Hello and Welcome,
This is the 2017 Harvest After
Action Report (AAR) from Amalie Robert Estate. A FLOG communication.
The Great Cluster Pluck of
2017 began at Amalie Robert Estate in September by harvesting the wings of
Pinot Noir for our Bellpine Pearl Rosé,
and after much ado with our well pump, motor and wiring, we resumed with the Gewürztraminer,
Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. The Great Cluster Pluck of 2017 concluded
in November with our cool climate, Côte
Rôtie style Syrah
and Viognier.
And along the way to the New
Year, there was the vintage extending two and a half months of fermentations,
punch downs and ultimately pressing the red wine from the depleted skins and
stems. This was about the time the tractor with the front forks that moves this
material lost the ability to travel in reverse under its own power. This is why
it is nice to have a sturdy chain and a Dodge Diesel Dually available. And a
replacement tractor. Thanks Tom!
And a note about the well. By
definition, a well is a hole in the ground that has water in it. This is a very
nice thing to have. However, without the means to extract the water from 180
feet below the surface, a well is, well, not that useful. And that is why it is
nice to have a competent plumber available. Like Forbes Plumbing. Thanks guys!
Meanwhile, the temperature
dropped for a natural cold stabilization of our Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Bellpine
Pearl Rosé, so we
had to make time to steward those finished wines to bottle and top them off
with a wee bit of natural tree bark, aka cork.
So from the start of September
through nearly all of December, this was Ernie having his way with about 100
tons worth of wine berries. Looking back on this four month protracted ordeal,
it could also be reasonably stated that the wine berries, the well and the tractor
all had their way with him.
How to tell if you are out
of water. After a successful day of gently pressing the wings of Wadenswil,
667 and Pommard clone Pinot Noir it was time to wash down the equipment. But
first, let’s review what it takes to make the Bellpine Pearl Rosé. You need the following
items and the time to execute the production and clean up plan:
Freshly plucked wings of Pinot
Meunier and Pinot Noir (we go back and pluck the main clusters when they are
fully mature).
A press to gently extract the
clear juice from the be-winged wine berries and just a hint of color from the
skins.
A pan to collect this sublime “Pinot
in Pink” juice, with a valve that is attached in such a way that it can be
fully opened and closed. The first processing day of the vintage always provides
a great opportunity to refresh oneself on how (and why) all the bits and pieces
fit together.
A pump to transfer the freshly
extracted juice to a clean 1,000 liter stainless steel tank – about 250 gallons
is all it will hold. This is nice to know in advance, during the planning
portion of the day, before the production portion of the day ensues forthwith. A
functioning drain, while effective in its own duties, is the receptacle of last
resort.
Add in all of the obligatory
hoses and various sundry bits and pieces and you too can make Rosé.
Note: While electrical power
is also required to operate the equipment, it is not the focus of this section.
We lost power after all of the wine berries were harvested. Once again, the
Dodge Diesel Dually with a power inverter and 100’ extension cord saved the
day. Punch down, we would like you to know, is a fully manual and hands on
affair that does not require electrical power and continued unabated.
And then comes the wash down,
with water. It all starts off so easily. Rinse everything down with cold water
first to wash away the sugary juice and then move to ever hotter water to clean
and eventually sanitize the equipment. So simple, even a winemaker can do it!
When you come to the point in
the process where you are fully activating the hose nozzle while looking
straight down it’s barrel, you are out of water. Instinctively we all know you
can pull a vacuum but you cannot pull a hose, so we look to see if there is a
kink in the hose. Nope, clear all the way back to the hose bib (still) mounted
on the wall. And a second look confirms both the hot and cold valves are at
least partially open.
Right. Down to the pumphouse
we go. Here we find the hole in the ground that presumably has water in it. A
circuit breaker box that controls the flow of electricity to various pumps and
controllers that sense low water pressure and activate said pumps. And a 2,500
gallon above ground tank that Ernie had installed when we built the winery.
Clever indeed.
But the circuits were all fine
and the breakers were not tripped. Then we discovered a giant clue – the 2,500
gallon above ground tank was empty. Worse yet, it was not being refilled. It’s
as if all the circuits were asleep or on break. But they were not asleep or on break.
At this point, the notion that you cannot restore your own water crystalizes in
your frontal lobe providing a sense of urgency and immediate focus on the
plumber’s phone number that you have programmed on speed dial.
And that is how you know you are
out of water.
But things designed by humans
can usually be repaired by humans, albeit usually by bringing to bear a more
intelligent design (and financial resources) than the original implementation.
And that was the set of circumstances that restored our water supply. And
harvest began, in earnest, the following morning.
As far as the wine berries are
concerned they had quite a vintage. Just consider their itinerary of events
leading up to the Great Cluster Pluck of 2017:
November 2016 through April
2017: Let’s have a nice relaxing winter rest while the humans scurry about
pruning and tying down a fruiting cane. Hmm, looks nice. Maybe take up some
nutrients from the fall cover crop and sluff off a layer of bark. Nothing too
demanding and certainly not in any hurry. We have 6 months off!
March 53rd Budbreak: Whoa! Is it spring time already? What is that guy
on the tractor up to? What a rude awakening! Time to push out the new buds and
get some leaves going on.
June 11th Flowering: And here they are! This year’s bouquet of
flowers. That sure makes the property smell fine! Meanwhile Ernie is figuring
to add 105 days of ripening and looking at a harvest window in late September.
Little does he know about the impending well issue.
August 6th Pinot Noir In Flagrante! Blushing wine berries start to
emerge throughout the 55,000 vines. Just a few at first, but given time they
all join in.
August 21st In the Path of Totality: The vines were treated to their
first total solar eclipse. A Double Diurnal Day!
Photo by Vincent Cantwell
September 22nd Winging It:
The first wings make it to the winery for the Bellpine Pearl Rosé.
October 5th OOW
(Out Of Water): It’s a well thing.
October 12th: The
Great Cluster Pluck begins!
From a climate point of view,
2017 continues the de-escalation of the last few overly hot vintages providing
us a degree day total of 2,279. See below for a 15 year retrospective.
And once again we held out for
rain and were handsomely rewarded. Most everything we plucked came in with very
moderate sugars and nice hang time. The Chardonnay, however, was letting us
know, that pretty soon it would be time to go.
You see Chardonnay does not
really like rain. It can handle a little, but much more than just a passing conversation
and Botrytis starts to take hold. The odd mauve colored wine berry tells us
that they have developed pretty much all of the aroma and flavor we are going
to get. If we let it hang through another shower or two and the temperature
rises, the Botrytis will take over. So, we take it at first light when the
buckets are clean.
Rainfall for October was 4.70
inches. Total rainfall for the vintage was 14.10 inches and distributed
throughout the growing season as follows:
And then it got cold. While
most everyone, if not in-fact everyone, was finished with harvest, Ernie was
holding out for his cool climate, Côte
Rôtie inspired
Syrah and Viognier. We took the Viognier first and it went straight to the
press and then stainless steel. The resulting juice was a very cool 40 degrees.
Not a lot happening at 40 degrees, microbially speaking, so Ernie deployed his
tried and true 300-watt fish tank heater. That pretty much did the trick and
the following day the juice was fermenting and flocculating with great abandon.
The dazzling aroma of white peaches and honeysuckle and tamarind filled the
fermentation deck.
Now, what do you call a hole
in the ground with ash coming out of it? No, that would be our neighboring
grape growers lighting burn piles while we are still hanging fruit. The more
correct answer is a volcano.
Lucky block 13 is the Syrah
block. That is 4 Northern Rhône
Syrah clones represented by 1,188 vines covering just short of one acre and is
Cluster Plucked by clone. The oddly interplanted Viognier is treated as a light
skinned Syrah clone and co-harvested and co-fermented with its dark skinned
cousins. In the winery, we use about 50% whole cluster and ferment in the same
1.5 ton fermenters as we use for Pinot Noir. This is Syrah made by a Pinot guy.
Which is quite a different thing than Pinot made by a Syrah guy. Maybe.
The fermenters started out
that morning at 42 degrees. Hmm. Ernie thought to himself. I wonder if the
indigenous yeast that came in on those wine berry skins will take off at 42
degrees. Not only did those two fermenters take off, it was so cold that all of
the fruit flies died off before they could get in the fermenters. It was a
Cluster Pluck miracle! And we just happened to end up with about 10 gallons of
Syrah Rosé. So many
wines, so little time.
But then it got real cold and
Ernie was concerned, that maybe just perhaps, the fermenters would get too cold
to finish fermenting. So he lined up the press and a nice new barrel, and he
pressed the wine down to our below ground cellar.
“It will finish in barrel,” he
proclaimed with a grin. “It will finish fermenting with the yeast from within!”
And with the Syrah safely
tucked into barrel, we conclude the 2017 Harvest After Action Report (AAR).
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
