David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery Winemaker's Diary

Week 26
June 23, 2002 to June 29, 2002 


  Wednesday June 26, 2002

There are so many personal things that have happened in the last week that I have had little time to write a diary. I know that is an excuse, but one event was my first born's 17th birthday. Since she is interested in boys and universities my life has gotten more complex.

I know many of you have been interested in my update on the 2002 crop. My impression right now is that if you have not ordered our 2002 pre-harvest wines that you might wait and see. I am very honest about these predictions and often I am wrong, but I will state the facts as usual. I hear from many of my winemaking friends that they see a drastic loss in crop due to the wind and rain a few weeks ago. I agree that I do see some shattering (lack of berries in the middle of the bunch), but there still is a big crop in our vineyard this year. The biggest crop since 1991. 1991 Produced great quality, but I thought I could have done better. In 1991 I was just selling grapes for a living and saw dollar signs with this big crop. I did not thin (cut off crop), and the weather stayed warm. That enabled me to harvest cabernet as late as November. Since I remember 1991 and want to do better, I have Caterino thinning many bunches this week. I have complete confidence that I will produce good wine. Only the vintage can determine whether it will be great.

I will talk about our bottling of 2001 wines tomorrow. 

Friday June 28, 2002

Right now the plan for bottling has tentatively been set. Plans can change, but right now I would like to bottle our 2001 wines starting on the 6th. On Saturday the 6th we will bottle our 2001 Carignan (388 Cases). On Monday the 8th we will bottle our zin (940 Cases). On Tuesday it will be the Syrah (180), Terre Melange (435) and Pinot (75). On Wednesday we will do the Petite Sirah (380) and Block 4 (290). On Thursday we have the Estate Cuvee (928). And on Friday we will finish with our Aca Modot (325) and then blend the ZP2C which will be bottled in August. These will be long days and thus things could go wrong as usual, but we can always extend the work days into Saturday the 13th or even Monday. I will keep you posted as to whether we will have additional wine to sell for the varieties that are now sold out. I promise to pour all the wines on the 13th, 20th and 27th and those of you wishing to exchange wines may do so then. 


Dave

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