David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery

arrow August 23 - August 29, 2015

Sunday August 23, 2015


I just upgraded to Windows 10 and I really like it. I will be purchasing some Microsoft tomorrow along with other stocks, like Apple. I may even buy back some Google and add to my Tesla. The main reason to do this diary is to make sure Windows 10 does not mess up my upload so here goes.....

8:30 Pm: so as i said before, maybe, tomorrow is a transition day, we will have Catarino take many samples and it will be so much fun to see what has happened in the vineyard. This is early for Harvest, the earliest ever so the numbers for calculating great wine may be different than,........ before harvests back my 37 years.

Josh and I are really confused. I have never seen this happen before!! All the fermentations brought in in the last week are not fermenting much. Sure we understand, the yeast we tried was too old, but why did the first fermentation with the Pinot go through with no trouble with this same yeast,,,,,,,,,,,,,Soooooooooo we are confused

Like I said earlier I will make some trades tomorrow.........

Catarino will be here after three days off, he will be upset because he wants to work here and not be home all the time.........long story

So yes Catarino can't wait to learn more about this harvest SSOoooooooo why did our last fermentations stop? Josh and I worked to add a much more violent yeast to see if we can get these masses of grapes to start making alcohol. Alcohol occurs naturally, that is what is confusing us. Just check this out: Leave any fruit out in the open in your kitchen and it will make alcohol after a few days. It will not look pretty, it may have mold on it if you do not mix it around in the first few days so just add a little water..........you will have an alcohol fruit thing.........will it be good, probably not but it will have alcohol...............SOOOOOOOOOOO

When Josh and I walked into the winery at 9am we were shocked...................:::::::::::all the containers were at about 75 degrees. When I have fermented before a fermentation would be well over 80 degrees by now SO I am confused because just naturally as I described before my fruit after 3 days should be making alcohol...........

We added a lot of an active yeast so we will see what happens tomorrow..........tomorrow is anther day.................

Monday August 24, 2015

8:00 Pm: Some politics were interesting today but of course I was focus in the winery first but most interest was in the Market. As you have seen over the years I call my love the market more than just...............The Dow, I was gravitated to, because of it's history, So yes it is only https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average

I agree it is only 30 stocks so why do I still follow,,,,,,,,,./because it has a longer history than.......... nas......,500 russs, seriouly none of those averages excised when the 1929 Crash happened. So when 2008 occurred, I still watch only the DOW, 30 only it still was accurate to predict and chart what happened. So is this another crash, I doubt it, I  bought,AAPL, Msft and GOOGL before the market started. Things may go down again tomorrow as I predicted but it will be interesting in the FIRST hour to see if the lows hold OTHERWISE I will be putting all I have into the market...................

I Have to leave, Pat and I do not have a Giants game to watch so we are looking at a movie.........

Tuesday August 25, 2015

9:00 Pm: Sometimes I think I am in another dimension in the evening, Like I have a break................Finally.........this is the big time for our winery. In the next week we will pull in all our old vine Zinfandel including our Block 4...........Block 4 has vines that no one could identify. It is almost a mystery. I could not find anyone who owned this vineyard before me and Roscoe. Roscoe trusted me and gave me a first Loan and he carried the second. He was so nice to me after I was here for a few months. Before me when he sold this property in 1975, He had come out to see his sold ranch, he was just down the road in a nice place........he would come out and found no one here. He had sold the vineyard, he loved, about my age now.......and these engineers were too busy to take care of the vineyard SO is an engineer ready to take over, we will see.........

I got lucky, Roscoe and I were ready to take a chance........seriously I remember on the phone with Roscoe,....... I guess I told him my whole life, maybe but he said OK...............so

I bought 23.99 acres for $249,500 a lot of money back in 1979, right at the start of another oil crisis.........wow how things have changed so TOMORROW do I buy more Tesla, Google, Amazon or do I buy more of Baidu or Alibaba. There is Facebook, still expensive like Tesla, but I drive a Tesla and it is much more interesting to me SSOO Pat put up a video, It took her a along time because we 4 or 5 guys were more interested in making wine So check out a great new star, Pat, of course on FB.

So we are bringing in more Old Vine Zin tomorrow, maybe all of it. I have 15% cash and I could find more money to buy tomorrow OR some are saying the Market will go down more. I have more time in the past 55 years watching the market than anyone I know so I have seen many of these drops. 2008-9 was the best to buy, this could get better but it will never go down as much as 2008, darn, but it could go on for awhile which is good for all of us who have cash. So I am selling my marginal stocks like all of you should.

Wednesday August 26, 2015

9:00 Pm: Somebody was born on this date, probably a cousin or uncle.............

Today was a long day................

It started out normal, we would harvest about 4 tons, actually only 3.35 old vine zin. It looks like a low crop, but the color is dark, hopefully that means good quality, but time will tell...........So that great fruit was in my noon.....

Of course before that, about 7am I came down to check out the Market. I was not surprised so we had a rally.......so what!! I really think we had a bottom on Monday morning when I bought AAPL at 99, pre-market. I had a limit in at 103.5 but it opened at 5am my time at 99 so I was filled and in a few seconds, it went to 92 and a few seconds later it was at 103. Computers, I guess, but there was no way you could have bought at 92 so I did alright. I also bought Microsoft at 41.5 and Google at 615 and Amazon at 486. I love buying in a crash. We could go lower and that will be fine with me. I have a third in cash now, so I sold my small spec stocks and I know I will regret it in the future. I still have all my Tesla, but it is volatile, they need to announce the Model X production soon.............. 

So we planned to press the Barbera today, about 3 barrels, but Josh said the other fermenters were very active and we could press them also. Sure I said, if you want. Block One, The New RaiZin or My Zin section. That was 7 tons to press. It was fun to see Josh loving what he does, I think he may have the passion, strong and barely controllable emotion., Jose looks like he could be somewhere else. He is a great worker, and is very fast, but this is hard work so I feel for him, passion is necessary......that is why wine making is so interesting!!! It has to be fun. Like I have said since I have been here almost all of the wineries have sold out..........

We had barrels delivered today, we had sales people to convince me to buy my barrels on a lease........long story, and we brought in 3.35 tons of Block 3, remember. Josh, Salvador and Jose left about 6 or so and they did a great job. We filled over 18 barrels today about 450 cases potential. We talked and coordinated for the first time and we are now prepared for the rest of the Harvest.

Catarino is the block!! He is my best friend..............

Thursday August 27, 2015

9:45 Pm: Some of you have said I am acting more happy and I am. I get to make all the final decisions, but it is easier with Josh and Jose helping in the winery.

I guess I was wrong. Pat said, Josh, Jose and Salvador left at 6:45 Pm yesterday after a long day. I think I said by 6. Salvador works maybe the longest now. He was here from 6:30 until 6:45, over 12 hours. I told him to stay home today when he went home last night but he said "I want to work". What could I say. Today He was here with his wife at 6:30 Am..........

So Catarino, my Block, keeps me motivated like my wife. Both Catarino and Pat know they can set me straight..........I can be gruff

Today was one of those transition days, which helps me think. My first question to Catarino is either "what took so long" OR "What are we doing next?" Catarino and I meet everyday at 8:30 Am. Pat and I greet him, she is much nicer than I, I just want to get to the point, because I know what he and I are thinking...............Harvest........when will the next fruit come in??? What is going on????

I decided we are picking Lagrein tomorrow for our first batch of the new wine: "Itlaliano"...Catarino brought in three separate times ............5 Buckets of sampled grapes this morning. It still was a hard decision and it took the weather forecast and 103 high today to decide...We also have a few grapes from a neighbor who has Sangiovese, A true Italiano grape. We may have a ton total for Italiano so it will be fun.

The weather has warmed again so we had over 100 today. We will be harvesting the rest of our Zin and then by the end of next week, some Block 4?

The Market, I can't say much more. The bottom may have been on Monday morning when AAPL reached 92 for one second and Amazon was 451, TESLA was 195, BIDU was 100 and Google was 594 all in one second. I bought Apple at 99 as I said but no one bought at those prices. So are computers running most things on the stock market. Most of us think so.

OK ALL These stocks are up big all over 15%, some much more, on Thursday AAPL is 113, Amazon is 521 in post trading, Tesla is 243, Google is 668, but the biggest move came from the Google of China, Baidu. China won't let Google in so Baidu has a monopoly in China, they are a Chinese company and if you think China will be bigger in the next 5 years, I would invest in BIDU. As I said you could have purchased BIDU at 100 for one second Monday morning, gee I wonder who got that trade. The volume was overwhelming on Monday in the first few minutes. BIDU within 5 minutes was at 134, it closed today at 152. I would sure feel bad if I sold. BIDU is a speculation. I do not trust the Chinese Government but BIDU and Alibaba would he big, if you think the economy will grow.



For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com

Dave


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