Weeks 42 - 43
October 23, 2005 to November 5, 2005 

	Tuesday October 25, 2005 Yesterday Catarino picked about 600 lbs of Late Harvest Sauv Blanc. We are still pressing it today. Right now it looks like we will have about 40 cases of half bottles to sell. The brix after pressing will be about 41. I am hoping the wine will stop naturally at 14 to 15% alcohol and 16 residual sugar.  Monday October 31, 2005 We have made a decision to raise the prices for our 2005 Futures by $1 on average and our 2004 bottled wines by about $2. The effective date will be November 4th. Our supply 2003 and 2004 wines is getting very low, but we will have a great deal of 2005 wines to sell.  We are also considering including a larger group of customers into the Vintage Circle which will help offset these higher prices. Since June we have been including new customers in to the Vintage Circle who buy a total of two cases at one time. We may change our rules by including past customers who buy a total of two cases in a calendar year. We may even include customers, at a slightly lower discount, who have been loyal by buying one case of futures every year. I have started barrel tasting our 2005 wines already. We have Pinot and four zins to taste and I am real excited about the 2005 Terre Melange which will be so fruit driven with the Alvarelhao, Peloursin, Syrah and Mourvedre blended together. The Carignan and Block 4 are real big wines and the Tannat is real creamy. Come by and taste.  Thursday November 3, 2005 Can you imagine being the President of the United States. I don't necessarily mean President Bush. Every President has had a crises in their term. But think about it: you have to keep secrets. You can not tell the public or even people around you all the truth. And of course those who are around you want to give answers you will accept. I am glad I have control of my small winery here. I can promise that we will make great wine with this 2005 vintage. OR am I feeding you information you want to hear??  I checked one barrel of the 2005 Block 4 and it still has a little sugar left to ferment. It should be through fermenting in the next week. The winery was cooling down so I turned on the heat to raise the temperature to 70 degrees. Tomorrow I will bring back some of the wines that were pressed last week. I say bring them back since we have to store atleast 20 barrels over in the storage building. The problem is that the storage building has no heat and we need 70 degrees to make sure the fermentation converts all sugar into alcohol. That will make the wine stable. Unless a winemaker filters, a wine should have no sugar left when bottling. A wine that is not stable can referment in the bottle. I am sure you have had a wine that is a little spritzy? It is refermenting, a flaw. Of course there is Sparkling wine which is another subject. Also the Peloursin has a little sugar left. Tomorrow I will move some wines that have finished fermentation over to the storage building and bring back some barrels that need a temperature of 70 degrees. It will be a long day. Saturday November 5, 2005 The Aca Modot components were the most impressive today. Petite Verdot / merlot, First crop cab with Cab Franc and 100% cab from this Old Pomo Indian site. We will be pulling out the cab from this site. I have mixed emotions on whether I should take out my best stuff. Oh sure maybe the old vine Zinfandel is better and I will never take that out, but I love cab and this Aca Modot Cabernet is the best I have produced. It is intense!! And I am saving 20 cases for my self. That leaves only 25 cases left to sell. I love tasting this wine out of the barrel for the first time in this last week. People love it, because I love it, so It would be good to keep it in the mix of barrel samples. The question is "should I restrict the sale of Aca Modot to 2 or three bottles? I know all of you would say yes, but I hate someone who cuts me short. SOOO if you want more Aca Modot, get it quick. It will be sold out soon.  We had well over 100 people in today and I went around tasting barrel samples 6 times. I actually tasted many of the barrels for the first time. I can confirm!..... This will be another great vintage. There have been a few people mentioning the possibility of my running for President after my last entry on November Third. No I'm kidding, I just want to say, I am dedicated to making the best wine I can.
	Dave
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