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
No comments:
Post a Comment