Appealing to my inner hippie….
David Coffaro, owner and winemaker for David Coffaro Wines, discusses with Jose Diaz his wines, his diary, and his weather station.
Many people don’t realize that before Web 2.0 launched, which allowed us all to become interactive with the Web, David Coffaro was writing a Web Log… Later, with the advent of Web 2.0, Web logging came to known as blogging… Unlike everyone else, though, David’s Web Log isn’t interactive. He just started it as a journal, telling his fans on a weekly basis what was happening on his ranch… what it’s like to grow grapes, make wine, tracking temperatures, etc. All of it is still there, to historically document Coffaro Wines’ journey in Dry Creek Valley…
The first true wine blogger, in the real sense of Web logging. “Dave’s Diary” began the week of September 2 to September 5, 1998. He’s about to go into his 15th year of blogging. Check it out for some insight.
After chatting in the vines, David and Jose went into David’s tasting room, where Caribbean music was almost blaring (much to my delight). I could have just spent the time dancing, but David had the music cut, so we could continue. As I looked around, something spelled “years of fun, hung up on the walls,” including being a Raiders fan. You’ve got to see it to totally get it… His passions are on full display. He has posters of Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston from the 1960s. I told him how I was living in Lewiston, Maine during the Clay | Liston fight, when Cassius Clay landed one good punch and knocked out Liston (in Lewiston) within seconds of the fight beginning… I told him how we, in Lewiston, had been blacked out from seeing or hearing the fight, so we’d fill the Arena as an audience. (I passed on that one, not personally being into boxing. If it had been Julia Child, I would have bought the ticket… all things being equal.)
Jose and David talk about his winemaking processes; there’s a lot to learn with this one, too, as with the vineyard video.
David waxed poetic… as Jose led in with, “What’s your diary all about, David?”
Some of my first Sonoma Zins came party from Dave’s vineyard. From the picture he now has many more barrels. In the old days there was more stereo equipment than barrels. Glad to see is is still hanging in there and has hair the color of mine. We might be the two oldest cellar rats in the business
Oh my God, Erich… You were my first boss at Belvedere!
What great days those were!
Did Coffaro start keeping an online journal/wine site before Jack Keller did?
Looks like Keller started in “1995 or 1996”: http://reignofterroir.com/2008/10/03/jack-keller-the-nets-first-wine-blogger-pt-1/
Okay, I’m going to dig around his Website to get a start date. It’s definitely old school… stuff all over the place.
It is really cool to see the barrels in his tasting room and they were arranged well. I can see his passions including the music.