September lst has arrived and last year on this date we started our first diary entry. Pat is helping me out tonight but I am promising, as I did last year, to make an entry every day until the end of harvest, probably October 31st. That will be quite an obligation and since my harvest days may end late at night, I may have to type some of the entries myself. 

We've heard from a few sources that Peter Hermann Jordan, a winemaker in Germany, is posting a diary similar to mine. Check out Jordan & Jordan Winery. Great Stuff!!

Our sugar test on Sauv Blanc for Lambert Bridge Winery on Monday came in at 21.2 percent. We will do another test on Friday and we will probably be harvesting one day next week. 

We delayed the bottling of our ZP2C until tomorrow because I had to make my two-week run to Costco today. It was a fun time because I stopped off at the New Comp USA to drop $400 plus on Corel Draw 9, McAfee Office 2000 and an HP Photo Printer. We will start the process for ordering our two new computers tomorrow and Comp USA may be a good source for what we need. 

September 2, 1999

We bottled 120 cases of  ZP2C today. As usual, I tried a bottle this evening. To compare it to something I was familiar with, the obvious one to try was the '97 ZPC. The flavors are very similar, with of course the 1997 being much more developed, softer and more complex. But I was pleasantly surprised that the 1998 ZP2C was more tannic and seemed to have great structure. Of the two wines, at this stage I would say the '98 would be a longer-lived wine. As I've said many times before, I prefer young wines and I drank more of the '98 than the '97 tonight! 

Pat and I have started clearing out our office and are planning to concentrate in the next two weeks on completely renovating our 15 x 24' room. There will be four computers - one for Kate, one for Susie, one for Pat, and of course one for me. We are also installing on my computer a Direct PC connection to the Hughes satellite and hope that we receive faster Internet surfing capabilities. All computers will be connected with a 3Com hub. This project should take about two weeks. 

Tomorrow I will do another sugar test on the Sauvignon Blanc for Lambert Bridge. I have not heard back from Julia, the winemaker, on the acid content of the last sample I gave her. I will report further on the results tomorrow. 

September 3, 1999

Julia and I talked today and decided not to do another sugar test on the SB today. Her last sample at 21.2 % sugar had a ph of 3.07 and a TA of .94. We would prefer 3.3 and .7. My next test will be on Tues. with a planned harvest for Lambert Bridge of Fri or the next Monday. 

The Raiders rolled tonight. Green Bay may be in trouble! I know one of my customers is probably scared to death right now since we have a bet on the game. 

September 4, 1999

High 88  Low 44

We have been greeted with heavy fog the last two mornings, but today it has cleared up at 10AM. I talked to Shelly Rafanelli Thurs and she mentioned one of their Zin vineyards had a sugar reading of 22 sugar(brix). Some of her other vineyards are at 20 Brix. That will probably mean that we will harvesting some of our sections within two weeks. 

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