August 26 - September 8, 2018

	Sunday August 26, 2018 First of all I am saddened to hear of the passing of John McCain. I did not believe in all his views but he was an honest man and never told a lie. I would have accepted him as our president in place of Trump. As a matter of fact I would have accepted any of the last nominees in any of the political parties in my life time. Trump is a disgrace, just my opinion........ My wife is away again. I think she likes the SF Giants and her sister Janie more than I. Hey I had Paella last night so I am happy. We have had issues with our main air conditioner in the winery and I have spent many dollars having someone come out and say "Everything looks fine"!! All I know when we have tried it lately, it does not work. A nice guy is coming out today with his wife who likes Merlot (We hope to trade wine) so hopefully he will help us out. He says maybe it is the thermostat which I have suggested for years and he is the only one who says, maybe................. We did an analysts on the 2017 wines bottled Friday and there is a little residual sugar in our 2017 Estate Cuvee. For me it makes the finish of the wine smoother. I still think it is better if no sugar is left in wine. Most wineries filter their wine which strips the wine (my Opinion) but since almost all large wineries filter, they think it is important. By filtering, I think character is lost. Think logically? By running through a tight filter, something is removed. When grapes are harvested, they have the most sugar, by fermenting we change the sugar into alcohol. Most of our red grapes come in at 23-24 percent sugar and we are aiming for no sugar left after fermenting. It takes about a week at high temperatures (Most wineries ferment at lower temps) so we press and I like to leave a little sugar left, well some after that do not go dry............ Josh was too easy. He was the first winemaker to be at other wineries. Brendan and Matt had no experience when the came here so I taught them my style of producing wine. Josh did not ask many questions while the wine was fermenting. I left him alone. Now that Jose is doing all the work maybe I can produce wine in my style again. Don't get me wrong, the wines during the time Josh was here were very nice wines and most of the main things I have done in the past were done. I think what can be improved is the addition of some ingredients which help fermentation finish to dryness. I am looking forward to this new Harvest. 8:00Pm: I have to admit I cry at some movies and I cry when someone I think should be here to influence us. John McCann was one I cried for last night when I heard of his passing. I was up for several hours hearing all the tributes to him and also today with so many people who had great things to say about him but one person who did not say anything was Trump............. Tomorrow is another day Wednesday August 29, 2018 We started bottling again on Monday and Tuesday. We bottled 2017 Dave's Cuvee, RaiZin and 100% Zinfandel. I have tasted all the wines and I still prefer the 2017 wines over the 2016 wines. Today we are bottling the 2017 Terre Melange and Grenache. I as usual will be tasting the 2016 versions to compare. Catarino and I took a walk in the vineyard yesterday and we think we are off at least three weeks on the Zinfandel. We still hope to harvest the Pinot Noir next week. I looked back in records and in 2011, 2012 and 2013 Zinfandel was picked toward the end of the second week of September. In 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Zinfandel was started in the last week of August. Every year is different in many ways. We noticed a lot of burn on leaves from all the high 100 degree plus temperatures in July and early August. In the last week or so we have had much lower highs so the vines are resting and probably some of the sugars have gone down. It looks like the forcast is for higher temperatures starting tomorrow. For the next 10 days we see no mention of 100 degree plus highs so fruit ripening should now proceed in a normal fashion? We are prepared for anything.............  Thursday August 30, 2018 Tomorrow is another day.............. Gee TSLA is down again so Piked up shares for a trade Tomorrow we will finish bottling our 2017 10 Month wines. It has been an adventure too much to tell. Text week we have to get prepared for our bottling of 2017 16 Month wines. I love the intensity of Aglianico, Lagrein, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Italiano and Zp2z..............I can't have them, the 2017 16 Month wines, until January, maybe February. I am glad I have 2015, 2016 Aglianico............. I am upset about Trump, no surprise. He now is trying to move USA citizens out, Of course they are only Hispanics............   Sunday September 2, 2018 On Tuesday we will start racking our 2017 16 Month wines which I love more than what we just bottled, our 10 month. Sure I love Block 4 but I thought 2017 Carignan was better..........so with 20 plus wines open tonight it is hard.............. So on Tuesday, (when the blending of 2017 16 Month wines occur) I want a bottle of all my more intense wines, Maybe Next year I should go back to making all versions? It is getting warmer and we will be harvesting in a few days. I am thinking about a new DC Fusion which would be low alcohol, but now a vintage instead of blending 2010 wine. We will test many areas of our vineyard on Tuesday.........I love what I do......It will be an adventure like all years........unpredictable.....    Tuesday September 4, 2018 It has been an interesting few days. It looks like we will be installing a deck......long story........And we are stripping all the old epoxy on our winery and installing new. also we have to harvest Pinot tomorrow............tomorrow is another day...tennis, Nadal.............Raiders......why lose your best player. I could go on, but there is so much more going on...................Trump Thursday September 6, 2018 We did harvest Pinot yesterday, nice sugar so we have plenty to send to our Wine Club. We just did a sugar test on old vine zinfandel and it looks like it may be ready so we will try a load tomorrow. Since we need to Harvest we are not going to refinish the whole winery floor. We need the winery to store the fermenters. Saturday September 8, 2018 Yesterday was a long day, a lot to deal with: our tasting area and new deck and also Elon Smoked a joint of some sort. And Nadal retired........too many things to relate We harvested old vine Zin Yesterday and more today. It has been an adventure. There is a lot of rot because of low temperatures, 70 degrees high for many days, sure we had 100 degree plus highs before that, but what happened is the fruit on the vines went way up in sugar by dehydrating BUT then when the fog came in, moister on the ground caused bunches that were touching together to start to ferment. Gee, then the fermentation had just started on the vine and could not complete. This is a long story but if we could wait a few days the fermentation inside the bunches would be complete..........that means the bunches that were starting to rot would be converted to nice dried fruit..........long story So the sugar tests as I sat under the destemmer were varied. I got 21's and 26's so I think the sugar overall was just right but we pulled out many rot bunches.............So do I wait for those bunches in many more sections like Block 4 to sit for a few days and see if the bunches dry out to nice character......... We decided at this point to pick some more today. The high yesterday was 98 and the high tomorrow will be similar so we will pick in an area we hope will be fine and pick some more on Monday. We can't wait too long since I heard colder temperatures with fog will be a back in a few days.
.	Dave For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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