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 23rd at
2:36 pm. The low temperature was 38.1 recorded June 4th at 12:36 am.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
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