Hello and Welcome,
This is the final climate update for the
2011 growing season.
The best way we can think to describe
this growing season is “It ain’t over, ‘til it’s over.” And now, it’s over. The
delayed, protracted and extended 2011 cluster pluck officially concluded on day
318, November 14th, 2011. The last of the best was our Estate Grown Syrah and
Viognier. Love you guys!
Why so long? Well, we got a late start.
Let’s fast forward to mid-October. We were seeing some dark and rainy days
during the first couple of weeks of October. But right around the 14th, Mother
Nature must have gotten a little depressed and let the sun shine. We may not
have been the first, but we rushed right outside to get some on
us.
Ernie kept a log of each day in case he
was called to refute some misguided wine writer. There was an (un)fair bit of
that going on in early October. Reminded Ernie of a certain kind of sandwich
that benefits from some extra bread. You don’t need to be a farmer to know where
he’s coming from. Here is the brief (and family friendly) version of his
log:
Friday, October 14th – Sunny! Look the
Orb has returned!
Saturday & Sunday, October 15th &
16th – Partly sunny and overcast, must be the weekend
Monday, October 17th – Sunny and
Dry
Tuesday, October 18th – Sunny and Dry and
79
Wednesday, October 19th – Partly cloudy,
good thing as I used all of my sunscreen
Thursday, October 20th – Mostly sunny,
looking for my big hat
Friday, October 21st – Sunny and 70, WTF
(wow the flavors) are really coming on!!
Saturday, October 22nd – Sunny, breezy
and dry, just another day in paradise, 72
Sunday, October 23rd – Harvest Day 1,
let’s bring some of those grapes in and see what we’ve got to work
with
Monday, October 24th – Start the coffee,
it’s 34 degrees, clear as a bell and cold, as well
Tuesday, October 25th –
GORGEOUS!
Wednesday, October 26th - A little
spittle and some clouds
Thursday, October 27th – GORGEOUS! Part
II
Friday, October 28th – A little spittle
and a lotta sun, nice
Saturday, October 29th – Dry, a few
clouds and another day of hang time
Sunday, October 30th – Mostly sunny, dry
and a little breeze, what planet am I on?
Monday, October 31st – Halfway point of
Ockto-vember, and I am just about out of bier
That, in a detailed and irrefutable
format, is how the last half of October looked and felt. But we weren’t finished
yet. Just like last year, our biggest Pinot Noir harvest day was on the day
before the big deluge of rain and it was a BFD (Big Farming
Day.)
November 02, 2011 (11/02/2011), was our
last scheduled Pinot Noir harvest day. Selecting harvest dates seems a bit like
triage. The first fruit we bring in is from our warmest areas of the field. They
have had enough and if we wait too long, we see the flavors go from elegant red
fruit to dried prunes. Not nice. We prefer the elegant side of Pinot
Noir.
The next sets of blocks are the ones we
prize the most – mostly. These are the clones and rootstocks that are in the
running for The Reserve, Amalie’s Cuvée and Estate Selection. Even though we may
think they could benefit from another day or two in the field, we would be
devastated if we lost them to a major rain event. This, by the way, is how to
make too much money in the stock market – sell too soon.
Then, there are the bonus blocks. Here is
where Ernie is willing to hang it out there if he thinks he can take his dearest
Wadenswil clone at the exact last second before disaster hits. Once again, he
was not disappointed as Block 10 got a few extra days and put up some very
impressive Brix and pH numbers. But the real prize here is the Wadenswil aroma.
It needs time to develop in the skins and those extra days will pay off in the
bottle.
Last are the blocks that have proven to
benefit from all the hang time they can get. We know where they are and we wait
just as patiently as we can. It’s like playing chicken with Mother Nature. If we
wait, we could lose them, but if we don’t wait we miss out on the great flavors
and aromas these blocks can contribute. By the way, this is how to make too
little money in the stock market – sell after the crash.
November 03, 2011, is when Miss Thing
returned to the office to find the rain controls had been turned off. She saw to
that in short order. And rain it did, and then some more for good measure. But
to little avail, we had ALL of the Pinot Noir from the vine. We felt a little
“neener neener” coming on, but it was third down and we still had the Syrah and
Viognier to go.
Bear in mind that our harvest window,
because of the cool spring, was supposed to start on day 289, October 15th. We
blew right past that and didn’t start until 8 days later. Then we kept the
harvest window open for another 10 days through November 2nd. While this is just
about as good as it gets for Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Ernie’s thoughts were
closing in on “old Rhône week” and wondering just which week that might
be.
Ernie has a story that he occasionally
tells about turning back time – it’s been long enough that any impacted person
will have forgotten, except maybe you, Sean. He was in Ireland running the
European Operation Centre (EOC) Licensing Business. This was how Microsoft did
business with very large Multinational companies – they licensed the use of
their software.
Each quarter these companies would report
“usage” of new licenses and Ernie was supposed to send them a bill. Easy enough,
until the marketing folk (ilk) got involved. They wanted to be sure a reseller
was involved in the middle. Often times these resellers would prepare the
reports for the companies. Of course, Microsoft required a signed report by the
company, regardless. A man with two watches is never really sure of the time.
This was the case with competing usage reports.
The real fun came at the end of every
quarter when the invoices went out. Note, the Irish are big on tea (and
Guinness), not coffee. When Ernie first arrived on the scene, each of these
reports had to be entered individually, by hand, to generate an invoice. This is
when Ernie started to think he was working for the greatest marketing company on
earth. In short order he had the IT folks create an interface that allowed
spreadsheets to be uploaded directly into the so called “system.” So clever, he
thought.
At quarter end when the big day arrived,
everyone crowded around one desk and began uploading their reports. It was good
fun, but Ernie could not help but wonder why this was being done at one desk. He
was told it was for “control” purposes. Upon further examination, Ernie found
that the process IT had designed was serial, not parallel. Each person, one
usage report at a time, would upload, then the next person, one at a time and so
on.
After a brief “That is what you asked
for” countered with “Does this look like a reasonable implementation to you?”
Ernie knew he would run out of time to get all of them time stamped by quarter
end. This was important, as this revenue figured into each GM’s quarterly bonus.
No licensing revenue, no bonus. Even the IT people figured that one out.
Besides, the pubs were closing at 11:30 – we were never going to make
it.
After a few gyrations, there was only one
thing Ernie could come up with. It was the nuclear option, but there were no
other options, not even bad ones. Ernie reasoned that Microsoft was an American
company based in Redmond, Washington. Redmond is where the “system” was located.
Redmond was also 8 hours behind Dublin. Ernie found the Chief Bit Twiddler and
asked him to reset the local system clock to Redmond, Washington time.
“I can’t,” he casually replied. “You
can’t or you won’t?” Ernie asked for clarification. “It can’t be done,” he
clarified. At that point, Ernie went to his PC and reset the time. “Can’t or
won’t?” Ernie re-queried. Within minutes, Ernie had 8 more system hours and the
time stamp issue was resolved.
Now, he was confronted with a different
problem set - how to bring the Syrah and Viognier harvest forward? Fate would
take a hand.
Late Thursday afternoon November 10th,
Ernie found himself in a very well tended acre of Syrah. He walked the field
with the winemaker who had decided not to take the fruit. Ernie was familiar
with all of the clones and had tasted previous vintages of the wine.
“We decided not to take it this year. Do
you want it?” he was asked.
Ernie was aghast. This was like seeing a
pile of money laying on 48th and Lexington. This fruit was amazing in flavor and
aroma development. The Brix were low to assure moderate alcohol and the acids
were high. This was cool climate Syrah just waiting to be plucked. And the
stems, oh the stems, they were perfect for whole cluster
fermentation.
“We have turned off the bird cannons so
there won’t be much left by tomorrow afternoon. You will have to pick it,
though.”
Ernie had one empty fermenter left. That
was only because he borrowed two from a friend the week before. The planets had
appeared to align. Ferengi Rule of
Acquisition, number 44: “Never confuse wisdom with luck.” Ernie’s corollary:
“Luck favors the prepared mind.”
“Yes, I would like to pick about one
fermenter’s worth,” Ernie stammered.
With that, the Syrah harvest moved
forward to, you got it, November 11, 2011 (11/11/11.) Feels like an Orson Wells
“War of the Worlds” type designation. We concluded with our Estate Syrah and
Viognier the following Monday, November 14th, 2011. People frequently ask us if
we co-ferment our Syrah with Viognier. Not only do we co-ferment, we co-grow and
co-harvest as well - co-cool!!
Here are the numbers for October, in case
you were concerned we were getting soft.
We have recorded about 52 degree days for
the month of October, providing a total of 1,794 degree days since the beginning
of the growing season on April 1st. This compares with 160 degree days last
October and a comparative total of 1,722 degree days for 2010.
During October, our highest high was 78.1
and our lowest high was 74.6. Our lowest low was 28.4 and our highest low was
33.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
There was significant rainfall (2.54
inches) in the first half of October, then relatively dry the second half with a
few drops recorded on the 29th and 30th (0.22 inches.) Total rainfall for
October is 2.76 inches and is 2.54 inches less than last October’s rainfall of
6.22 inches.
Rainfall since April 1st through October
31st is 12.15 inches, and is 9.71 inches less than last year's growing season to
date rainfall of 21.86 inches. The average monthly humidity was 79.09% and the
average dew point was 42.04 degrees; Dog nose weather – cold and
wet.
Kindest Regards,
Dena and Ernie
