Hello and Welcome,
This is the Amalie Robert
Estate Climate Update: July 2019. A FLOG Communication.
The best way to describe
farming wine berries during July in the Willamette Valley can be summed up in a
Lyle Lovett lyric. To wit:
“Like two backseat lovers,
can't wait to get started
Knowing everything's over too
soon”
- Memphis Midnight/Memphis Morning
First, we were racing to get
the trellis catch wires up to harness the explosive vine growth. Then it was
running the rows to clip the wires and the shoots into place. Ernie was in
hurry up and wait mode because he can’t start hedging until the wires are
secured. Block by block the vineyard started to take discipline.
Load in another 200 gallons of
diesel and then the “Enforcer” is trimming a tight canopy. The first pass gets
the vines attention and the second pass actually starts reprogramming their
behavior. And then when it’s over, you get to sleep. But by then it’s August.
The whole concept of hedging
is quite simple. We want to redirect the vine from growing more leaves to
ripening their seeds and in so doing ripening the aroma and flavor packet that
holds those seeds. That’s what we want, nice and easy ripening of the wine
berry skins which is where all of the aroma and flavor is. Our interpretation
of Pinot Noir is a silky, supple, sultry, svelte and sublime wine and to end up
that way, you need to pay close attention to how you ripen the wine berries
while they are still on the vine. That’s Ernie’s summer job and he is sitting
on about 100 tons worth of silky, supple, sultry, svelte and sublime.
But there is more to it. After
paying attention to the last few vintages, Ernie has done some figuring. He
figures that hot vintages give you high alcohols. And he knows that the more
leaf surface the vine has, the more sugar the vine will pump into the wine
berry. This in turn will ferment into higher alcohol potential. So, he figured
he would cut a much shorter canopy this year. He is about 6.5 feet tall instead
of the standard 7.5 feet tall canopy. Much lower and you are trimming the tops
of the posts off. Not so good, they don’t grow back.
Click on the image above to watch the video: Looking out the tractor
window – A dog’s point of view.
Now, about those aroma and
flavor packets, aka wine berry skins. Too much sun exposure during hot days has
a tendency to create very bitter skin tannins. Have you ever had a wine that
tasted like black licorice in the mid-palate? That is from over exposure to the
sun and it is not pretty. So this year, Ernie figured he will not pull leaves.
Oh sure, there will be some leaf casualties when we get to thinning and that’s
fine. But other than that, he skipped the whole sordid affair.
But if you want to be bad,
you’ve got to be good. We are talking about good canopy management and shoot
spacing. The risk of developing mildew or botrytis is much higher if you do not
pull some leaves out of the fruit zone. This is where 20 years of experience
farming your own piece of dirt pays some handsome dividends. By focusing a
tremendous amount of effort in our canopy management, we are able to provide
shade to protect our silky, supple, sultry, svelte and sublime aromas and
flavors.
Everything we have done so far
in vintage 2019 is cumulative. Our goal is to be in the best possible position
that allows us to choose when to harvest. And we want to make those harvest
decisions based on ideal aroma and flavor in our wine berries. Yeah, it’s going
to rain, we just don’t know when. But we feel confident that the timely actions
we have taken with the vines will carry us through in silky, supple, sultry,
svelte and sublime fashion. Just like vintage 2007…
Let’s dig into the numbers.
The big news to report in July is that there is no big news to report. The
month of July was very moderate and that portends what could be the most
stunning vintage since 2007! Yes, that’s right, 2007. It is clearly too soon to
start putting down money, unless you had to buy barrels for this fall, or pay
for some vineyard labor, or replace a farming tractor tire…
We received and recorded 501.4
Degree Days for the month of July. The high temperature was 94.5 degrees
recorded on the 26th at 3:00 pm. The low temperature was a respectable
46.0 on July 19 at 5:48 am. The growing season-to-date Degree Days @AmalieRobert stand at 1,308.9.
While the growing season took off like a twin-turbo Hemi powered speed racer,
it appears Mother Nature missed a shift as she was burning down the avenue. And
we are all the better off for it.
And tinkle, tinkle, we had a
sprinkle. Very rare for measurable precipitation in July, but yet here it is.
We experienced two mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive rain events.
The first was on the 10th where we logged 0.51 inches of rain. The
second event was on the 15th where we logged an additional 0.33
inches for a month total of 0.84 inches of rain.
Compare and contrast to July
2018 graphic, where we had a high temperature of 106.9 and a monthly
accumulation of 611.1 Degree Days. And no rain.
Of course, we have records
back to 2007 and actually were able to retrieve them. July 2007 logged 557 Degree
Days and 0.39 inches of rain. How do you say less is more in wine writing
speak?
So, you may be wondering where
all of that heat went this year. Well, it followed the Jet Stream and went
north – to Alaska.
Anchorage hit an all-time
record high on the 4th of July, 90 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s some
serious Baked Alaska! The historical high temperature for Anchorage on the 4th
of July is 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here on the farm, we crossed
the 90-degree line for just a few minutes at about a quarter to 5 that
afternoon. Just past Bier:30, Ernie noted in his daily log, as he refreshed his
Adult Recreational Beverage. It was burgers and dogs and Happy Birthday to the
USA!
Clearly, we need to be having
some serious speaks with whomever is driving the Jet Stream. It could be that
Alfred E. Neuman character. He has been out of a job for a while now…
So, there it is. August brings
us the dog days of summer. Our thoughts naturally turn to Rosé wines. The Pinot in
Pink in particular. But Ernie is keeping a close eye on the color development
of the wings in block 1. That is where the Pinot Meunier lives. And soon, he
will be bringing those wings in along with some Pinot Noir wings to make our
Blanc de Noir Bellpine Pearl Rosé.
Very exciting!
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
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