June
15 - August 4, 2025 
Friday June 20, 2025
Like Brad said, I have been having trouble swallowing and have also many rashes because of this new cancer preventing drug. I am still hanging in there....I went to see 3 doctors yesterday and I did get some input. My latest problem is my Blood Pressure has been real low around 95/55. I did stop taking the 4 meds so I am asking several doctors about my 4 Blood pressure meds and whether I should stop some. Maybe the cancer drug has caused the low readings. I am a little dizzy but nothing affecting my driving or even navigating the many stairs in our house. I am still having problems swallowing so the doc is going to look down my throat again in August.In the mean time I am trying to eat real slow and eating Ice cream! My weight has gone down to a new low of 190 pounds, but with more food it will rise again?.........
Thursday June 26, 2025
I have been to three doctor appointments and my weight has stayed below 200, actually, 196. It is amazing, this is the lowest I have been since 1969!. Part of the reason I am this low is that my taste is not good. Wine tastes very sharp and I still have places in my mouth that seem like small cuts. So I really don't have an appetite, that probably is why I may be able to keep my weight down, BUT gee, I miss all the things I loved to eat and especially wine. One good thing is I still love a drink! The strong alcohol seems to feel like it is healing my cuts in my mouth.
Some good news is my rashes have not bothered me for the last two days. They are still all over my arms though. My cancer doctor prescribed Hydrocortisone, 2.5% that I was told would stop the itching.......no way for me, I rubbed it on and it made the itching greater SO for me a good shower to rinse the cream off my arms was the best thing. Any rubbing or especially scratching, was the worst thing I could do.
My blood pressure has continued to stay way below what it has been in the past. If I take blood pressure meds, in an hour or so, I got a reading of 90/45. So one of my doctors asked me to stop taking one or two of the 4 meds I have been taking. So this morning I did only take 2 of the meds and 2 hours later my blood pressure reading is still 92/55. I will take it again in the afternoon. In the past when I did take my blood pressure after consuming alcohol, the readings were similar, very low SO this evening I will take a reading after alcohol and see what I get.
We are still set to bottle wine, starting on July 7. I sure hope my taste buds will be back to normal!!!
Wednesday July 9, 2025
Actually my taste buds are much better so I am tasting some of the wines we are bottling this week and next. Monday we bottled our 2024 Chardonnay that was aged 10 months in barrels. Actually, we used a new French Oak barrel for 6 months and the last 4 months in a neutral oak barrel. Pat and I love it, but we suspect some of our customers will think it has too much oak. To Pat and I, the wine has great fruit and great body, differently not light weight. As most of you know, most wineries are aiming for Chardonnay with crisp acid and very little oak character. Even the judges like white wine with little overpowering oak. One winery Pat and I like is Rombauer but that Chardonnay is getting to be expensive so we have been trying to make a chardonnay similar to Rombauer.
We are bottling our 10 month aged Red wines this week and into next Monday. Those consist of 2024 Terre Melange, Merlot, Old Vine Zinfandel, Dave's Cuvee and a lower alcohol wine called DC Fusion which I will try tonight. 2024 Block 4 will be bottled next Monday.
Monday July 14, 2025
Today is the last day of bottling. We will finish our 2024 10 Month aged wines with the 2024 Block 4. Then we will bottle our first Super Tuscan a 2023 which consists of 34% Sangiovese, 33% Aglianico and 33% Bordeaux Varietals. I will have fun tasting it tomorrow night. Then starting tomorrow we will start racking all our 16 month aged 2024 wines which will age in the same oak barrels for another 6 months and then will be bottled next January.
Tuesday July 29, 2025
My favorite wine now by far is the newly bottled 2023 Super Tuscan, the blend is described above. It has so much intensity so if you like concentrated intense wines, I would recommend it.
I am happy to report my taste buds have continued to improve! I have been having fun tasting the newly bottled 2024 10 Month aged wines. Two that were unexpectantly so different made me happy, I tasted such a difference. The 130 Year Old Old Vine Zinfandel has so much more spice character while the Block 6 from 15 year old vines was much smoother and had more jammy fruit flavors. Since I prefer more intense wines, I preferred the Old Vine Zin. I also tasted the 2024 Pinot Noir and again I was surprised I could tell such a difference compared to the Block 6 Zin. The Pinot is much smoother but does have less fruit character so to me a lighter wine.
Thursday July 31, 2025
You can read about my kidney operation by going back to March in the diary. A friend asked about why they removed my whole kidney?
The doctor said they always take the whole one for some reason and they said the small mass inside the kidney is always cancerous so not a good idea to cut into the kidney to do a biopsy. I assume they know more than us?
If you read about my health for the last several months
you saw the doctors wanted me to take this Keytruda IV
injection every 3 weeks as a precaution that the cancer is
not spreading. I have never been allergic to anything I
know of but after the second IV and especially the third
one, I got rashes all over my body, mostly on my arms and
I lost my apatite and could not even taste wine and all
food tasted bland SO I lost another 15 pounds. I am having
fun every evening having ice cream and cookies and I still
lost another pound last week, down to 189, I used to be
225. The effects from Keytruda are slight now but still
itchy, and my taste buds have come back, but I am still
not eating much......
Sunday August 3, 2025
I had a customer ask me about a 2012 Block One he consumed recently so I answered his questions: I think that was the only year I kept Block One fruit separate. Every other year it has been blended into our Block 4 Field Blend. I know it was planed back sometime in the 1890s because a neighbor next store said the vines were here when he was a child. The neighbor died in the 1980s at over 80 years old so that would put him being born before 1900. Many of these old vines in Sonoma County have been documented to be planted in the 1890s so that is why I use this information. That said:
Block 4 is in the middle of the vineyard and has many different varietals and Block one has several varietals also mixed into the block so that is why I combine both to produce our Block 4. There is also Block 3 and Block 4 South that comprises of 3.3 acres, only producing 5 tons. That section is almost all Zinfandel with an occasional Carignan or Petite Sirah so I use that for our 130 Year old Old Vine Zinfandel.Monday August 4, 2025
Big news, we are harvesting tomorrow. We will bring in all our Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling fruit and start a fermentation for a new sparkling wine. It will be fun........more info tomorrow.........
Dave
For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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