Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: June 2020 and Salud Pinot Noir Auction

Hello and Welcome, 

  

This is an Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: June 2020 and Salud Pinot Noir Auction. A FLOG communication from Dena and Ernie. Amalie Robert Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 

  

iPinot COVID-19 Pivot Pricing is still in effect at $120 on six bottles with domestic ground shipping included. Just click on the Big Blue Button to browse available vintages and collect your favorite! 

You will not need a promo code to activate pricing. The pricing will automatically adjust when you select six bottles of iPinot and there is no further discount on iPinot. The shipping will be adjusted upon confirmation of your order. This is our contribution to the human condition, yours and ours. If you have any questions or need assistance, please E-mail Dena at Cuvee@amalierobert.com.

You don’t have to be crazy to grow Pinot Noir, but it helps. June has been quite the rollercoaster, but all in all we will log it as a positive in the vineyard journal. Cool and rainy was the beginning and the end of the month. The midsection was pleasant and sunny. This vintage is not quite sure who it wants to be. Not too much to complain about here at the vineyard though – not too much heat, or rain or pestilence upon the land, just yet.

Speaking of pestilence, we have a COVID-19 update. We opened the winery to outside tasting for one day last month. We are not going to name names, but you know who you are. Thank you for joining us. All went well and we learned what worked and what we could improve upon.

For the month of July, the winery will be open by appointment for personalized tastings. We will also have Saturday and Sunday weekend hours of 10 am to 3 pm for wine tasting and call ahead wine order pick up. We ask that you contact Dena at Cuvee@amalierobert.com to reserve your time. If you can’t join us, we can arrange shipping on your behalf. And we have upped our game with insulated shippers to extend our reach.

We have adopted the following outside tasting protocol. Upon arrival you will be offered your choice of barrel station under our new sun shade canopy. Each barrel station is at least 6 feet away from any other barrel station and is equipped with a bottle of sanitizer to be used on your hands. Lip sanitizer, by definition, is part of the tasting program.

Your barrel station will include a new Amalie Robert Riedel tasting glass (they make these just for us) for each person in your party and an unopened bottle of water that you may share among your party to rinse your new stemware. There will also be a double-sided all-in-one tasting program and order form. We may also include some laminated marketing SWAG that is sanitized before and after your tasting appointment. The tasting fee is $20 with $15 refundable on any two bottle purchase per person. The now christened Amalie Robert Riedel tasting glass is yours to keep and may be rinsed again.

Vineyard tours are available based on Ernie’s availability. Lately the tractors have sprung some very interesting leaks in some not so easily accessible places. Nonetheless, the vines are on their trajectory to ripeness and we would like to show them off. They have just been freshly hedged and look quite smart. Our rows are socially distant accessible at 90 inches apart. So, either dress for a walk in the vineyard to see the vines or bring your overalls for an “under the tractor” exposé. Yes, there is a difference between 4 millimeters and 3/16”.

The Amex Shop Small promotion is in effect. Amalie Robert Estate is a Shop Small business. The promotion is good for the entire month of July, August and into September. A qualified purchase of $10 or more will earn you a statement credit of $5. And you can use this offer up to 10 times. Please visit the American Express site for more details and to enroll your card. Do it today, don’t delay or you may miss the boat!

  

Now the fun stuff.

Miles and miles of hi-tensile trellis wires. We run three sets and the goal is to capture the vines’ growth at the most opportune time. Of course, the vines are keen to our plan. Some shoots grow quickly as if to escape our grasp. Others more slowly as if lying in wait to set upon us when we least expect it. Remind you of anyone? Perhaps someone with just three fingers?

Wouldn’t it be nice if Wile E. Coyote were to show up with one of his ACME products that self-installed trellis wires. Wouldn’t that be something? From the Jet-Propelled Pogo Stick to the Dehydrated Boulders, the ACME mail order catalog was his go-to source for new and innovative products. Makes you wonder what shipping costs would be on a box of dehydrated boulders. And hey, can you throw in a couple of supernovas? Kinda like Cracker Jacks. You can view the entire ACME catalog offering here.

Well, that’s not how it works. A crew of 5 highly trained and specialized vineyard workers are responsible for raising our trellis wires in vintage 2020. Oh sure, we have a coyote come through the vineyard from time to time. Not all that wily looking, mostly just trying to sniff out members of the Rodentia class of varmints. However, the bobcat that comes through block 14 always seems to have a purpose, a look of intention. He or She has the face of a Bengal tiger and we enjoy observing this cat from the safety of our kitchen.

The first set of trellis wires comes up when we have about 12 inches of growth, mostly. Just before we finish that set, the next set of wires at about 40 inches are ready to come up. About this time, Ernie is mounting the hedger on his pearl essence, powder blue Landini Rex 100 GT. (It’s Italian, what can we say.) And the third set of wires is where you discover the labor pool you have is about 4 hands short of what you needed to finish on time. At the end, the shoots are out of control and now they have the leverage. It is not a pretty sight. Total time to raise three sets of catch wires is 99,902 minutes, or about 117.178 seconds per vine. Just about the amount of time you need for the 2-minute warning.

But the hedger, aka The Enforcer, comes onto the scene right behind that third set of wires. What was all chaos and confusion is now rigidly enforced discipline. Any shoot caught outside the confines of the trellis wire will be summarily “removed”. And much like the wire regime, there will be a second and third hedging pass that is just as strict. If we have excessive soil moisture that encourages more growth, there is the option of a fourth hedge. It keeps Ernie off the streets, but it would sure be fun to run the Landini Rex 100 GT with hedger blades slashing up and down I-5 during rush hour!

It’s that time of year for the Summertime ¡Salud! Pinot Noir Auction. This year brings the COVID-19 edition where all bidding and virtual tasting for that matter, will occur online. If you want to see what you look like during a ZOOM virtual tasting, just position yourself in front of a mirror. Your backdrop may give away more than you know. We recommend the red SOLO cup for a spit cup. Much better than the glass alternative.

Amalie Robert Estate has been a contributing member of the Vintners Circle since 2006. The top 35 like-minded Oregon wineries produce a special cuvée just for the ¡Salud! mission. There are only 5 cases produced from each winery, and the only way to get one is to be a successful bidder at ¡Salud!

You can preview the auction lots here. Note we are number 3 of 35 wineries on offer this year.

The ¡Salud! mission is a good way to give back into the community that makes world Class Oregon Pinot Noir a reality. To learn more about the ¡Salud! mission and register to bid, please visit their website at  website here: http://saludauction.org/mission/ As noted above, those trellis wires do not raise themselves. But Ernie does have a call into the ACME company. No word back as of yet.

The numbers. While he does have the X and Y axis correctly identified, he is missing the Z axis – Speed. Trajectory, as Wile E. Coyote never seems to recall, is dependent upon thrust, or speed. In the vineyard construct, our Z axis is heat units. The hotter it is the faster the wine berries build sugar. Heat units are not just a reflection of the high temperature of the day. The vines are out there 24 x 7 and experience the cool nights as well as the warm days. And Ernie’s 3,600 data points per 30-day period approximate the curve quite accurately, every 12 minutes. Yeah, he’s got some kinda spreadsheet for that.

 

The month of June accumulated 341.2 Degree Days bringing vintage 2020 to a growing season total of 732.1 Degree Days. The first half of the month provided 122.6 Degree Days and 0.98 inches of rain. The second half of the month added 218.6 Degree Days and 0.59 inches of rain. The grass noticed the rain and Ernie got an unexpected extra mowing pass. The high temperature for the month was 89.6 degrees recorded on June 23^rd at 2:36 pm. The low temperature was 38.1 recorded June 4^th at 12:36 am.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: Flowers 2020

Hello and Welcome, 

This is an Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: Flowers 2020. A FLOG communication from Dena and Ernie. Amalie Robert Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 

  

The first sighting of wine berry flowers at Amalie Robert Estate occurred Monday, June 8, 2020. Flowers are the first sign that vintage 2020 is headed to harvest. And it comes with some specificity (105 days to be exact) from flowers to The Great Cluster Pluck. Yep, you can set your watch by it. You know the one… the one with just one hand.

Your timing would be off of course, but it wouldn’t be your fault. There are all manner of hidden and not so hidden disasters-in-waiting that can disrupt the path to harvest. And while we have fortunately not seen them all, in 20 years we have seen enough and gained tremendous experience. Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. But it is wisdom that we are after, if only...

Like the early warning Cedar Waxwings that flew into the vineyard last week. They are wine berry bandits, complete with masks and afterburners. Typically, their turf is southern Oregon and we would prefer they stay there.

And so we press on to harvest 2020, undaunted in our quest. Even though we have seen this show before, each year’s production varies considerably from baseline and year to year. We live the infamous words of John Wayne, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

We grow three selections of Pinot Noir: Pommard Clone, Wadenswil Clone and five of the Dijon Clones. Each of them blooms about the same time, mostly dependent upon on where they are situated in the vineyard. Higher elevation plantings have a tendency to flower later and we usually harvest them toward the end of The Great Cluster Pluck. If you would like to learn more about the Wadenswil Clone, you can check out Interview with a Clone - Wadenswil 2A.

We also produce dedicated bottlings to showcase the best of what these clones can do on our site. The Pommard and Wadenswil Clone selections are typically just 2 barrels each (48 cases) of the most intriguing barrels of the vintage.  The Dijon Clones bottling is a little different story. We planted five of the Dijon Clones of Pinot Noir and they are 113, 114, 115, 667 and 777. We blend all five of these clones together to make the Dijon Clones Pinot Noir.

If you would like to experience these clones in their purest form, click on the Big Blue Button that will whisk you away to Amalie Robert Direct where you can peruse bottlings and select your favorite vintages. And check out the iPinot 6-pack offering while you are there.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Update: Repositioning iPinot in the Time of COVID-19

Hello and Welcome, 

  

This is an Amalie Robert Estate Update: Repositioning iPinot in the Time of COVID-19. A FLOG Communication from Dena and Ernie. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from Amalie Robert Estate. 

  

“May you live in interesting times” is an English expression that is often used in irony. In that, quality of life is usually better in uninteresting times of status quo versus the disruption and unrest our country is currently experiencing. Air travel is a case in point where an interesting flight is often less safe than an uninteresting flight. Surely, we are leading interesting lives in the time of COVID-19. We hope you are safe and well. We are tucked into the vineyard and winery like ticks on a hound dog.

Plenty of room for distancing @AmalieRobert Estate.

COVID-19 has provided many people, including us, an opportunity to focus and pay close attention to what really is important. This graphic helps explain the relative importance of several factors impacting the human condition during COVID-19. Some items are relatively unaffected, such as the need for a cup of freshly brewed morning accelerant. What may have changed is the source from where this beverage is derived. The term “Homebrew” has taken on a new significance.

We see the need for a vehicle or mundane daily activities such as shaving to be of less importance. This may in fact be dependent on other factors, such as one’s employment status or location of said employment. Daily grooming habits represent a slippery slope as we will see next as we examine sweatpants and internet usage.

Correlation and causation are unreliable bedfellows. As we can see from the graphic, both the use of the internet and choice of sweatpants are highly favored. That does not necessarily mean one is dependent upon the other. However, both could be dependent upon the social expectations in play during traditional work hours or ZOOM calls. (I would stand up but I am wearing sweatpants, or no pants at all!) Or maybe surfing the internet is more enjoyable in sweatpants. Clearly, wearing sweatpants does not create a desire to surf the internet. While correlated, causation is difficult to prove with a high level of confidence.

And then there is the panic mode shopping, also called pantry stuffing. Toilet paper was the first item in this category to gain notoriety. Daily grooming habits can ebb and flow from day to day, but personal hygiene is a different matter. Next came hand sanitizer followed by masks, sneeze guards and disposable gloves. As time goes by, these items will return to their normal level of importance, however there will always be an extra roll or two tucked in behind the bath towels, just in case.

And that brings us to the Adult Recreational Beverage category. As the yellow line on the chart indicates, right about the start of March there was a steep and sustained level of importance placed in this category. At times we can look to social influencers, such as Martha Stewart, to impact behaviors and trends. They can add a level of comfort in knowing you are not the only one enjoying an Adult Recreational Beverage, or two. The real difference is that you had the presence of mind to discontinue internet activities during the social hour.

Repositioning iPinot for the New Normal - the COVID-19 Pivot. Our reading of the tea leaves is that the impacts of COVID-19 are going to have a half life that lasts quite some time.

iPinot is reserve quality barrels of Pinot Noir selected for our “Hers and His Reserves”, Amalie’s Cuvée and Estate Selection. Once the final “Hers and His Reserve” wines are blended, we have a few extra reserve quality barrels of wine to blend. We blend these barrels of wine together to create iPinot - a reserve level wine without the reserve level price.

We introduced iPinot to the marketplace in two ways. The first is from Amalie Robert Direct. We sell this Pinot Noir via internet distribution everywhere it is legal for us to do so. You might be surprised to learn that there are still a few states that do not allow their citizens to receive wine shipments directly from wineries. Currently, these states are Delaware, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Utah.

The second way to experience iPinot, until COVID-19, was as a “by the glass” offering at select restaurants. Our goal in offering iPinot for a glass pour program was to build brand awareness for Amalie Robert. The restaurant landscape has since changed, significantly. And no one really knows when or how the restaurant business is coming back. People must feel comfortable in the presence of other, unknown people in a somewhat confined space.

There are a lot of moving parts throughout the country and local ordinances play a significant role. However, our goal remains the same. We intend to continue offering a compelling wine that represents an excellent value and that wine is iPinot Pinot Noir.

And now, instead of enjoying a glass “out” at a fine dining establishment, you can enjoy a glass “in” at your very own fine dining establishment. Or maybe it is Tuesday night book club and a glass of iPinot. Then there is Wine Wednesday with Martha and the girls – you can even post to social media. Thursday is the unofficial start to the weekend, and iPinot fits that bill quite nicely.

Starting today, and for the foreseeable future, we are offering iPinot at $120 on six bottles or more with domestic ground shipping included. Just click on the Big Blue Button to browse available vintages or collect them all!

Note: You will not need a promo code to activate pricing. The pricing will automatically adjust when you select six bottles of iPinot and there is no further discount on iPinot. The shipping will be adjusted upon confirmation of your order. This is our contribution to the human condition, yours and ours. If you have any questions or need assistance, please E-mail Dena at Cuvee@amalierobert.com.

Kindest Regards,

 Dena & Ernie