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Monday March 30, 2015
So Josh came in today and
Pat and I were not ready for his energy, He seemed happy to be
here.........Pat and I have been overwhelmed with all the new orders,
some even 2013 and 2014 wines, but of course we have many of you who
have faith, I will produce great wine from year after year. The orders
for 2015 pre-harvest have been great so thank you. I am looking into
purchasing a new chiller for Josh so we can control even more and make
great wine....... BUT........some times Mother Nature........rules!!!!!!!!!!
There is only one vintage I had trouble with after now my 21 years
making commercial wine and also for 15 years as a home winemaker from
this vineyard...............that hard year was the 2010 vintage and
difficult wines. Again I have to state that the acids for the 2010 wines
were intense, because of the heat wave that made all the grapes turn to
raisins in Dry Creek Valley...........as you know I tried to make a
wine that consisted of all Raisins. That did not work out well. I think
all the Zin based wines in 2010 are heavy in acid and like I have said
before, many times........they will out live me............Acid in
anything helps things last. We dropped the acid in all the wines, with a
Red Cap wine which was aged 16 months, those wines are less acidic but
will also outlive me............I really think the other wines,
especially from, Russian River are real nice right now...............BUT
they are strong. If you have any Cab or Petite Sirah OR
Escuro..........they are strong. There is nothing wrong with any of
these wines, they will just take a long time to be ready for some of us,
including me, but remember I am not you............I like young wines
so 2013 is what I consume.........
If anyone wants to turn in their 2010 wines, I will take them
gladly. I actually have several cases of 2010 wines here and I am going
to put them in the fermentations this year to make a new wine., maybe
called Dago Red...........By refermenting these wines will actually add a
different dimension to our new Harvest. I am confident we are going to
make great wine...........
Tuesday March 31, 2015
I am real sorry, I had an implant put in my head today so this has taken me awhile..............
8:30 :pm: I like to
escape at times and most times I
escape in the evening, I make the right decisions even in the evening. I
picked Josh and Jose and they are both stepping up. We have two new
great assistants.
Thursday April 2, 2015
There are birds chirping loud around here. It is a special time, to hear
live new life. We have many nests around our property every year.
we are probably going to hire a new firm to do a POS system. Both Cindi
and now Catalina have been encouraging us to do a POS. But I am thinking
of a company who can do more than a simple POS so I will start
interviewing several companies who will bring us in to a new time. POS,
Point of Sale should be a touch screen which will capture all our orders
in our tasting room and we will see if it will give me many more
options, including our large and growing Wine Club............Long story
which will start tomorrow with my first interview with VIN
Now.............
After Matt, New barrels are coming, another story
Friday April 3, 2015
9:30 Pm: Patience........it is hard
for me at times and then I think I am very patient.
So I am buying many different barrels and I will test out each barrel
over time. At first we will do a tasting in January. I assume it will be
for a few of us and then if it is interesting we may do an
event..........I have to talk to Pat so we will see................Most
of these barrels in different producers will be similar..........all
these barrels will be similar. You may taste a difference and then three
months later you will have a different opinion BUT some of us in the
wine industry say there are so many so called experts so they can decide
for us with very precise trials so they know more than
us...............my only complaint ............they do not know the
vineyard!! Every vineyard produces different wine..........even next
store I tried their fruit and mine in one vintage and they were
different!! SO NO ONE knows how the barrel will react to a small acre
vineyard, that is what I have here..........
So I am saying I will test out these barrels and they will all be great in any of our complex blends. Complexity is my goal.
Tonight Pat and I tried three wines and I will taste them again tomorrow night. One was from a winery
we like,....... what I came across by the tasting was we had
WineGuerrilla 2009 Coffaro Vineyard compared to our Estate Bottled
Zinfandel from the same vintage, 2009. As you know I prefer young wines
but I do appreciate the complexity of older wines, very different
flavors.....I thought the Wine Guerrilla was rounder and had more
complexity, our Estate was younger and needed time.........
The most important revelation from tonight is what I have suspected and
Bruce Patch realized,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the second crop from Coffaro Vineyard
is unique, even second crop is great...........but wait a
minute..........Our Dave's Cuvee from 2013 and now 2014 is a nice wine
and it is from second crop pick from our vineyard just where the fruit
from The WineGuerrila came from. That fruit is usually picked later in the year and at the end of Harvest............
Easter, my Mother
still prays for me.............I have to head down to Millbrae Sunday
and cook two chickens, It will be fun but we have to get back and
especially Monday when we have to charge cards..............Wine
Club.......hard work, a lot of bounces
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March 29 - April 4, 2015 