch up on TSLA which was down 3%. I could have sold or traded but Matt had distracted me...............

Then the strangest thing happened, I finally started looking at Elon Musk's blog again when I looked out the window and our little Ford Ranger was going up and down our large parking lot, plenty of room to drive constantly up and back in the drive way parking lot. I found out later Josh had not driven a stick much so Matt had him practicing. I was nice and polite but I was very annoyed because I was way behind on the live broadcast of the Tesla announcement.........

I tried to get something to eat and then, Jerry from World Cooperage showed up unannounced, again. I like sales people but I would like them to make an appointment. This was right in the middle of what Matt and Josh were doing. Jerry is nice but Pat tells me maybe we do not need to buy barrels again from him.........Josh needs practice driving a stick because our forklifts have a clutch. I am not worried, Josh will learn

Much more happened, I did get some food in me and Brad and I spent a long time to correct the time for the winery camera. Brad and I want everything on our website to be correct.

Then Matt Kramer the writer of many wine books and also writes for The WineSpectator called at 3:15. Pat asked him if he was "The Matt Kramer". He said he was one of them!! Matt Kramer and I have had great conversations several times, we feed on each other like I have with some other people in my life. I have not seen him in 15 years, but we remember each other well. Matt showed up at 4:30 and I was happy to see him and his nice friend. The friend likes wine and purchased 3 cases from us. It was a fun time. Matt liked the Lagrein the best and Escuro.........wow.........long story.........Look up Matt Kramer on the diary. Matt was the most influential person to get me started. It was nice to go over stereo and books, besides he thought my sparkling Mourvedre was too strong. I disagreed, I said I love it. After an hour and a half Matt and his friend were off to a great Mexican restaurant in Healdsburg.

I heard back from the Chiller people in Oregon. I can get one in about 8 weeks. When I get the chiller we will be able to slow down our fermentations and thus have more time to add the nutrients and rehydrate to help keep the alcohols down. I will explain more later.      

 

For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com

Dave


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