November, 2009 

	Monday November 2, 2009 8:00 PM: Here I am at a crossroads. I can't decide whether to do a diary or see what I have not. I have recorded the World Series and Monday Night Football. Yes I have not seen the sports so I might come back later if they disappoint.....  Tuesday November 3, 2009 We are on our last two days of harvesting. Today we will also press a lot of wine for the Wine Guerrilla. Yesterday we harvested the last of our Carignan and got great sugar, over 26 brix. Today we are harvesting the Cabernet from our sandy loam. 9:00 Pm: I could get in to my Real Diary, things I have never told anyone, but seriously I have never done anything someone would be surprised at because I am a decent Man. But I have done things that I think are unique, just like all of us. No, tonight I am happy to report Catarino and Salvador will be through picking tomorrow. Matt and I still have about 10 days of intense excitement. We will be processing all this new fruit. I will have more to report tomorrow.  Sunday November 8, 2009 This week has been many tough days as usual but we had Too nice relatives here to keep me on my best behavior which is always hard for me.  This is just a minor adversity I experienced over the last few days There were many more intense experiences that I won't relate because of time: I had to try and install Windows 7. Hey in the past before 2003 I could not wait for the new version of Windows. I think the company has made mistakes since then. When I first got excited about what Microsoft could do in 1992, I wished I could have had the money to invest when Clinton got elected in November and took office in January 1993 TO invest in Microsoft. In November of 1992 you could have invested in Microsoft at $2.46. Microsoft hit a high of $53.25 in 1999. It hit a low the next 2 years of $17.87. Since 1992 the stock has been from a high of $37.50 to a low this year of $16.10. Last week it was between 27 and 29. Last week for the first time I invested in Microsoft.  We are having trouble with Quickbooks again, but Brad and I will figure it out. I only pay Intuit (The Parent Company of Quickbooks) about $250 a year so I can put up with some problems. Tomorrow will be another big day. Matt will be back after two days off. I have had to punch down and such. I survived and I am ready for action tomorrow!  Thursday November 12, 2009 Yesterday was our last press load of wine. It happened to be 5 barrels of Mourvedre for our 2009 Terre Melange. Today is clean up day and tomorrow will be our end of Harvest lunch at Santi restaurant. We will be closed from 11-2 tomorrow and everyone will have the day off but Pat and I. It has been our longest season and 2010 could be longer since I plan on harvesting Pinot Noir for sparkling wine in July. I have to wait 7 months. It will be hard, but I will have plenty to do until then including all the decisions on blending.  Saturday November 28, 2009 I just had a customer in here asking why I have not put up a diary for awhile so I promised him I would. I have been away most of this week visiting my Daughters and my Mother so I am back now and ready to make my blending decisions. We still have 6 wines that are not completely dry so I will have to wait a week or so more to decide on the Carignan and Syrah blends but I do know the syrah will have a pepper component to it and will be very fruity. Today I tasted blind the two Petite Sirah clones. We planted a clone from Doug Rafanelli's vineyard and we kept it separate this year. It is very tannic and mostly hits me in the mid palate. Most of our grapes of Petite Sirah come from vines obtained from a nursery. I tasted that wine today compared to the Rafanelli clone and found it to be more balanced and fruity. I have made the decision to use most of the latter grapes in our 100% 2009 Petite Sirah. Some of the wine from Rafanelli's clone will probably go into our Syrah/Sirah and maybe our My Zin. Also today I tasted Cabernet Sauvignon wine from clone 6 and clone 337. Clone 6 is very complex with more tannin and structure while clone 337 was more fruit driven and balanced. Clone 6 will certainly go into our 100% Cabernet and I will taste our clone 341 cab next week after adding S02 and see how it compares to clone 6 and 337. I will have more to report next week, I promise.
	Dave
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