October 29 - November 25, 2017

	Monday October 30, 2017 It is finally cooling down here. We only got up to 73 today and it is supposed to rain by the end of the week SO it has been time for me to cut and paste into my excel spreadsheet. That meaning, I am blending the 2017 barrels in to the all the different wines we will be making this year. It is always fun to have all the pieces to the puzzle and deciding where they will go. We start racking and thus really blending in December so it will be fun. I have decided to make a RaiZin and My Zin along with a Terre Melange. We had not decided for sure to make some or all of those wines. Next year we will be making an Escuro, but not this year. As I have said with the new canopy to temporarily store our empty glass for bottling, we will have more room to store wine in the buildings. Friday November 3, 2017 We are back from two days in Santa Cruz, fun with the new Tesla 100D, charged down there at a new place two blocks from where we stayed, no need for a supercharger this time. Watched both games series, one in our room and the next day on the final game in the Ideal Cafe for a whole Lobster at 15.95. Then back up in our great loft up at the Beach Street Ins. So we saw the ending in game 7. Nice 65 degree weather out on the surf. It is plenty hot out on the deck in full sun. I had other things to think about......... So our first day, Tesla reported their earnings at 1:35 our time. Then Elon came on to say, about: maybe: "I am depressed, I am not getting sleep, my robots are not acting the way I want AND I can't be in Reno to see why they are screwing up? I have faith in Tesla, but really? So before the presentation on 2:30Pm November 1, I had bought 50 shares at 220. As matter of fact I said to Pat and Susie...."I should sell now on November 1, close at 332, my 50 shares and pay for our stay here", Yes at the close on November 1, Tsla was at 332. I bought more since so now my cost is at 309. I have a small loss on my 125 shares of a trade..........TSLA went down from 332 to 291 in one day and closed at 306. I have spent many days looking at our possibilities for our new wines for 2017. I will have more info tomorrow......... Saturday November 4, 2017 Here is my blending sheet. As you see we are making a little RaiZin and a lot of Terre Melange. I did not show the info for Luminaire yet. Actually we will be making a 100% Sauvignon Blanc which is being aged in French Oak. The rest of our white wine will be a blend only aged in stainless. Also as you see I have not determined the blend for The Ultimate Cuvee yet. Then there is Dave's Cuvee. Since the fruit from Dave's Cuvee is mostly second crop, it is hard to determine the composition of varietals so this year we will not try to calculate that. It is still going to be mostly Zinfandel from old vines. Monday November 13, 2017 OK, We have decided to make a Late harvest wine. We have left some grapes out to see what will happen. We have raisins but no good rot yet but we need to progress. Tomorrow we will harvest what we have out in the vineyard and I also have a concentrate for a back up...........More tomorrow Tuesday November 14, 2017 We have been having fun making a Late Harvest wine. We could have waited but Jose and Josh are taking vacation next week so we had to pick the fruit today. We picked in three sections which included Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc and Aglianico. We just finished pressing and we got about 55 gallons at about 30% sugar. We have concentrate coming in the next two days which will be 36 gallons at 68% sugar. The whole 90 gallons will give us 43% sugar. I have made a Late Harvest wine many times, even as an amateur starting in 1983. We hope to achieve the same results as the last times which were 10 to 11% alcohol and 20 to 25% residual sugar. Time will tell........... Thursday November 16, 2017 We received out first shipment of concentrate and we hope to receive the rest of the 36 gallons today. Look back in 2007 starting in the diary on September 24 to see what I had to do back then for our 2007 Late Harvest. Friday November 17, 2017 OK, Our late Harvest wine has started fermenting. Let's hope it will not be a problem like back in 2007. We have 43 sugar now after adding concentrate so it will perk along for two weeks or more and then we will see what we have.......
	Dave For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com
	Home | Read | Diary | Tell Us What You Think of Our Diary | Last Week | Next Week

o