David Coffaro Winery and Vineyard Winemaker's Diary 2001 week 18

David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery Winemaker's Diary

Week 18

April 29, 2001 to May 5, 2001

Monday April 30, 2001
Finally I can start thinking about something important: my birthday. I know most of you don't like to celebrate your birthday let alone tell us how old you are. On Thursday May 3rd I will be 58 years old and I love celebrating because I am happy to be alive. My two daughters and Pat will join me at Cafe LoLo in Santa Rosa for dinner. On Friday I will gather with other members of my family, who don't want to admit their age, at my Mother's house in Millbrae (100 miles away). On Saturday I will celebrate my birthday at Gary Danko's restaurant in San Francisco with close friends. Next Saturday the 12th, Brendan and I will get together for his birthday (may 7th) and mine again for an all Sonoma Foie Gras dinner at my house. I love birthdays.
The initial look at the crop level in the vineyard for our 2001 wines, reveals a concern for Zinfandel fruit. Last year I said, at this time of year, that the crop looked normal. But by harvest time we found out that we had less fruit than we expected. I did buy some Neighbors' zinfandel for last year, but I am determined not to that this year. I want to buy less fruit this year no matter what happens. Don't worry, because even if we have an extremely low crop, I will be able to make enough wine to satisfy all the orders we have received so far and for the next 2 and one half weeks. Actually we have sold about 1400 cases since our initial offering on March 26th. We plan on making 4000 cases. Remember this is wine that will not be made until September and October. I thank you for your confidence in me. I will promise you that I will continue to provide you with good wine and I will not let you down. I feel all of you who have sent in your orders faithfully, by our first deadline of April 30th should be rewarded in some way. I have decided that I shall raise our prices on our 2001 wines by 50 cents except Aca Modot which will be raised to $18. I know this is a small increase, and hopefully will not discourage those of you who have not ordered yet. The 2001 pre harvest futures offer will end on May 18th.
This Saturday we were open with food and opera on the big screen. Brendan complained about the opera so on Sunday we projected Woodstock and Madonna in windscreen. We are not participants in the Passport event (this last weekend) but we did know some of you wanted to come by and pick up your 1999 wines and taste the 2000. We had about 25% of the tasters as last year, but we were happy that we had 50% of last years sales. I even got out and joined in some of the festivities at some friend's wineries such as Wilson, Lambert Bridge, Everett Ridge, Unti and Yoakim Bridge. I even got out to visit wineries that I had never seen before including Amphora and Raymond Burr. I was really impressed with the 1999 zins throughout the valley. I plan on buying many of them for my own consumption.

Dave

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	*Monday April 30, 2001* Finally I can start thinking about something important: my birthday. I know most of you don't like to celebrate your birthday let alone tell us how old you are. On Thursday May 3rd I will be 58 years old and I love celebrating because I am happy to be alive. My two daughters and Pat will join me at Cafe LoLo in Santa Rosa for dinner. On Friday I will gather with other members of my family, who don't want to admit their age, at my Mother's house in Millbrae (100 miles away). On Saturday I will celebrate my birthday at Gary Danko's restaurant in San Francisco with close friends. Next Saturday the 12th, Brendan and I will get together for his birthday (may 7th) and mine again for an all Sonoma Foie Gras dinner at my house. I love birthdays. The initial look at the crop level in the vineyard for our 2001 wines, reveals a concern for Zinfandel fruit. Last year I said, at this time of year, that the crop looked normal. But by harvest time we found out that we had less fruit than we expected. I did buy some Neighbors' zinfandel for last year, but I am determined not to that this year. I want to buy less fruit this year no matter what happens. Don't worry, because even if we have an extremely low crop, I will be able to make enough wine to satisfy all the orders we have received so far and for the next 2 and one half weeks. Actually we have sold about 1400 cases since our initial offering on March 26th. We plan on making 4000 cases. Remember this is wine that will not be made until September and October. I thank you for your confidence in me. I will promise you that I will continue to provide you with good wine and I will not let you down. I feel all of you who have sent in your orders faithfully, by our first deadline of April 30th should be rewarded in some way. I have decided that I shall raise our prices on our 2001 wines by 50 cents except Aca Modot which will be raised to $18. I know this is a small increase, and hopefully will not discourage those of you who have not ordered yet. The 2001 pre harvest futures offer will end on May 18th. This Saturday we were open with food and opera on the big screen. Brendan complained about the opera so on Sunday we projected Woodstock and Madonna in windscreen. We are not participants in the Passport event (this last weekend) but we did know some of you wanted to come by and pick up your 1999 wines and taste the 2000. We had about 25% of the tasters as last year, but we were happy that we had 50% of last years sales. I even got out and joined in some of the festivities at some friend's wineries such as Wilson, Lambert Bridge, Everett Ridge, Unti and Yoakim Bridge. I even got out to visit wineries that I had never seen before including Amphora and Raymond Burr. I was really impressed with the 1999 zins throughout the valley. I plan on buying many of them for my own consumption.

	*Dave*
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