August 28 - September 3, 2016

	Monday August 29, 2016 Our 3 bins of Old Vine Zinfandel in the 3rd block are perking along slowly. The temperature is still in the 70's because the fruit was piked early in the morning 4 days ago. The juice swelled up to 25 sugar the first day and this morning the brix was still at 25% sugar and we have a little over 1% alcohol. We may have to add some water to re-hydrate if the raisins soak up and add more sugar. The acid level is very high so I have decided to wait another few days before we harvest more of our old vines. We will do some more sugar tests either Wednesday or Thursday. I sent in all the paper work to Chase to see if they will see my side and rule in my favor regarding the POS system with Revel. As I said before they held back 35% for a restocking fee after agreeing to terminate my agreement with them. I was told after the fact that this was stated in their terms of agreement with me. I have looked through the whole agreement and I do not see that fact. Also I have emails saying my contract had ended and there was no mention of a restocking fee then. It is a long story as I have said so let's see what happens. 8:00 Pm: If Donald can say what he thinks, I guess I can. I think women in all my 73 years are better than we men. I have said this before in front of many. I have made mistakes in the past, but where I differ from Trump is I am specific when I say what I did not respect. Isn't it about respect? I have to go up and look at 4K, including that song!!!!!, yes I just purchased the Epson 5040ube. It is wireless HDMI and works perfectly with no lip sync problem after setting it to PERFECT, no delay or too much upfront, which is rare.......I digress. The projector took me two days to notice, hey I have other things to see.............. So last night and maybe this night I will have more time, but I noticed last night even when I had an old DVD disc on standard def, the video was so much better than I remembered. At my age Video quality is not as important than in my past.......Gee, I remember not too long ago watching one of the Lord of Rings in one evening, 3 hours. Today I would rather read a book for one of those hours and go back the next day to finish both.............. Tomorrow I have decided to take off a day and go back for the final closing arguments and the decision on the Ponzo trial. I still do not know much of what the trial is about but I know it has been going on for well over a month so it must be about money more than any of us have......... The Us Open Tennis is up now and my past obsession, Nadal is back so I will be interested.......life goes on........  Wednesday August 31, 2016 The high yesterday was 97. The fog has dissipated and we may get hotter next week. We will start harvesting again tomorrow and finish our old vine Zinfandel in the 3rd block. Right now Catarino and Martha are out collecting sugar samples from many sections to see where we stand about future areas to pick. 11:15 Am: We have sugar samples in. The 4th Block South which is all Zinfandel thus not harvested with our Block 4 wine came in at 30.0%, shocking and hopefully not that high when we harvest. We have decided to pick for the next three days and Monday. When the grapes are ready Labor Day is a work day. So tomorrow and Friday we will finish the rest of the 3rd Block and a little of the 4th Block. On Saturday we will finish the 4th Block. On Monday we will pick Block One which will go into our Block 4 Field Blend. The rest of the sugar tests came in with various percentages: Zinfandel on the knoll came in at 24, Zinfandel South at 24.3, Zinfandel new vines clone 13 at 19.5, Lagrein at 24.1, Barbera at 24.8, Grenache at 23.2 and Syrah at 18.4. We also did a sample of a small one ton section of Grenache which will go to our winery and it came in at 24.7. The rest of the Grenache will go to other wineries. It looks like on Tuesday we may pick Block 4 North, the Field Blend. We may do a sugar test but usually it is hard to do since there are so many different varieties and at different percentages. Lagrein, Barbera and Grenache will follow. This Friday we will test our Petite Sirah which usually comes in around this time. The sugar tests on the Petite Sirah a few weeks ago came in very low so we will see. Friday September 2, 2016 We brought in 4 tons of our old vine Zinfandel yesterday. We started in the 3rd Block and decided to pick a load from the 4th Block South. Both areas came in with a sugar of over 27%. We will need to rehyrate all the fermentations. Today we will finish in both sections and tomorrow we will harvest Block One for our Block 4 Field Blend. I will take off Sunday and drive down to San Francisco to pick up both my daughters and make a quick visit to see my Mother. On Monday we will start picking in our 4th Block North where the rest of the fruit is for our Block 4 wine.
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