December 7 - December 31, 2014

	Tuesday December 23, 2014 10:30 Pm: We are home from a trip up North to pick up Susie who is here now from Seattle. Pat and I stayed on the Oregon Coast for two days. The weather the whole trip was rainy all hours, so we saw no sun. Some of the restaurants were closed on our trip so we had no great food but I am easy these days, we had some nice drinks and good wine so I had a great time to escape. My only regret is that I made a mistake on the way back on the only day it was sunny. We were on our way home yesterday and we were starting our drive from I5 over to Lake County. It is a big transition and decision on which of three routes to take back to 101, which is more on the coast. On I5 I usually drive 78 in a 70 mile zone..............10 miles over the speed zone is OK. When we went on Highway 20 to Ukiah, I have traveled the windy roads, like 175 and decided: I don't need the challenge of driving as fast as I can on a windy road.........it is fun but a lot of concentration on every turn. So yesterday I decided the straighter road but still it has some mountain turns, but not as bad as Highway 175. So I get behind a car that is going 55 in a 55 mile zone. I want to drive 63 or 64 and still not get a ticket. I see a break of cars on the other direction so I dart ahead of this car and Susie goes wow, our car is fast and I look and saw I was up to 80 or so immediately AND then in back of me, this Porsche goes past me at 85 or so and darts in front of me so I thought it was cool. The next break was a passing lane, so I waited for him to pass three cars ahead of us going slow........and he hesitated, maybe to bate me? He then went out fast and I had no trouble keeping up..........I heard Pat say you are going 95. It seemed OK to me. Then I saw he had one more car to pass before the passing lane ended so I stepped on the peddle and tried to be right in back of him while he passed the last car.................I must have been going 100............... The next thing I saw was not good, within a split second both the car in front of the Porsche and the Porsche, slowed way down and I slammed on my brakes and stopped faster than I thought, possible. All three of our cars slowed to 50 as we went around a wide curve AND we all saw a California Patrol Officer. Susie Pat and I waited for him to follow us and slap us with a BIG fine but he stayed there. We guessed he did not see any of what we did back around the curve. I will never try that again. This Model S is way too fast............I slowed way down after that  Monday December 29, 2014 We had Pat's family here last week........it was a challenge but I really like the interaction I get from this great family. It is always fun. Kate, Susie and Pat were all here last Friday and we opened our gifts. I saw my Mother yesterday and we had a nice visit. Pat has decided to stay in The City for two days so I am on my own and it was Sunday so I had pizza as usual.......fun Today Matt and I will finalize our plans for bottling next week. I am looking forward to bottling some 2013 16 Month wines. 10:00 Pm: I am mellowing out tonight and thinking about this next year. I love New Years Eve so we have two nice friends who knew Pat before me..........we will have a nice time listening to Elvis, because of Gena and me, but Peter and Pat will enjoy also. Pat is gone until tomorrow so I can do what I want. My two daughters say I should look at movies when I am by myself..........the reasoning is that Pat will not look at some of the movies I want to watch, but sometimes I want to write since i have time now by myself. I like to cook so I am having great food BUT I need to go on a low carbo diet soon...........I digress Matt came in today more focus than usual. Well all the employees here had many days off during the holidays. Since they are on salary, they are not on the hour, they get the same pay whether they are here or home because of the holidays or especially when it rains. These employees seemed to be well rested, not like me with the trip up North and Family matters. SOO I was not ready for the nice interactions between Cindi an Matt and then Catarino on all of us. We had some nice times today. Matt had some suggestions about selling more wine on special, Cindi had good suggestions also. I took it in and I have decided, yes we do have more vines coming on and we can produce more wine SO we can sell more wine at a lower price...........nice discussions with Matt Long ago I figured up the price of wine I needed to pay for all my luxuries, like a Tesla and Cruises, and our two properties, one in Seattle where Susie lives and one in San Francisco where Kate lives. I found out if I sold 5,000 cases I could generate enough money to live comfortably. I am not a greedy person!! I want to offer my wine which I think is as good as any around here.......for a reasonable price. OK, at 5,000 cases I am doing fine. If I sell more I I have figured out what it costs me to make one more bottle. In other words, after paying for all my other living expenses, including employees who are on salary, it would only cost me $2. That includes the electricity which now costs me nothing because we are all on Solar, so sure I could include in the cost of that, but it is already payed for so I am always thinking of cash flow: What comes in and what gooes out. OK, here is what I mean: As some of you know by purchasing my wine, if you buy on Futures you can purchase Dry Creek Zin and other great wines for as little as $14. That obviously is less than any other winery around here. My cost, after all my expensives is about $13...........So,....... I make money if I sell 5,000 cases. We have made about 5,000 cases for the last several years and we have been selling about that amount. I am growing more vines now and in the next few years we will be producing as much as 7,000 cases. I have to sell my grapes at $3 a bottle if I don't make more wine, ($2500 a ton going price for Zin here which costs a winery about $3 a bottle). I want to make more wine.................. I have decided to sell a wine called Dave's Cuvee for a very low price, but not $3............long story........ but it will be less than $10 on "Futures". That means if we sell more than 5,000 cases we all will be better off.
	For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com Dave
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