Hello and Welcome,
This is the Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: June Vintage 2021, Why is
it SO FARMING HOT!?
Precision farming, Ernie hedging a short canopy.
A Willamette Valley Harvest isn’t here yet. We estimate Julian calendar day 257
(September 14th), but it’s starting to come into view. You can check out our harvest video
courtesy of VineStories.
Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means. ®
June is Dena’s birthday month. She is a Gemini and provides a calming force to
the Taurus in her life. The Pommard clone of Pinot Noir is her thing, and Amalie’s Cuvée is her
jam. A 300 case production means just 12 lucky barrels find their way into her
final blend. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. A wine that is just about as
natural as the day is long.
Do YOU like Pommard? Or Wadenswil? Will you be in our area? Do you want to experience Amalie Robert Pinot Noir? Or maybe Syrah? Amalie Robert Estate is open all summer by appointment for vineyard tours and tastings. Click on the map for driving directions and select your preferred day and time with the Big Red Button.
Why is it SO FARMING HOT!?
Why, you may ask. Why is it SO FARMING HOT!? Well, we will tell you why.
In a word, or two, it is the Jet Stream. A high-pressure dome set itself up
over the Seattle area. This allowed an ABUNDANCE OF HOT AIR from the states to
our south to come into the northwest. That airflow established a circular flow
all around the Pacific Northwest including Canada. And it’s not even an
ELECTION YEAR…
The Jet Stream circulating HOT AIR into the Willamette Valley.
This breeze kept recirculating the hot air coming north, thus preventing any
cool air to come south from the Gulf of Alaska. The middle of the country was
subject to the cooling effect of cold Canadian air. The result was
unprecedented, prolonged and excessive heat throughout the wine growing area of
the Willamette Valley.
Forget Climate Change. Somebody has got to straighten out the Jet Stream!
And aren’t you just a little bit curious how your region stacks up to the
Willamette Valley? This graphic shows the real-time temperatures for the entire United
States. Alaska and Hawaii seem to have gone missing. That’s where we
would be, if we were to be somewhere other than here.
That is Portland registering 111 degrees, as of Monday, June 28th.
Where there is FIRE, there is SMOKE.
FIRE – it’s a four-letter word, and one that is generally unwelcome in the
vineyard environment. And then we move onto the 5 letter words like SMOKE and
TAINT. These are completely unacceptable. The excessive heat in the areas
around the Willamette Valley is of concern. There are wildfires burning now
and we are monitoring that situation. You can read our position on the
ill-fated Vintage 2020 here. A
post-preview of coming attractions? We hope not.
So, what are we doing about it?
We are taking it as it comes, as that is really your only option as a
winegrower. That and a couple of hotel nights with air conditioning. Field
labor stops when the temperatures become unsafe. Ernie can run the tractors,
hedging early in the morning, but excessive heat is not good for the equipment,
or the equipment operator. The excessive heat does provide a good opportunity
to finish up the annual equipment maintenance down in the cool, below ground
level shop. The flail mower took out a bearing this month, and what a helluva
bearing it is!
Replaced the flail mower bearing, it was all farmed out.
The vines, however, are making the most of their unsupervised time. Typically,
vines do not get much done when the temperature drops below 50 degrees at
night. That is why the evening cooldowns are such an important climatic
attribute of winegrowing in the Willamette Valley. Cool evening temperatures
prevent the vines from quickly building excess sugars before aroma and flavor
can develop.
The BIG picture at Amalie Robert Estate.
Not this week. Like a kid set loose in a candy store, those vines are growing
at a record pace. Over 2.5 inches of rain early in the month, during bloom, is
enabling their growth. The evening temperatures in the mid-70’s and above allow
for a 24 hour growth cycle. There is no evening cooldown to apply the brakes.
The other side of the coin is that at temperatures above 100 degrees the vines
call it quits. The leaves turn away from the sun and the vines go into their
form of a lockdown. The end of June brought with it over 38 continuously
unbearable hours of temperatures maintaining 70 to 115+ degrees.
What Does This Mean and Why Should I Care?
Leaves in the fruit zone shading the newly formed wine berries.
But botrytis is not the intent. The case for removing leaves is to allow early
morning sun exposure on the wine berries to evaporate the moisture from the
morning dew that may foster powdery mildew and botrytis development. All well
and good, in moderation.
The case against removing leaves is that excessive sun exposure can form
aggressive tannins in the skins or in the most extreme case - sunburn. This
leads to a very harsh finish in the wine. Not attractive in a silky-smooth
Amalie Robert Pinot Noir.
Timing is key. Often times leaves are removed from the fruit zone right after
flowering. This is done for one of two reasons: one is dogmatic as in “we have
always done it that way.” The other is because the vineyard is situated in an
area with high humidity, or restricted cold air drainage. Actually a third
reason for early leaf removal can be because that is when a field crew was
available. The world may run on Dunkin, but vineyards run on field labor. And
diesel.
A view from the Chief Farming Officer's seat, moving ahead and looking behind.
Extended periods of high humidity foster powdery mildew and botrytis infections
– both of these pathogens need moisture to grow. What’s done is done. Woe
betide you if those leaves were removed before this excessive heat and sun
exposure event. The decision to remove leaves early in the growing season may
become evident in wine marked by excessively harsh tannins. Leaves are your
friends, leave them be. They have a job to do. Thank them.
Numbers: The Dichotomy of Farming.
As we look back at the month, we find the view from the Independence Hotel to be
similar to the view we had here during the ice storm in March. What a messed up
year we have in 2021.
The vineyard encased in ice after Ice Storm 2021.
Bear in mind these temperatures are recorded at a nearby weather station. What
we see on a nice south facing slope at 485 to 640 feet elevation is another
matter.
Vineyards are typically planted on elevated south, southeast or southwest
facing slopes for two reasons. The first is so that cold air does not pool
overnight and frost out your efforts.
The second reason is that south facing aspects have a greater “angel of
incidence” to the sun. The angel of incidence is the angle at which the slope
receives the sun’s rays, with 90% being the maximum. The greater the slope, the
more solar radiation is received. The vast majority of the vineyard at Amalie
Robert Estate faces due south with a 10-15 percent slope. As the Earth tilts
toward the sun, our angle of incidence is very high during June. This maximizes
our solar radiation potential.
On Monday, June 28th we received 15 hours and 33 minutes of
sunshine. Our high of the day was 118 and our low was 86 degrees. By contrast
the shortest period of daylight hours in 2021 will be December 20th,
8 hours and 46 minutes.
We recorded 532 Degree Days for the month of June, Vintage 2021. The first half
of the month accounted for 177 Degree Days and the second half exactly doubled
the first with 355 Degree Days. That in of itself is an anomaly. The high
temperature for the month was 118.0 degrees recorded on Monday, June 28th
at 1:18 pm. Again, an odd semblance of numbers. The low temperature was 39.2
degrees recorded on June 9th at 5:36 am. The June high and low
temperatures span a 79 degree difference. Vintage 2021 growing season to-date
Degree Days stand at 1,040 through June. And that is a number most everyone is
familiar with.
We had both forms of moisture during the month of June - Rain AND Hail. As June
began to reveal itself, we were treated to a pleasant first week. Then the
honeymoon was over and we were abruptly pelted by a full spread of high
velocity ice pellets. It was a hail of a lot of fun… Good times in the month of
JUNE! But these were pea sized hail, not the Texas kind. Texas recently recorded a hailstone
that weighed in at 1.25 POUNDS. Now that can do a hail of a lot of damage!
Rainfall recorded in June is 2.55 inches bring the growing season April through
June total to 3.56 inches. Based on the heat and resulting rapid vine growth,
we can say with confidence that the June rainfall is now long gone.
Dena & Ernie
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