Hello and Welcome,
This is the June 2016 Climate
Update from Amalie Robert Estate.
June started out with scorching
hot temperatures approaching the century mark and ended the month with a fair shot
of rain followed by cooling breezes from the north. As they say “A fast horse
don’t run long…”
So, what have we here with this
2016 growing season? So far, the season started off lickety split with a very
warm to hot April. May was more in line with the past few vintages, which were
also warm, and now June seems to be running out of steam. Based on the
flowering date of May 27th plus 105 days, we see a harvest window
opening up in mid to late September. That means we have about 75 days of
growing season left before the Great Cluster Pluck of 2016 visits itself upon
us. But wait for it, and some vintage extending rain, we will.
The month of June is when the
crew finished straightening up all of the shoots and clipping the catch wires
into place.
That’s when Ernie was finally
able to arrest the expletive growth in the canopy. Note: The early season soil
moisture and above average heat are two things the vines picked up on RFN
(Right Farmin’ Now.) The hedger, aka “The Enforcer,” is the correct tool for
the job. With 5 sets of blades spinning at warp 8, Ernie and The Enforcer will
not be denied.
It takes him 3 days to make a
single pass through the vineyard, but he does mow up the trimmings as he goes.
The first hedge is always the most dramatic. The hedged shoots take about a
week to ten days before they start to push new shoot tips. This timeframe gives
all the shorter shoots that missed out on the first hedging a chance to grow
into the “Red Zone.” Then he is back for the second pass.
The hedgings will
continue until canopy discipline improves!
And then, suddenly, as if by the
sweat of everyone’s collective brow, we are almost caught up. Through this
point of the growing season, we have done what had to be done to get the canopy
trained and hedged. But now with leaf pulling, we get to do what we want to do.
We find ourselves in the winemaker’s role of determining how much skin tannin
we want in our wines.
Pulling more leaves means more
wine berry exposure and more robust tannins. Pulling fewer leaves means less sun
exposure resulting in more elegant and refined tannins. The discretionary role
of leaf pull is where the art of winegrowing takes a “leaf” in destiny.
Practically speaking, the choices
lay somewhere between completely denuding the vine of its shade providing
leaves or to retain all the leaves and provide abundant shade to the wine berries.
Depending on the wine and wine style we are producing, we vacillate widely between
the two.
And as we all know, it is a very
fine and vacillating line between genius and insanity. Which side you come down
on is often determined after the fact and dependant, at least to some extent,
upon your ARB quotient (Adult Recreational Beverage consumption per hour over
body weight.)
And not to put too fine a point
on it, but it is worth pointing out that there is a difference between 17 years
of experience, and one year of experience 17 times. Ah, the beauty of vintage
variation in Oregon ’s Willamette Valley
We just look at each other, toast
with an ARB and remember that this is why there all kinds of different dogs for
all kinds of different people. One person’s “Best in Show” at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is another person’s padoodle. Full disclosure: We do
have a dog in the fight. Ernie’s favorite breed, the Labrador Retriever, has never
won best of show since the show’s inception in Manhattan , New York London
for a third time. Wit of a banker, so they say. We will, however, continue to FLOG them until they say they have
had enough. Shouldn’t be too much longer now…
Please say Hello to our new
vines! Wadenswil clone Pinot Noir they are. We finally received our line posts
up from California .
It seems they were stuck in the Port
of Los Angeles
And the Swallows have arrived. These
voracious insectivores are some of the most aerially talented flyers we have in
the vineyard. They frequently are crisscrossing and darting in front of the
tractor as Ernie is driving the rows. They are harvesting insects that are
attracted to the flowering buckwheat summer cover crop. An ecosystem at work is
a wonderful thing to behold.
Across the pond in Europe, and
the now recently disassociated UK ,
they have the Common House Martin. Soccer is also a big deal on the other side of the pond, just
ask anyone from Iceland .
Perhaps Operation Fork is still an unresolved issue, or maybe the Cod Wars…
Bonus Feature: This is the last
known resting place of the Crimson Permanent Assurance. (Hint: Click on the picture.)
Next up is the prospect of
thinning the crop load to match the remainder of the growing season. If it is
going to be hot, we leave a few extra clusters. If it is going to be more
moderate with a cool fall, then we thin off a few more clusters. If we only
knew…
Just like playing chicken, the important
thing here is to know when to blink. Because, you see, once you cut the
clusters off, you can’t put them back on. And it seems the wings that we used
to thin off and drop onto the ground have found a home.
Well that about does it, except
for the important numbers. The good news is that the growing season to date
degree day accumulation through June is still just 3 digits. We fully expect
the July growing season to date accumulation to take us well into the 4 digit
range. “Mr. Sulu, scan long range sensors…”
The month of June recorded 363.1
degree days providing an April to date growing season total of 805.1 degree
days. We remain climactically ahead of all previous degree day accumulations
dating back to 2003. But the 2015 vintage is not far behind at 799.1 degree
days. A mere 6.0 points (not 7.0) separates these two vintages as of the end of
June. Statistically, we could say they are not significantly different when you
consider standard deviations and all…
Looking ahead, the evening
temperatures will be the elephant in the room. Warm temperatures at night will
increase the rate of sugar accumulation while leaving aroma and flavor
development wanting. This could mean another early harvest to keep the
potential alcohol below 15%.
However, at Amalie Robert Estate
we can tell you the secret to vintage 2016 (and the last 4 vintages) is to
manage the canopy and vineyard floor water usage. How you actually do that is
very site specific. Old vines with deep roots and grizzled growers with several
years experience are quintessential. May want to put the kettle on, Polly.
And what is it with the hail this
year? We were pelted again this month with those frosty little pellets. It’s as
if someone is raising rabbits in the Heavens. Which reminds us of the old
adage: “If pigs could fly it would have had a significant and long lasting
impact on the fedora
industry.” The homburgs,
however, were “built to take it.”
All that aside, or above, we
logged 1.33 inches of rain for the month of June. This brings the April to date
growing season total to 5.24 inches. July is on the horizon and typically is
quite dry in the Willamette Valley , unlike Burgundy
which seems to log about 50 centimeters of rain during July – they measure
things differently over there. More on the contrast of summer rains in Oregon v Burgundy
next month.
Right. You have just been FLOG’d,
whether you knew it or not. And we are going to do it again. But please, feel
free to forward this on and “FLOG a friend!”
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
