September 14 - October 18, 2025 
Wednesday September 17, 2025
The cool weather last week slowed the sugar levels in our Vineyard. We did get in all our Block 4 fruit but we did not harvest on Saturday. This week we finished our Grenache and started on our Merlot. We also brought in all our Lagrein and today finished one ton of our Sangiovese which goes into our Super Tuscan and our younger Zinfandel. It is going to be interesting in the next several days because we have sugar readings of 24% and we want 25% on 7 varieties including our Chardonnay, Merlot, Nebbiolo, Sagrantino, Barbera, Petit Verdot and also all our Cabernet, SO what should we pick first? Sugars should go up since the high temperature has been near 100 in the last few days, but later this week and next week we may see a cool down again. Things can change every hour and thus new decisions must be made often. It is a fun time and I love what I do. It is stressful at times but decisions are relatively easy for me after now my 47th year of growing grapes at this vineyard..........
Friday September 19, 2025
Gee, it is so much fun! Unpredictable, that is the Harvest! This morning we woke up to a shower! It was only one hundredth of an inch but since the vines are a little wet and the day will be cool, we want 70 degrees at harvest, we have decided not to pick today. We harvested two tons of Cabernet yesterday and the sugars were a little over 25% so we are ready to harvest all our Cabernet next week. First thing Monday morning we will harvest our Chardonnay. This year we will bottle the wine in January after aging for only 5 months rather than 9 months like last year. I don't know how many pounds we will get since many of the vines are new, but I do know the chardonnay vines will yield at least two barrels so one will be a new French barrel and the one or two others will be an older neutral oak barrel. The Cabernet will be aged in 50% new French oak and bottled after 16 months.
Wednesday September 24, 2025
Just an update on my love of the Stock Market. This year so far I have sold 300 shares of Tesla. Since my average cost is $18 I have a lot of profit SO I have started to look into my taxes for this year. We have done a lot of work around here, with a new canopy and completely rebuilt our deck. Those expenses will help but I still started paying the IRS and the state of California some estimated taxes. Since I have plenty of cash from the sale of Tesla I can afford to pay the money. Even though my holdings on Tesla are long term, I still have to pay about 30% total on my profits.
Our harvest is going well. With the highs Sunday and Monday in the mid 90's we were able to harvest our Chardonnay and continue harvesting our Cabernet grapes and will finish today. Actually our high yesterday was 105 and much cooler today which will be great for our pickers. Later today we will pick our Merlot and a little Petit Verdot. It looks like we will harvest this Saturday but I will have to decide what fruit will be next. I am anxious to bring in our Nebbiolo and Sagrantino. We already harvested our Sangiovese which goes into our Super Tuscan.
BTW, with my Tesla profits I have still been purchasing some high end Cabernet's. Last night I opened one which cost me over $200. It was a 2021 which I compared to our 2021 Cab and I was happy to say again my Cab was more intense and had more fruit. As I have said, maybe I have the Coffaro palate? Maybe I should enter more competitions? I don't think so, I have to give them bottles of wine and pay a high fee. Our sales without any marketing are just fine thanks to our valued customers who share our wine and we see several new customers.
Saturday September 27, 2025
This has become one of the most complicated harvest years OR it could be the most complicated and thus unpredictable. I am sure glad I have so much help, with Catarino taking sugar samples out in the vineyard and Jose doing the destemming and then looking at sugar levels after the berries are crunched. Of course all my 47 years of experience in this vineyard is extremely important. SO..
Just talking about yesterday and today: First of all in the last two days the weather forcast has been predicting showers on Monday, but last night and today the prediction changed to rain and as much as 1.5 inches..........half an inch would not affect the sugar levels but 1.5 inches could set us back a week. Interesting though we have heard some wineries have not even started picking since it has been below average temperatures especially South of us. We are fortunate to be hotter here where the fog does not affect us as much. It looks like we will be about two thirds done after today.
So back to today. Last night I started thinking about all the possibilities! What grapes will we pick today and possibly Sunday?? We have 5 tons each of Carignan and Petit Verdot left but they can stand some rain. So today we started with Malbec first, and we were surprised we only got a half ton, one bin. So we picked a bin of Cab Franc and destemmed them together to go into Aca Modot. Then we harvested two tons of Petite Sirah, but gee!!!,,,,,,,that came in at 24% sugar and we expected 25+ SO that made today more complicated, no more PS today!
Originally I wanted to harvest all our Nebbiolo but after the low reading on PS I had Catarino go out and check the sugar on the Nebbiolo and gee.....that reading came in at 24% also and I want over 25%. So I Racked my brain and told Catarino to harvest the Tannat which is always ready but we only have a half a ton. The Tannat goes with Souzao and Alvarelhao and goes into our Escuro so Catarino went out to check those two grapes and also a test of the Petit Verdot........ Wow, the Tannat is 27+ and both the Souzao and Alvarelhao seem to be over 28% with the vineyard samples. Thus we have to get those in by Sunday, but do it today or tomorrow, that depends if the pickers are too tired, it is 2:30 and they have been here since 8 this morning BUT it is only 80 degrees right now........I could go on and on about how many times I have changed my mind today but you get the idea! The day is not over and we have to decide if we will pick tomorrow, a Sunday???
Thursday October 2, 2025
So Saturday and Sunday we harvested a lot of grapes and since then there has only been 0.3 inches of rain which was nice, enough to wash off the leaves and help ripen the remaining crop. Since it was cool and cloudy we did not harvest Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today. We plan to harvest a ton of second crop tomorrow. The varieties we harvested Saturday and Sunday were Cab Franc and Malbec for our Aca Modot, part of our Petite Sirah which goes into many of our wines and Tannat, Alvarelhao, Souzao and Aglianico that go into our Escuro blend. Tomorrow we will do sugar tests on all our remaining grapes, Mourvedre, Carignan, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Montepulciano and Nebbiolo. Also we have a lot of Second Crop which goes into Dave's Cuvee. I estimate we have 25% more grapes in the vineyard to harvest, about 19 tons, 5 to 6 more days.
Ridge was the first winery in the 70's that introduced me to Zinfandel and I even joined their club back then. The other night I opened a new offering from Ridge: 2019 Demostene Ranch, from 90 year old grapes, a mixture of 52% Zinfandel and 42% Carignane. I thought it was similar to our 130 year old Block 4 field blend which is about 50% Zinfandel with Petite Sirah and Carignan (The French Spelling). The back label on the Ridge states the grapes were fermented on the skins for 10 days. I want to let everyone who reads this diary that we do several things different from almost all wineries. One thing we do is ferment on the skins only 5 days and we do not leave the wine on the skins after the wine is dry. I assume, by saying the grapes were fermented over 10 days, the Ridge Demostene had no sugar left for the last few days. That is called Extended Maceration (See Below). I think by leaving wine on the skins after being dry, you lose color. I have a friend who is a winemaker for more years than I, and he did an experiment several years ago and he confirmed what I think: The wine loses color because the color of the juice goes back into the skins. Also I am certain the wine loses fruit flavor and slightly oxidizes. So that theory was tested over the last two nights:
The Ridge was very nice it had darker flavors than my Block 4, more like a Cabernet. I thought the Block 4 had more fruit, more complexity and a better finish. Again I must say I have the Coffaro palate! I recently purchased a Ridge Lytton Springs, which is from very old vines, and consists of about 73% Zinfandel, 18% Petite Sirah, and 9% Carignane. In next few days, I plan to taste our My Zin compared to the Lytton Springs. It should be fun!!
"Extended maceration is a post-fermentation winemaking technique where red wine remains in contact with the grape skins, seeds, and other solids (the cap) for a prolonged period to enhance wine color, flavor complexity, and tannin structure. This method, popular for high-quality grapes and traditional in regions like Burgundy and Barolo, extracts deeper flavors and creates more stable, supple tannins. Winemakers manage the process by periodically punching down the cap or pumping over the wine to ensure even contact, while also monitoring for signs of spoilage."
Monday October 6, 2025
For the last few days I did taste the Ridge 2022 Lytton Springs Zin compared to our 2022 My Zin. I am happy to say the two wines were similar with the My Zin showing a little more fruit. I also tasted the Ridge 2019 Demostene Ranch Blend over the several days and it showed less fruit and body. After those 5 days our 2019 Block 4 was still showing the best of the for wines.
All our sugar tests showed various percentages. The Nebbiolo is still not reading higher than 24% and we want 26. The rest of our Petite Sirah and Carignan are ready to harvest while our Petit Verdot and Mourvedre need several more days. Yesterday we harvested some Second crop and continued today and will finish tomorrow. Then we will harvest our Carignan.
Wednesday October 8, 2025
Big changes today! It is supposed to rain a little tomorrow and then rain for a few days next week SO we need to harvest the rest of our grapes. Carignan will be finished this morning and then next Petit Verdot and Nebbiolo. We only have 3 pickers now, one guy was working in the evening on another job so we let him go. With 3 pickers we can only harvest a few tons today, BUT there are 6 guys in the neighbor's shack who are willing to help. We pay a good price to our guys, $30 an hour so we will pay the same to these 6 new warriors. We will also give a bonus to our regular 3 warriors! We have left.........:one ton more of Carignan, 4 tons of Petit Verdot, a half ton of Nebbiolo, a ton of Mourvedre, a ton of Montepulciano and 3 tons of Petite Sirah. We will harvest today until 4pm and we plan to harvest Friday and Saturday. We should be finished with harvest by then, except for a ton or so of second crop which we can do late next week. It will be fun!!
Noon......I was just informed that Jose and Salvador went out to help also so we have enough warriors out there today to finish the whole rest of the harvest! Jose and Salvador will have to come in soon to start destemming all the fruit that will come in. They have already finished the 4 tons of Petit Verdot so they are moving on to the Petite Sirah. Only 9 more tons...........
Thursday October 9, 2025
Great news, we were able to finish all our first crop yesterday, over 10 tons and we did a ton of Second Crop today and we left some out there in case we get some noble rot and then we can make some late harvest.......
Thursday October 16, 2025
Jose and Salvador are still pressing wine that is near finished fermenting. Like I have said many times before, we leave some sugar in the fermenting wines, about 3% and let the wine finish fermenting in the barrel. I think by finishing in the barrel we preserve more fruit in our wines. Eventually all the sugar is fermented to dry, in other words no sugar is left in our wines. Next week Jose will give me a spreadsheet showing what is in all our barrels and then I can create a spreadsheet showing all our wines. Here is a sample of what the spreadsheet will look like.
Dave
For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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