September 5 - September 12, 2015

	Sunday September 6, 2015 9:30 Pm: It is Sunday on a labor day weekend so tomorrow is a day off for most of us, But I never get a day off even when I was on a cruise last year to Miami so we had a problem with our internet........long story and Bill came in to restore, but obviously I still had to deal with it in Miami. We stayed in Miami Beach. I liked a number of nice places near where we stayed, nice hostess out side and the garlic smell was wonderful, but Pat was on another agenda: experience Miami Beach like what we have heard, and that was what she wanted to do SO I was no help. I was into another Sandra Brown novel. Pat was into a good mood even bringing in some Cuban food. I was happy. I only had to deal with Bill and Brad and others at home to deal with our internet problem..................I digress Josh came in today, he has to do analysis everyday and I now know I need to discuss the readings with him in more detail. I know what to look at....... and is complicated............There is no way to calculate what Zinfandel based grapes (Like even Block 4 Section) sugar alone will result into, even from year to year, this is my 37th year harvesting from this vineyard and every year is different, even with analysis. Zinfandel is hard to predict during fermentation.................with 27% we could have 16% alcohol. These Zinfandel grapes have been brought in at 27 sugar this year. All the Zinfandel is in now, we added water to rehydrate as we are allowed. Today we did not harvest, tomorrow the great pickers are off but I will be in trouble Tuesday when they come back.........They want to pick!!!!  I forgot about Sagrantino, I am so upset, so I have to ask Catarino to come here tomorrow for a short time to do a sample of Sagrantino which will go into our first Italiano wine................ I tasted the experiment to day the one about 2010 wines and 2014 and 2015 and I was happy, long story..........this will be my next new Dave's non vintage. It is light and will be sold at $99 a case. Pat who is into Rose said she liked it tonight and it has only been in the  barrel for one month............. Josh will be in tomorrow and we need to discuss fermentation, like I said before, I want to keep the alcohols down. I know a lot of my customers like our Block 4 but it is 16 % alcohol, lately. I know it is smooth so should I lower the style a little to 15% alcohol, I think so...........but this year is even more a challenge. We have raisins in all the grapes so they soak up and it is hard to predict  the ending alcohol especially during fermentation, long story..........Ask, I will respond  Monday September 7, 2015 9:00 Pm: So most of you know who read this diary, I have cats who are 17 months old now. They are not as lively as last year when they were, 5 months old. They now sleep most of the day like last year, but now they do not do destruction in the video room up stairs. Now they won't even go out tonight at sunset 7:31 PM, and walk to the edge of the vineyard. It would nice if that happened............. So soon I will go up stairs and look at a Giants game. Pat is in Susie's room, she likes to look at every pitch so I will go up and watch some tennis, even though Nadal is out..............and read my book Today was interesting again........... This morning Josh came in and said he wanted to press in to barrels the Zinfandel from the 4th block but I needed more numbers. It is a long story but, there are two ways we have now to check out the sugar left in a fermentation. In the past we could only find out that figure by sending 4 ounces of the fermentation to an analysis lab who would get you back an answer in one day, after over 6 hours. In 6 hours a hot fermentation could go from 10% sugar to 5%..........so when we got back the reading for sugar, it was old. I did have an Alcolyzer I purchased for $15,000 which would give me the alcohol. That was great so I had to look again as soon as the reading came back from the lab to do a guess about making a decision to add water.................. Now we have a great machine, a Foss, I think it cost me much more money, priceless............ It can give us a reading in a few seconds and only a few drops, So I had to talk to Josh to make sure we understand. We decided we may have a potential of 16 alcohol on this 4th zin, so we added a little water and will press tomorrow, sssooo, Josh and Jose left at 12 today. Catarino came in with sandals, he said I thought you needed only the Sagrantino? I decided, much more since he was here on Labor day, so we all joked a little: labor day, right, we are supposed to work........He worked and brought in 8 samples. I even had to go out and look at what we are going to pick. It was 102 today and it may get up to 110 in three days. So tomorrow at 6:30 am Catarino and his great crew will pick Cabernet Clone 337 which usually goes into our 100% Cab and then we need to pick Sagrantino. The cab will be over 27 sugar but there are three sections of Sagrantino and two maybe about 24 sugar with little crop but most of the crop, maybe 1000 pounds is near 28 sugar....... And then Wednesday is another question and then if we do get 110 by Thursday, we could be in high harvest for next week. I will explain more tomorrow.........I am still thinking............. BTW, I had to go off yesterday to Safeway. Yes I had to drive my Model S. It had been several days. It was fun.....so tomorrow I have to get up for the Market. I bought a lot of stock Friday after the market closed so I am hoping for an up market, but better I would like more bargains, I still have cash............. Tuesday September 8, 2015   The Market was back open today after the holiday. It was up big so it was a good thing I bought some Google and Apple last Friday afternoon in the extended trading time. Like I said I still have cash so we will see what happens tomorrow. Here is a good one!! Some of you may remember back on August 30 when I reported dropping 100 cases of wine on top of my forklift. There were 4 bottles of 2013 Rai Zin that had dented caps so I put them aside. I opened one the other day and it tasted great. I looked through the cap and there was an eighth inch whole completely open to air. The wine did not taste oxidized or even more mature than a 2012 Rai Zin I had opened. It really surprised me so I will try another bottle each week until the last of the 4 bottles have been tasted. Wednesday September 9, 2015 Last night Pat and I watched a movie for a change. The Giants seem to be out of the race and Nadal is out of tennis. Also after the movie I read from my Kindle. I like Sandra Brown, she is a novelist who puts out mysteries. I read Sandra Brown because she writes about people who are having more problems than I. Everyday there are a few other problems than I could describe. Everyday is interesting and Catarino, Josh and I are having a great time figuring out this maze.......... Sure if I was in our kitchen with many of my best friends right now, not the ones I have to help me during harvest.......and I told them what we go through during Harvest I would not make sense to them, because it is hard to describe by vocal..............so I continue here I have said Josh and I are doing better in analyses, to see where fermentations are heading......we try to control fermentations like I have said before. Yesterday we got 28+ sugar with the harvested Sagrantino and 28 sugar with Cabernet clone 337, what is going on............we need water So the kitties finally came out with me to night and last night, at about 7:30, sunset here, I know because the best thing about my new apple watch for me.....is I know when the sunrise is and sunset..........it is very important to me............you can display almost anything on the first screen...............I am buying more Apple.......what about Gopro. If you like gopro the stock is down big, like someone thinks they will not survive. This could be interesting: How far will GoPro fall? So today we harvested most of the Cabernet Franc at 24 sugar and all the Merlot at 27+ sugar. Also we brought in the Malbec at 24+ sugar. All these lots will go into our Aca Modot, Bordeaux Varietal blend.......Tomorrow we will bring in the last of the Grenache which could be 28 sugar by now and Syrah which came in at a sample of 26 yesterday. We needed to add some water to the remaining fermenters....................Another day of thinking So I said a week or so ago I asked a nursery friend, owner of Nova, vines, a great guy, about clones for Petite Sirah so he came back to me today and said there are many new clones. Wow, I need to think as usual so should I try more PS clones, I don't think so, we need Cabernet Sauvignon............I asked about clone 6 Cabernet and he said no one wants it anymore, so I think we will bud over clone 6 next year unless it produces great fruit this year. The berries are less than the size of peas, there can be as little as 20 berries on a bunch. It is impressive to see these vines and I am reluctant to bud over, but I hope the wine produced this year will be good...............                   I would like to be respected for making great Cabernet or any wine here, but I am not into marketing........ So the fun time today and yesterday was with Josh late in the day, about 4:30,. Josh is amazing and he knows more than he says. Ask him a question, he is quick with the right answer. at least he thinks it at age 28. So each of the last two days before Josh leaves we go over all our fermenters and just takes a few minutes and we know if we have to add water. I am the opposite of Josh sometimes because when a few people are around I might blare out and ask "what is going on, are you guys having a good time???????". Of course they have to agree, we are having fun. It is hard work around here and a lot of pressure for Josh and I. Catarino is my brick like I say. We have no problem with the vineyard. Catarino and his crew know what will come in tomorrow, everyday.............. It is hot right now at 7:45 it is still 91, very hot for around here. We are usually down to 70 by now on a warm day, but we did get to 106 so I should be patient. We like cold nights so we can have cold grapes in the morning but to me it is more important to protect our great warriors. At noon today it felt close to 100 so I went out to Catarino, and he was thinking the same as I, we need to stop today I said. He agreed. So we will start up tomorrow and pick the rest of the Cab Franc and then we will move on to Syrah and Grenache. Friday is still a question. We need to do some samples tomorrow.......... Thursday September 10, 2015 8:30 Pm: Like I have s...............I am thinking all the time so it is hard to document this, but I can't use a recorder either since it won't type.......document, what I am thinkinking now. I have to go through all thei  diray tonioght to make sure I correct my horrible typing and spelling.........corrections beyond here........... Pat is off with a friend in Healdsburg tonight and she drove. I will be worried when she starts driving back. She hates to drive, especially at night like I. I have several things to look at up stairs, The first NFL game of the season and tennis. Josh and I have figured out what to do tomorrow in this vineyard so, Catarino the most important guy around here, brought in 6 sugar samples today all were surprising again............We have Carignan at 27+, Aglianico at 27+ and Peloursin at 26 so we decided to pick Peloursin with the rest of the Grenache and Syrah today. We have to pick until Sunday, the warriors want to pick..........We will do a sugar test in our Mourvedre, Petite Verdot, Cab clone 6 and Montepulciano. At the end of next week we will even be harvesting Second Crop, the start of Dave's Cuvee, 2015. Pat and I will get away for our anniversary on September 29............ Saturday September 12, 2015 Pat and I are now only 42 days to our cruise to Hawaii. On September 29 we are heading down to Santa Cruz for a short vacation  and we will have lobster for $12:99 on that Wednesday. In the mean time Josh and I have a lot to do. The sugar tests came in high again. Petit Verdot was 26, Mourvedre was 27.8. They will be picked Tuesday. On Monday we need to bring in Tannat, Souzao and Alvarelhao. Second crop for Dave's Cuvee will be harvested for three days, probably Wednesday through Friday. On the 21st we will finish with Montepulciano and Cabernet clone 6. Both those tests came in at about 24 sugar yesterday. Also yesterday we pressed our Block 4 and today we are pressing Petite Sirah. Yesterday we harvested 2.5 tons of Aglianico at 27 sugar. Today and tomorrow we will be harvesting Carignan. In all, it looks like we will be harvesting enough fruit to produce 4200 cases about 20% below normal. We will have plenty of unused barrels, but if we have a large crop next year we will need these barrels.
	For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com Dave
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