WTN: A Tale of Six Coffaros..(short/boring)

Tried these last night looking for a decent wine to drink:
1. DavidCoffaro Zin Estate 2003: Browning; totally dead.
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2. DavidCoffaro My Zin 2003: Browning; totally dead.
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3. DavidCoffaro Block 4 Estate 2003: Browning; totally dead.
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4. DavidCoffaro EstateCuvee 2003: Browning; totally dead.
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5. DavidCoffaro TerreMelange RhoneBlend 2003: Browning; terribly bretty/totally dead.
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6. DavidCoffaro AcaModot DryCreekVlly RW (EB; U/U; 14.1%; 50% CS/22% CabFranc/11% Merlot/9% PetiteVerdot/8% Malbec; 220 cs) 2003: Med.dark color w/ slight bricking; some cedary/pencilly/oldCab slight herbal/rosemary bit licorice/blackcurranty/Cab/meaty some complex/smokey/oak pleasant nose; soft/smooth some pencilly/oak/old Cab light blackcurranty/licorice/Cab/RCCola/root beer (Dad's Old Fashioned) bit complex flavor w/ light/gentle tannins; ned.long soft/smooth light herbal/blackcurranty/Cab/raspberry light smokey/oak some pencilly/cedary/oak finish w/ light/smooth tannins; a pleasant enough/gentle/fully mature & then some light weight Cab that is still alive like a little old lady in her 90's; a bit of spunk left in her.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Five of these btls were closed by a NeoCork, one was closed by a screw-cap. It is left as an exercise for the student to figure out the screw-capped wine.
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2. NeoCork was the artificial/plastic cork developed by StuYaniger. A spongy/extruded artifical cork sheathed in a hard/silicone outside. It's pretty much been dismissed as a viable wine closure, as has the SupremeCorq. Stu is much more famous for inventing the ThreeStooges wine rating system. I've not seen him out here on the WineBoards in a fair number of yrs. Would like to hear his story someday.
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3. AcaModot: This is the Pomo Indian name for a small swell of land on the West side of DavidCoffaro's vnyd along DryCreekRd. It was once a Pomo Indian settlement. If you walk the vnyd w/ Dave and scuff up the dirt, you can uncover old pot sherds, arrowheads, squaw's baskets fragments, old plastic gambling chips, parts of ancient RouletteWheels, an occasional die carved from a reindeer penis. At night, if you look due East, you can see the glow of the Pomo RiverRock Casino on the mtn overlooking the AlexanderVlly. It's a step back into ancient times.
Tom

reindeer penis? In Dry Creek? Did Blitzen get lost one trip?

2. NeoCork was the artificial/plastic cork developed by StuYaniger. A spongy/extruded artifical cork sheathed in a hard/silicone outside. It's pretty much been dismissed as a viable wine closure, as has the SupremeCorq. Stu is much more famous for inventing the ThreeStooges wine rating system. I've not seen him out here on the WineBoards in a fair number of yrs. Would like to hear his story someday

Tom, he told me he was forced out of the company when they came under new ownership. Not exactly a rare thing in this age.

I have many great memories of food and wine events with Stuart. Most of the people on this specific board did not agree with his political views (which he was not shy about sharing!), but I still found him to be a great guy to be around. Very intelligent as well as incredibly funny. You can find him on Facebook if you wish to catch up with him and "hear his story" as you put it.

Neocorks were bad. Screwcaps are good.

1. Yaniger is living in a suburb of Chicago now. The witness protection plan is sort of loose now that they've cut back on government funding. (No, actually, he's in the basement, mixing up the medicine---working his chemistry thing for big bucks. Still cooking, still drinking, Cynthia still keeping him honest, and he spends much of his net time talking about music in highly technical and esoteric terms.)

2. Never as big a fan of the Coffaro wines. They always seemed, muddy, soupy, poorly integrated and often rather random and sometimes counterintuitive blends that seemed at best okay when young and fruitful (in a kitchen sink-Rhone Valley blend sorta way), but I never thought they would age very well.

Apparently, I was on to something.

They also were extremely high in alcohol, from a visit last year.

1. Yaniger is living in a suburb of Chicago now. The witness protection plan is sort of loose now that they've cut back on government funding. (No, actually, he's in the basement, mixing up the medicine---working his chemistry thing for big bucks. Still cooking, still drinking, Cynthia still keeping him honest, and he spends much of his net time talking about music in highly technical and esoteric terms.)

2. Never as big a fan of the Coffaro wines. They always seemed, muddy, soupy, poorly integrated and often rather random and sometimes counterintuitive blends that seemed at best okay when young and fruitful (in a kitchen sink-Rhone Valley blend sorta way), but I never thought they would age very well.

Apparently, I was on to something.

Thanks for the update on Stu, Hoke. I enjoyed several meals w/ him out in Oakland. Glad to know he's doing well.

I always liked Dave's wines. But never considered them much to be agers. They were "pretty"...but just that. The alcohol levels never seemed to be out of line, though. At least back in those days. As you say...sometimes the blends seemd a bit strange.
Tom

Stuart and Cynthia visited me in the Finger Lakes region a couple of years ago--she has family nearby.

I served a lunch from one of Stuart's recipes as a surprise, and they brought a CdP as an even better surprise.

It was a great afternoon. Later attempts for them to visit when in the area hadn't worked out--yet.

As for the corks: you win some; you lose some. As for Coffaro: once again, I agree with Hoke.

My wife, our daughters and I had dinner at Spiedini in Walnut Creek with Stu a number of years ago..
As for Cofarro, we had a wonderful tasting there in 2008 with a gentleman whose name escapes me..
The most memorable part was the barrel tasting and we bought a number of futures..Also some of Dave's eclectic blends..the blends were ok, the wines we bought on futures, mostly syrah, perhaps a zin as well,,not sure..were all terrific and frankly tasted terrific right from the get go out of the barrel. .A subsequent purchase of an extended barrel aged zin was not as fortuitous..Most prominent feature was the alcohol and the flavors still haven't gotten their act together.. a visit in 2012 was a disaster....The tasting was underwhelming and I will let it go at that other than to say I wd not return to Cofarro or buy any more of their wines...What I regret the most re the 2012 visit was not being able to get together with John Treder and I will take the blame for screwing that up..

My wife, our daughters and I had dinner at Spiedini in Walnut Creek with Stu a number of years ago..

Ah, yes, those wine-soaked dinners at Spiedini were the stuff of legends.

Stuart and JD (the Stooges) had the chef, Charles. neatly tucked in their pocket, and all sorts of wonderful things kept coming out of that kitchen. And the food coincided brilliantly with the style of wine that themed the evening---because Charles was very, very good at that.

The wine was beyond belief, and the commentary was remarkable. Heady times.

Ah, yes, those wine-soaked dinners at Spiedini were the stuff of legends.

Some of my most fond memories are of the WLDG wine dinners at Spiedini. Charles was a master at pleasing the most hard-core carnivores and well as the opposite end of the spectrum such as Stuart. And my fellow WLDG friends never failed to bring anything but outstanding wines to those dinners. Fantastic food, people and wine at those dinners and memories I will cherish for a lifetime.

Regarding Coffaro, I do not know if they have changed their set-up; but the last time I was in their tasting room/barrel aging room the enormous TV was throwing off a lot of heat and I would have thought the combination of that and the intense vibrations from the heavy bass blasting out of the stereo speakers would have been detrimental to the wine they were aging and storing in that room.

Yes indeed,it was a multi course extravaganza at Spiedini and a stunning array of equally stunning wines as well..First time our daughters ever had foie gras..an adventure that was to be repeated several nights later at Tastings in Healdsburg(long since closed) where the chef sent over course after course once he had heard we had been to Spiedini a few nights earlier...2 marvelous and memorable dining experiences in the same week.

Regarding Coffaro, I do not know if they have changed their set-up; but the last time I was in their tasting room/barrel aging room the enormous TV was throwing off a lot of heat and I would have thought the combination of that and the intense vibrations from the heavy bass blasting out of the stereo speakers would have been detrimental to the wine they were aging and storing in that room.

Actually....the home theatre set-up is still there...and therein lies a story.

I can't imagine the heat coming from a big-screen would be that much...but I've never been there when it's on, so don't know for sure. As for the vibrations, despite what all the wine "authorities" tell us to the contrary, they are probably pretty harmless. Back in the '40's-'50's, they did a study on the accelerated aging of wine by vibrations. They put a batch of wine in a steel tank and then took a baseball bat and beat the holy $hit out of the tank on a daily basis. Or that is sorta my recollection. They then did an A/B comparison on the wine and were unable to detect any aging effect. So the deep vibrations are, IMHO, unlikely to affect the wine, especially w/ the damping effect of the oak barrels.

The story: Back in the mid-'80's, I did a visit w/ Dave. Part of my entourage was LarryArchibald, who was the publisher of Stereophile magazine at the time. Dave immediately recognized Larry's name and was immediately enamored w/ the fact. He had just installed his home theatre system in the winery. So.....for the next hour or so, he had Larry down on his hands&knees tweaking the system to attain a better sound. He completely ignored the venerated TomHill and the rest of the party, merely nodding his head in the direction of the open btls on the tasting table. Can you imagine that....a venerated wine icon in Dave's presence and he blows him off for a stereo guy!!! The nerve. After Larry was done, Dave sauntered over and asked us how we liked the wines.
Tom