December 6 - December 12, 2015

	Sunday December 6, 2015 I took my new Model S 90D out for a short trip Friday to drop off mail, yes I know I could have had someone else drop off the mail but, I wanted to check out this new vehicle. Yes BMW says they are the ultimate Driving Machine, but I have owned three 5 series and they do not come close to my new machine. I am sorry for gushing, I do not do that usually, but this was an amazing drive. So I headed off to drop off some important mail and drove off down Dry Creek Road. I got behind several cars and put on the Autopilot and I was amazed. What was most interesting is it kept me 4 car lengths in back on Dry Creek Rd where I was going about 50 and when we went on to a 35 mile zone it kept me 3 car lengths behind. You can adjust it to be closer. I must admit it is very choppy by automatically putting on the brake and speeding up aromatically to keep me behind the car in front of me. I had the cruise control on Dry Creek Rd set at 56. I went on the highway at 73 miles an hour cruise control and it kept me 5 lengths behind the car in front of me. You have complete control to change anything. The XM radio is still not perfect but it does a far better job than the last one. I have to plan a Trip.............. I wanted to mention I have tried a few 2012 wines recently, mostly mine. I was surprised that I liked the 2012 Block 4 as much as my 2013 Block 4 so I guess the 2012's have matured. Last night I also tried my 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon against a $60 Napa Cab I purchased at Costco. I prerferred my wine because it had more complexity, tannin and fruit character. I must admit I have the Coffaro palate. Josh will be in Tuesday and we will be working on the 2013 sparkling wine again.....It will be fun....... Wednesday December 9, 2015 9:00 Am: The other day I drove down to Windsor, about 40 miles round trip. It was clear but late in the day even so I got a good feel for my new Model S. I found out how to engage the self driving function in Autopilot. I found that on Dry Creek Road it worked fine, but big turns in the road made me nervous so I moved the steering wheel and the self driving function ended. To explain, I found the directions and to make the self driving function to work, I had to keep my hands on the steering wheel, but I could not move it. Moving the wheel a slight bit disengaged the action. On the highway I had the same problem, but this time was different: I like to drive as close to the left side when driving in the fast lane. That way I feel I am safer staying away from the car on my right, but by driving automatically of course the Model S wanted to keep me in the center of the lane which made me move the wheel slightly. I also tried the automatic lane change function and that worked great but still it made me nervous. I have read that Tesla monitors what I do so it is learning more about the Autopilot while I drive, but I am not sure I like this aspect of it. I still like the automatic function that keeps me 5 lengths behind the car in front of me on the highway. It works great also when a car cut in front of me. Automatically the Model S slows down and what is great, this function works whether I am in the lane centering Autopilot or not, in other words I could steer. I will be off tomorrow to take Pat to Santa Rosa but it will be raining so I assume some of these functions will not work as well. We worked on the sparkling wine yesterday and it was an adventure. Josh and Jose will be in here later and I will have a full report then.............. 4:00 Pm:  Yesterday and today we tried many experiments on our 2013 sparkling wine. As reported in the past Matt evidently put too much sugar and yeast in these bottles. The sugar and yeast start a second fermentation in the bottle. The completed fermentation takes several months. Usually there is about one inch of sediment left. In the past we have popped the cap after freezing this small one inch of sediment and this creates a pop and the sediment flies out quickly and we reseal with a cap losing very little and still having 750 ml. BUT since we have several inches of sediment in these 2013 wines we had to top off with more sparkling wine. This is an adventure because no matter how cold we made the sediment and topping wine, there was a big gush out the top of the bottle. It took several seconds to wait for the carbonation to subside and put in enough wine. I then thought of a different method: Why not use anti-foam. Food grade anti-foam is used in labs to dispel foaming in active fermenting wine so tests can be completed. One drop can stop foaming so we tried it on our 2013 Sparkling wine and WOW the gushing carbonation immediately went away and with in a few seconds we could top off the bottles and reseal......BUT would this take away all the carbonation when we wanted to open a fresh bottled and labeled wine? Last night I took one bottle upstairs in the evening after a few hours of capping. I was amazed!! I poured an amount of wine in the glass and it foamed up but then the sparkle disappeared. The taste was still great, with plenty of effervescence in my mouth. I was thinking about marketing something like this and I thought: Gee I have the first sparkling wine that is easy to pour into a flute BUT would customers accept it? I guess I thought, I could sell it for a large discounted price........... This morning after 24 hours we opened another bottle and poured into a flute and WOW the TINY bubbles were back in abundance more than I had ever seen before, beautiful. So as we hoped, the anti-foam dissipated. The expert at the lab where we purchase many things for our wines had not been hopeful when we asked yesterday. She said by putting in anti-foam, we did the same thing like putting oil in boiling pasta. BUT she did not mention that oil like anti-foam would go away after awhile. Josh and I looked up this operation in Google and found that anti-foam is used sometimes in beer and wine so I will wait another day and try another bottle.............After all tomorrow is another day........ Thursday December 10, 2015 Pat is in The City with her sister Janie and Kate, and maybe Bryan. I am home so I can do what ever I want........... I love making wine, everyday is a new experience. But I think we have control. Running this winery is fun. Our sparkling wine is great now and our labels have been approved and on their way in early January, a week or two before we bottle. So as you know this is my diary and I like writing this down so I remember to keep organized. OK, I am trying to convince Pat to take a ride in my new 90D. We should have more range so we only have to charge for a short time in San Mateo..........so yes I am heading to Santa Cruz, maybe........... Our RaiZin wines have been a pleasant surprise: They are from younger vines planted or budded over and they are still projecting their personality. The Zin from those new vines has been different, still expressing spice character but so much smoother than our Old Vines so I love what I do, I learn.
	For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com Dave
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