August 2 - August 15, 2020

	Sunday August 2, 2020 8 So it is Sunday again, how many I have been in this life on Sunday? I know not an important question. But on a Sunday as usual I have to think about the Stock Market opening tomorrow morning......... As usual lately I am obsessed about playing the market, that means I may buy stocks tomorrow morning. I have small positions in Starbucks, Disney since they were down big in March so I should sell them soon. I also bought Google for a trade and all of those stocks are up big. For me it was easy to buy when nobody wanted any stocks in March. Now that we have concern about more virus, I may sell those stocks, but I continue to be confident that Airlines will be great in the next years........also I think Cruise companies will survive and may take longer. I have sold enough cruise stocks and Airline stocks to make a lot of money, but I have been buying a little again as they go down again......... I am sure some of you who read this diary, take a sip or two of wine......I sure do. So you have heard about now we, us, me should only have one glass of wine a day, even with food. Dave Ramey who I still thinks makes the best Chardonnay around here thinks like I do. We taste Wine at dinner with food so obviously these political people who are against all alcohol,........... have the most to say in the news? The Market is open at 6:30 am my time. I will be up for another adventure............ Monday August 3, 2020 8 Yes I did buy more Airlines and Cruise stocks. I still bet they will not go bankrupt so it is an easy trade for me..........as I said it may take a year or more. We finished our bottling so I now have tasted all the wines we bottled. What was interesting, I looked into our results and I see some of the wines I mentioned before which had a little residual sugar, compared to wines that had no sugar left, STILL seemed smother than last year.......... So I need to make this clear. We did have a small amount of wine that did not go to dryness, the dreaded PG&E shutoff. That means there were some barrels which had some sugar left. I decided to blend some of these barrels in our wines we just bottled. Block 4 has some Block One in it which has a little sugar. Block One is maybe the oldest here so it is a mixture of several varieties. In some years it is hard to get this Block one to make sure we do not have sugar left.................. I can tell you some of the wines in competition which have good scores have residual left. We do not enter competition any more. If we entered these wines we just bottled, I am sure we would do well!! So do I think I should leave residual sugar in my wines, that is not my goal. I would rather be remembered who someone did not leave sugar in their wine. I am not in the Pepsi generation.........I rarely have a soda...........I want my wine to stand up to food That said, I mentioned this vintage is smoother than 2018. 2018 seems like it may take longer to come around, because it is a food wine!! That is my final point tonight.........I may be different than some of you, but I like a wine that can stand up to my spicy food, like pizza, BBQ, spicy chicken........ Those wines I am trying to make, to me have less sugar left and are sharp and can to stand up to my food. Still my favorite is Aglianico, but it is not for everyone: If you swirl it around in your mouth, it may give you a pucker............ So I just went out on my scooter, remember my back is giving me trouble to walk, so I went out to the first block and tasted some tart grapes ready to harvest in a month................ Tuesday August 4, 2020 8 So today was a tough time at the beginning. As all you know, I play the stock market at 6am sometimes in pre market and eventually at 6:30 when the Market opens on the West Coast............problem this morning!! I got down here late at 6:25 am and loaded my Live Charts and it did not load. I did see on other sites that my stocks did not need any action right away so I found a number to call...........that a few minutes so I finally found someone who just answered "YES", very rude!! I pay this company $900 a year for their service and to me it is the best out there but to be rude? He did connect me to another place and he said my account was closed. I waited 30 minutes before I got someone else to say: My card was declined and I was sent an email, obviously to my Junk. This guy was nice so I was up and running in a few minutes after I gave them my credit card and was charged for $900. Is it worth it? So I spent several hours to day to see if there is another service like Live Charts. I found after many trials not one does a better job for what I want. I trade a lot and the most important thing to me is seeing live charts after the close when earnings are announced. No other program does this. Nikola reported their earnings after the close and the stock crashed, because they have no earnings, have not sold a car or have even a car in production. This is getting crazy. The Market is predicting Oil, gas  is going away, eventually............. They are supposed to be the Tesla killer. I may buy stock if they ever make a truck........... I have not forgot about my Scooter. I use it to go out and see the vines close here to the vineyard and I have used it to go up a 150 feet to close the gate late in the afternoon. I still have a lot of pain while walking on uneven ground but I have now got into my Treadmill again so that is easier on a controlled surface. I will go out to see the whole vineyard with Catarino tomorrow morning.........we are only weeks away to harvest Pinot Noir and White blend, Luminaire........... Wednesday August 5, 2020 Jose calculated our sugar levels in our 2019 wines with our re calibrated tester and things look good! I had said there may be a little residual sugar left in these 2019 wines but it looks like less than I thought. Many of the wines have no sugar left. The Petit Verdot which won't be bottled until next February has the most but only 0.3 % or just 3 carbs per the whole bottle. The Block 4 has only 2 carbs. The other wine with 3 carbs is the Carignan. Wines with 2 carbs are the Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Estate Cuvee, Terre Melange and My Zin. All the others, including the Block 6, Italiano, Aca Modot, Grenache, Escuro, Aglianico and Lagrein are dry. So the long power outage last Fall did not hurt us much and as I mentioned before, I  like these wines, it will be a very nice vintage. Sunday August 9, 2020  Susie my second Born was here for the last few days so she is always an  adventure. She had Pat and I look at interesting political videos so, I have to remember some later but I did like Vice!! I really saw what I knew, Cheney was A  dedicated person to his Family. I know I did not like what he did at times........interesting movie I highly suggest............... Now Susie has taken my wife away to San Francisco, to our Condo. they will have a nice time in The City. I can have some fun time  alone with  great food.........So I am going to try a new Pizza on Tuesday. I will pick up Pat in the City on Wednesday and go over to see Kate and Bryan's new home in Albany........... The Harvest is near........ 8 It was so much fun!!!! I just went out on my scooter. I know it does not look Manly, but if you had a pain in your back like I do, you would not walk out qtr mile and back. The scooter helps me to get out in the vineyard. It has been hard for the last few years to get out There so I am so happy to taste young grapes again,,............... I can see we have grapes that may be ready in two weeks. So we will start doing sugar samples in Pinot and White grapes tomorrow............ The Market will be open tomorrow at 6:30 Am............................. C Pat is gone for a few days so I made a mess!! She does not like the mess I make but she does like Soft Shell Crab, she has missed out tonight, but I have plenty left for another time. I had 2+ and I still have 2+ left. If anyone knows, they are rich even for me................ Hey, my back is killing me again, maybe it was the adventure out in the vineyard last night on my scooter OR maybe too much Treadmill. Maybe I should go see this doctor I went to several years ago. Like I have said I fell and broke three bones. Maybe he has a solution, but I can say my back pain is not letting up.........so do I stop going anywhere, do I stop going on my treadmill........no way. I am going to fight all the way to stay away from a wheelchair.............OH I did stop taking Ibuprofen three weeks ago. I had been taking 2 in the morning and 2 at dinner time. maybe I should try that again? I was told when my cataract surgery was done To Not take Ibuprofen for a few days...So Tried it and I did survive, but what now??? We did our sugar tests today and some of the readings were a surprise,........like Pinot in the South in thinner soil at 25+ sugar!!!!!! On Friday we will do a bigger test because the North side is only 21+. All along I said we should Harvest the two sections at different times. It looks like Harvest will start on Monday......even the white grapes are heading up in sugar..........fun, fun, fun Tuesday August 11, 2020 Big day for politics. Harris is in. I am so happy, I do not know some things about her past. A few of my friends do not like the choice. One in particular called her a cunt, and a lot more........and she is Democrat and will still vote for Biden. She has a problem from the past!! She will not tell me much but for some reason she hold Harris............ because she had a boy friend : Willie Brown. I Like Harris from what I have seen and as I have said many times I do not hold anyone on the past for what they did. She was 30 and what was wrong, because he was 60.........get over it........every day is a new day.......... Thursday August 13, 2020 I tried two of our new bottled wines with Pizza last night and I was very happy. As I have said. the 2019 wines will be smoother. So I tried the 2019 Block 4 and the 2019 Dave's Cuvee. As a wine maker I have said many times...........I am looking for a wine with a beginning a middle and and end. I know I am not like many of you but I swirl all wines in my mouth before I taste. Of course that gives an intensity. That is what I want........ OK I tried the Block 4 and Dave's Cuvee last night and did them both blind. The Block 4 was a little better. The Dave's Cuvee is great but the Block 4 had a better finish. It is hard to describe unless you swirl. They both have a nice beginning and a middle so nice intensity with great fruit.......enjoy 8 So I piked up Pat in The City, she was visiting Susie. They had a good time. But I thought this is the first time on a year since I drove so far. I think it was 200 miles, first to Petaluma to get ready for my Cataract surgery next Wednesday aaaand then to the condo in S.F. to pick up Pat. We then went over to Albany where Kate and Bryan now live and checked out their place. Kate and Bryan are the same ages as Pat and I when we moved here in 1979 so they are ready to RAISE the house and make it a better place...........Bryan says steel bars will go into the bottom of the house and then I assume I crane will lift the whole house up and make the downstairs much higher............ I had 395 shares of TSLA this morning and sold 10 at 1630. These were shot term trades so I made about 2K. Why did I sell? I have still 385 shares at this time at a cost of 280 or around that.......so that is my core 360 shares. I hate to go into this but I did have 400 shares which was long term, but Schwab screwed up one day. They did not admit.......they said I chose 40 shares of TSLA to be sold that day, old shares. I argued and so nice they gave me 50 trades for free..........hey trades do not cost much now a days so NOW........I only have 360 shares........long term. I sure wish I had my original 400 shares........ That means I still have 25 shares that are still short term? It is late. Do I sell??????????????????? Some reporter asked Trump today about all his lies. He dismissed the reporter and went on to the next question. He is a liar as I have said before because I would never vote for him.............. Some of my Friends and Relatives think Trump will win. I do not think so so I am willing to bet.........hey maybe now that the Raiders are in Vegas............I should make a bet.......... Friday August 14, 2020 OK, I did sell 10 more shares of TSLA so I have enough money for 3 new Model S Plaid. My children are afraid. They think Trump will pull this off again. As I said I may go online and bet. We did many sugar tests today and we will be Harvesting on Monday. The temp today was 109, but my temp gauge on our site does not show what really is accurate so I think it was 111 today. That means we will be up in sugar for all fruit out in our vineyard next week when we do more tests. On an average week during Harvest. Brix, Sugar will go up by 1.5. That means when we had on section of the Pinot at 26 Sugar today, in one week it could be 27.5. Now that is a normal week with averages at 95 high and now it is 109 and going to be 105+ until Monday. OK it is easy, we will start fermenting our Rose and Red Pinot on Monday. Saturday August 15, 2020 It has not cooled down so both Catarino and I are concerned. Catarino can not stay away from here. He loves it here because he can make predictions that I approve. Without Catarino, we would not make the best wine. So Catarino came out today to set the Irrigation to come on at 3am and go off at 9. After thast the soil heats up and the drip does not as good a job. Catarino to make it clear is in charge of the vineyard so he brings me in fruit that may be ready. Since it is still up over 110 degrees here we have to harvest Pinot on Monday and Tuesday. I am concerned about the white grapes for Luminaire so I assume those grapes will come in on Wednesday and Thursday and then we have to worry about Zinfandel, since several times we have harvested Zin in August. Harvest is unpredictable............
	Dave For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
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