Hello and Welcome,
This is the Amalie Robert Estate
Climate Update: 2017 April.
Well, let’s see, where to begin.
It’s been raining. In fact we have received over 50 inches of rain from last
October through March, 2017. That is a significant event due to the fact we
“normally” receive that amount of rain in a 12 month period. Rain: Over
received.
And it has been unseasonably cold.
Starting in mid-December we experienced our first of several arctic blasts and
snow accumulations. And then there was the freezing rain. Always an unwelcomed
event where tree limbs and power lines grow in close proximity.
The vines, of course, were
unfazed. In fact they were still asleep and missed out on all this fine and
peasant misery we call winter in wine country. Even a brief sojourn to Texas did not spare us.
The arctic air made it down to Austin , and at 27
degrees, gave us a chilly send off back to Oregon . There
And it was cold and flu season.
Those nasty bugs visited themselves upon us. Fortunately we had the proper cold
medication on hand, and in good quantity.
Alright, let’s grow some wine! By
the time you are reading this, the 55,000 or so vines that make up the vineyard
at Amalie Robert Estate have been pruned and are ready to do their part for
vintage 2017. Chardonnay, G’wz, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Viognier
reporting for duty!
Pruned and tied down properly
Escaped tie down, but won’t get far
Ernie has put down the first
mowjob of the season. This first pass chops up all of last year’s canes from
the trellis (browns) and mixes them with the Tall Fescue that he grows between
the rows (greens.) These browns and greens make it to the vineyard floor where
a host of soil microbes (and worms, don’t forget the worms) are waiting to
compost them back into the soil. Waste not, want not.
Another thing you might notice if
you happen to be in the neighborhood is that he doesn’t mow the grass in the
road ways. He is waiting for it to go to seed and fill in any bare spots. And
besides, the quail like fresh grass seed, so we feed them along the way (standard
farming procedure.)
And then he starts to open up the
nutritional rows to incorporate last fall’s cover crop and put down a summer
blend of plants that will nourish our vines. The first pass is with a chisel
plow. What a great implement! It’s easy to hook up, hard to break, and cheap,
as far as vineyard equipment goes. This pass also has the benefit of pruning
off any shallow roots the vines have produced. Of course you don’t have to do
this to grow world class Pinot Noir, but someone has to.
Click for a few seconds with Ernie. He’s out there all day.
Then the rototiller comes along
and makes a fluffed up seed bed. We are just working with about the top 6
inches of soil. That is where the real microbial activity is happening.
Finally, the seed drill puts down 7 equally spaced furrows containing our standard
blend of Buckwheat and Vetch. Easy on the water during the summer and full of
nutrients to be incorporated back into the vineyard after harvest. Mmmm Yummy!
And we had bud break on Earth
day, but you already knew that. What you don’t know is how “utterly and
completely crappy” (technical farming term) the weather was during this time.
Montmorency cherries have a tendency to flower at the same time as Pinot Noir
has bud break and they need bees to pollinate. Bad weather and no bees mean not
so many cherries this year. It could be the case that cherry pies are going to
be hard to come by. We may all have to be “re-accommodated” to apple pie
instead.
Attention all number crunchers
and scriveners! Bear witness to the first data set for vintage 2017. It’s not a
pretty picture, just ask the cherry growers.
The high temperature recorded for
April was 67.6 degrees and the low temperature was 30.0 degrees Fahrenheit. The
first half of the month recorded no degree days. The second half of the month
recorded 1.3 degree days. While that is not much, it is also not nothing. Rain
for the month of April totaled 4.80 inches and included the gratuitous hail
storm or two.
From Vintage 2016: For the month
of April, we accumulated 165.0 degree days. The high temperature was 88.9
degrees on April 19th and the low temperature was 37.8 degrees on April 4th.
Once again we see a warm start to the growing season, but at this point on the
calendar anything could happen, and most likely will.
From Vintage 2015: We have
accumulated 53.6 degree days for the first 30 days of the growing season
beginning on day 91 (April 1), 2015. The first half of April did not record any
degree days, and therefore, all degree days were recorded in the second half of
the month. This is another example of the “mutually exclusive and collectively
exhaustive” principle.
The high temperature for April
was a balmy, if not scorching, 80.1 degrees on April 20, at 4:40 in the
afternoon. In farming parlance, this is known as beer’thirty. The morning of
April 29 hovered right at 34.2 degrees from 5:40 until 6:40. It was a fine time
for a second cup of coffee and a warm slice of 3.14159265358979.
So there it is. Vintage 2017 is
off to a slow start but it is too soon to worry - excessively.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
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