I was just over looking at the fire in Geyserville. It is about 3 miles up the hill from the town and at least 6 miles from us. I think another fire would have to start in our valley besides that one to be a problem. When I left the wind had turned to the East away from the
town...........

A customer asked questions about the Estate Cuvee so she inspired me to write this for my diary even though I might have mentioned it before............

Back in 1994 I started this winery, I had Pat, and my two daughters ganging up on me, one 9 and the other 7 so I needed a new love.

At that time I had produced amateur wine and won a few awards, but at that time in 1994 I did not know a friend who would buy my wine. I decided I would make 420 cases and I thought then, I could consume 5040 bottles in my life time? Maybe 10 years or so, SO

I made 427 cases and entered the Harvest Fair in 1995 with the Estate Cuvee aged 9 months. It was only in the bottle 6 weeks and it won a gold. Those days a gold meant something. I think the judges were confused since the Estate Cuvee was the first premium wine with equal parts of Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon rounded out with Carignan and Petite Sirah, a true Red Blend.

The internet was just starting so things changed for me. Young people started talking about the wine at CompuServe. I could only keep a few cases for myself, all the restaurants and retail stores wanted it and customers started calling...............

Monday October 23, 2017

In the last few weeks we have installed a canopy which is real large. It is 14 feet wide and 16 feet tall and 44 feet long. It is not insulated so will get very hot on warm days or very cold in the winter. What it will be great for is to store our empty bottles before we bottle in January and July. In the past we have had to try to find space in our storage building.

I know I have talked about making less types of wine. Mainly that was because we were running out of room in our storage building, especially when we had to store the empty bottles. When people come to pick up their wine we have to have all the types of wine flat on 4x4 pallets which take up a lot of room. That area has a night air fan so the temperature stays from 50 to 65 degrees all year round. The fan is on from April until November when the days are warm and the nights get down to the 50's almost every night.

Harvest is over so I have more idea of what I can blend and then bottle this year. We now have this canopy to store the empty bottles so next year I will be able to make the Escuro and Terre Melange but this year I will not be making them. We will be making My Zin and RaiZin though. I have to taste the Mourvedre and Syrah in barrel now. We had some issues with the fruit for both of those wines. For sure there will not be enough for a Club shipment.......more later.

9:00 Pm:  I have to have my Knee done on December 4 so I have to think where we have to stay over in Napa County. Napa is about one to two hours away from us so we need to stay there for two nights on December 3 and 4. So I wanted to stay in a nice place over in the St Helena area so I looked it up and found Harvest Inn, by Charlie Palmer........So

I talked to Susie and Pat tonight about what will happen in those days before and after my surgery. They were upset I wanted to pay for Charlie Palmer's place and they wanted to save $100 to go to a lesser place? I am sure they would have a different take on it. We discussed for a long time and then I had a great idea: "I will donate all of what we spend the rest of the year on vacations to the benefit of Fire Victims". Pat loved that so she is responsible to find a worthy organization or several.............

I am so excited because I now can spend as much money, when Susie and Pat are against it because now an equal amount to people in need. I need a cruise before the end of the year.............Tomorrow is another day.........

Tuesday October 24, 2017

Pat, my lovely wife has a birthday today so I am making her French Onion Soup from scratch. I have three Julia Child books open, similar in many ways but there are interesting variations. It will be fun.

Pat likes Pinot Noir so I went in my cellar and found two old wines. One is Merry Edwards and the other Sapphire Hills, both 2002 Pinot Noir wines, did 15 years age them well........we will see...........