Hello and Welcome,
This is the Amalie Robert Estate
Climate Update for July, 2015.
Farm it like you mean it, or don’t
farm it at all!™
Vintage 2015: Hell-bent for
Leather: The 2015 growing season has been a story of “Too much, too soon.”
Flowering began in May (a couple of weeks early) and was followed by warm and dry
June weather resulting in a very bountiful crop. July has proven to be very
advanced with all available forecasts showing no break in the historically
above average temperatures (day or night) or any discernable rainfall through
September. Our last meaningful rainfall was June 1-2 when we recorded 1.24
inches of rain.
Despite our best efforts to
increase hang time by managing a short canopy to reduce water loss and slow
sugar accumulation and keeping the vineyard floor mown tight and weed free, we
estimate our harvest window to open somewhere mid-September. The only effective
tool we have to mitigate these climatic factors is our deep roots that come
from vine age and dry farming.
So much for the executive summary
talking points, let’s get into the dirt. Grape vines are fairly simple plants
in their response to heat. The warmer it is the faster they grow, until they
run out of available soil moisture. The key phrase here is “available soil
moisture” which means moisture in the soil that the vines can translocate
from their roots, through their vascular tissue and eventually transpire via
the stomata on the underside of their leaves. In other words, they can draw a
vacuum, fairly straightforward really.
The vine’s leaves exert negative
pressure via the roots to draw moisture into the vine. Some soils are deep and
moist, others are shallow and dry. Some can hold a lot of moisture, others
can’t hold much at all. Perhaps you are familiar with personal exemplars of
these characteristics.
The soils at Amalie Robert Estate
are formed from marine sediments. The soil series is called Bellpine
and after a 12” topsoil layer (A horizon,) it has an effective rooting depth (B
horizon) ranging from about 24 inches down to 36 inches. Below this is the C
horizon and that is where things get interesting. Our C horizon is comprised of
fractured sandstone and ironstone. The key term here is fractured.
Fractured is good because it
allows the vine’s roots to penetrate deep into the ancient clay of the C
horizon in their quest for water. Willakenzie,
the other marine sediment soil series in the Willamette Valley
The other soil series in the Willamette Valley
So, the obvious question is “Who
has the most available soil moisture?” In the sedimentary series, the root
restrictive layer gets weeded out rather quickly in a vintage like 2015. The
only saving grace could be (unnatural) irrigation.
That leaves us the marine
sediment Bellpine series and the volcanic Jory series. The easiest mental
construct for comparative purposes is a sponge – any examplar will do. The
amount of water a sponge will hold depends on the size of the pores in said
sponge. Jory soils typically have large pores and Bellpine soils have
relatively smaller pores. Ergo, Jory soils will hold more water than Bellpine
soils per any given inch of the soil profile.
However, the large pores in the
Jory soil series have the tendency to lose soil moisture faster than the
tighter pores in the Bellpine soil series. You can try this at home with two
different sized sponges. Weigh them dry, weigh them fully saturated and then
weigh them after you gently and equally squeeze them. The results will be
inconclusive, but now you have a better idea of the water holding and retention
characteristics of marine sediment soils and volcanic soils.
Note: Be careful how you present
this newfound knowledge as there is quite a debate over the virtues and vices
of each soil type. There are true believers out there and then there are true
believers who grow wine…
Roots are the structures vines
use to bring that soil moisture to the surface. Once again we have two camps:
the own rooted camp and the newfangled rootstock camp with their fancy names
and numbers. And if you want to experience life as a root, insert a very small
straw into the aforementioned sponge and “exert negative pressure.” Yes, there
are mycorrhiza, but not
now.
Own rooted vines are just that
and they grow the deepest roots of all. Cuttings were taken from dormant vines,
allowed to warm up and form callus tissue and then gently inserted into the
soil where the callus tissue would form roots. Often times these vines were
planted in very straight rows to allow human interference with trellis
structures and mechanization. Other times they were placed just far enough
apart to get an oxen or other bovine between them. This may have been the basis
of “Natural wines” including their unique “plant nutrition” regime.
Necessity is the mother of
invention and that is as true in agrarian endeavors as any other discipline.
When the inhabitants of the old world came to the new world they were amazed at
all of the unfamiliar flora and fauna. Being humans, with human like
tendencies, they returned to the old world with a bit of the new world in their
pockets. Who was gonna find out and what could they do anyway?
Well, fate took a hand when they
planted all of their newfound booty only to discover a little fauna they hadn’t
counted on – phylloxera. That little louse began feeding on all kinds of roots,
with grapevine roots being their favorites. The new world roots were used to
this and went about their business of callusing over and growing new roots. The
old word roots were not so lucky. As the phylloxera tore into their roots, they
were unable to form callus tissue to protect themselves from all of the nasty
pathogens that live in the soil. Sadly, and rightfully so, the old world vines
began to die.
What to do? Well, they decided to
head back into the belly of the beast. They returned to the new world with a
vengeance and began looking for vines that grew up with phylloxera. They looked
at riparian areas where new world vines were growing wild or “naturally” near
streams and waterways. They took cuttings and skulked back across the pond.
They grafted these new world
roots onto the old world vinifera cuttings and began planting these new “unnatural”
vines. And this is how we arrive at the plethora of rootstock choices available
today. The key factor in all rootstock choices is that they are tolerant of phylloxera.
We say tolerant because phylloxera still attacks rootstocks, but they grew up
with phylloxera and can deal with it by forming callus tissue that keeps the
nasty soil pathogens at bay. However AXR #1
was not resistant and was perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the California wine grower.
“AXR #1 was
widely used in California during the planting boom of the late 1960s and early
1970s. By the mid 1980s it was failing to phylloxera as it had in France, Italy
and South Africa… AXR #1's advantages
were adaptability, consistent high quality and yields, ease of propagation and
relative tolerance to most viruses. However, this rootstock is not phylloxera
resistant and should not be planted.”
Rootstocks come in three
categories: Small, Medium and Oh My! Wait, that is something else…
The most phylloxera tolerant of
all rootstocks is called Riparia Gloire. This rootstock is also known as “RG”
and has the shallowest roots of all. This rootstock is sometimes used with the
idea of controlling the vine’s growth through irrigation. In other words,
someone likes to dress up as Mother Nature.
Next is a series of moderately
deep rootstocks known as 101-14Mgt, 3309C, Schwarzmann and 44-53M. These are
widely planted in many premium winegrowing regions around the world. Mostly
thanks to that New World louse phylloxera. And
watch our for those dagger
nematodes!
That leaves the deepest rooting rootstocks
of all which are best represented by Teleki
5C. The growth habit of this rootstock is the closest thing mankind has
found to own rooted vines. It has the deepest root growth of all the
aforementioned rootstocks. It is also the most widely planted rootstock at
Amalie Robert Estate.
As the days desiccate off the
calendar, the continuum of soils, rootstocks and available soil moisture leads us
through the ripening curve. Let’s define ripening as producing a viable set of
seeds to reproduce, wrapped in an aromatically fragrant and hedonistically
sweet wine berry with sugar levels that will produce wines in the 12.5 – 14.0%
alcohol range. We know, that’s a lot to ask from a bunch of grapes.
As the soil profile dries from
the surface down, the vine’s roots must struggle to extract water. The best
case scenario is that as the soils begin to dry out, the wine berries begin to
slowly ripen. We know this is happening because we see the berries turn from
green to mauve to gunmetal blue and finally Pinot Noir colored, and there is little
in the rain gauge, until the season’s end.
As the season progresses, the
shallow roots will run out of available soil moisture. This sends a signal to
the vine to start ripening up those seeds. The vine’s deeper roots may still
have access to soil moisture and that allows the vine to continue to build
sugars in the wine berry. The vine handles this dichotomy of signals quite
well. It takes the queue from the shallow roots to get with the program, while
utilizing the deeper roots to continue ripening their seeds and developing
aromas and flavors. Who needs a vineyard manager when you are growing Pinot
Noir?
However, once all of the vine’s
roots exhaust their available soil moisture the vine will start to relocate
water from the wine berries. This is a one way trip, and we all took that trip
in 2003. Not everyone will remember, that is how it goes with some trips. Even
if late season rains soak the soil, the vine has moved on. The wine berries,
sadly, will most likely raisin and not rehydrate. This may result in a good
deal of time spent at the sorting table, and perhaps a Port styled wine.
This explains why a little drought
stress now to start the ripening process and a little shower later (but not too
late) to help the vine complete the ripening process provides the best possible
ripening curve – agronomically speaking. But you never know how much you are
going to get, when you are going to get it or how long it is going to last.
Ergo, effective rooting depth and
available soil moisture will have a dramatic if not traumatic impact on the
ripening curve this year. In the dry farmed world, own rooted, phylloxera free
vines with significant vine age will certainly have the advantage, followed by vines
grafted onto that wonderful Teleki 5C rootstock. If you are farming shallow
rooted RG, well that irrigation line could become a lifeline.
But it is not over until it’s over.
There are thousands of acres of Pinot Noir grown in the Willamette Valley
representing all kinds of soils, elevations, rootstocks and vine age. Some have
irrigation while the rest of us go the natural route.
Right. When you are in business
with Mother Nature, you pay your money and take your chances. In Vintage
2015: Hell-bent for Leather we are relying on the decisions we made almost
20 years ago and the resulting deep roots that come with dry farmed vine age. We
did over 30 soil borings and dug several open pits to learn about the depth of
our soils across 30 acres of ultra-premium vineyard land. We knew what we
wanted: “Wines true to the soil, Wines true to the vintage®” and therefore we were
not going to irrigate. We have some deep soils and some thin soils. Mostly
Bellpine, and a wee little bit of Jory. And while the soil is not new, we have
a new classification – introducing Windy Gap.
This is about three feet of Jory soil sitting on top of marine sediments. Isn’t
that crazy?
We laid out the rootstock map
over our soil map. We chose RG for a very small but deep and fertile area, and then
scattered a little 3309C, 101-14Mgt, Schwarzmann and 44-53M over some
moderately deep areas. And that bruiser Teleki 5C went over everything else. Then
we began to assign clones onto rootstocks. Put some Chardonnay here, Pinot
Meunier there, and we rolled the dice with several small blocks of Pommard,
Wadenswil and the Dijon clones. Thanks to Dick Erath and the good folks at
Guigal, our Syrah program got all the right clones, on all the right roots, in
all the right places.
With scant rainfall in the
foreseeable future, we wait and hope our bets pay off. We want those rootstocks
pulling up water to sustain the vines and Mother Nature to back off with the
heat. A shower or two before harvest would be a miracle. Miracles are not
something we hope for. Miracles are something we depend on.
Here is another thing you can
depend on, the un-farming believable numbers:
The month of July began with a
fine display of triple digit temperatures and ended the month on the same high
notes. We recorded a high temperature of 104.4 degrees and a low temperature of
43.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 40.2 and 6.4 for those of you across the pond
with your so called “new world” shrubberies. No hard feelings on the whole phylloxera
thing, and thanks for the rootstocks.
We logged 632.1 degree days for
the month of July, up 120.4 degree days (23.5%) from the 511.7 degree days in
June. And when you add July’s 632.1 degree days to the 799 degree days
accumulated through June, you end up with the year to date July degree days, as
you might expect. Rainfall was a scant 0.02 inches; 110% humidity was all that
was and it didn’t last all that long - hot and bothered…
This is the part of the shpiel
where we try and say something funny. But when you look at August coming down
the pike, with a historical 600 degree day accumulation and no precipitation,
it’s not so farmin’ funny. But this is: Well it’s 40 below and I
don’t…
So, we will most likely be around
2,000 degree days and as dry as a popcorn phart as we breach the month of
September. But a lot can happen in 30 days.
It reminds us of the court jester
accused of adultery (with the Queen no less) who saved his skin by promising
the King he could make his prized stallion talk if he could just have 30 days
to train him. The King granted his request and a guard led the jester away to
the stables.
The guard said “Are you mad? You
can never train a horse to talk! What are you going to do?” The jester replied,
quite sure of himself, “30 days is a long time. The King could die, I could
escape or who knows? The horse could learn to talk.”
In case you wonder why we go to
all this effort to inform, educate and (hopefully) entertain, we thought this
strip answers that question beautifully:
Kindest Regards,
