Amalie Robert Estate Culinary Inclinations Series Part IV: Rhône Inspires with Black Cod Palmiers and Rack of Spring Lamb

Hello and Welcome, 

 

It’s spring lamb season somewhere. And thanks to the invention of vacuum packaging and cold chain logistics, it can be spring lamb season, right here, right now! This is the fourth segment in our Culinary Inclinations Series: Rhône Inspires with Black Cod Palmiers and Rack of Spring Lamb. A FLOG communication (Farming bLOG) from Dena & Ernie @AmalieRobert Estate. Willamette Valley Oregon Pinot Noir. 

 

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the lower 48 in particular, we have just had an election. And pretty soon they are going to tell us who won. Not all of the races everywhere of course, but most of them. Enough to get an idea of what the next couple of years might look like. The judiciary is engaged as is “de rigueur” and the electorate is warming up for January 5^th. If you live in Georgia, you don’t need us to tell you that the circus has come to town. They are all there, with lawyers in tow.

 

We are blessed to have the Christmas holiday during the winter solstice. Not so for the folks Down Under. “Chrissy” as it is known, arrives with a sleigh full of gifts in the middle of the summer. It’s shrimps on the barbie and a pint of lager!

 

To celebrate the holidays, some choose to bring the great outdoors indoors. This often takes the form of a fir, pine or spruce tree. And depending on where said tree is in its lifecycle, it could be a beautifully adorned festive tree with lights and ornaments, or a more practical yuletide log. Either way, it is nice to curl up next to your implementation of the holiday tree with a glass of wine and a nice book or FLOG post as the case may be today.

 

He who travels fastest, travels alone. And that is how Santa gets everything delivered in one night. Of course, he has several time zones strategically mapped out and works both sides of the equator at the same time. By now, you would have to believe Rudolph has the route down cold. You can even track him on Google while they track you! And check out all of the cool games.

This would seem to be the perfect segue to delve into Viognier. That beautifully textured, heady white wine from the Northern Rhône Valley that Ernie grows right here in block 12, all 297 vines worth. Block 12, as you might imagine is planted east of, and adjacent to, the Syrah block, which is lucky block 13.

 

All told this is 1,485 vines, about 1.02 acres worth of Northern Rhône inspired viticulture. These vines are surrounded by the most coveted Wadenswil clone Pinot Noir to the north in block 21 and to the east in block 10. Covering the southern flank is Dijon clone 115 and looking to the west, it is Pommard clone that provides cover from the late afternoon sun.

 

But that was not the original plan. Ernie had those vines penciled in “way the hell and gone” on the other side of the field. Fortunately, and just before it was mostly too late, Dick Erath showed Ernie the error in this thinking.

 

We didn’t have to dig up that many vines, but that is how you “move” a vineyard block. Once that chore was completed, Ernie promptly invested in a new thinking cap. Dena picked it out. It has a nice pattern but not too flashy. It fits pretty snug and has a side binder to lock it in place. That’s just in case it were to slip off as we approach a critical decision point. Farming thinking caps are different. They just are…

 

In the winery, we abbreviate Our Muse Viognier as VIOGxx where the xx reflects the vintage. So for the latest release of Viognier we have VIOG19. This is not to be confused with the COVID19 vaccine that just is being released nationwide. However, we do share the same shipping lanes, and they are about to get really busy. So if you are thinking about holiday gift giving, it’s time for you to get busy. Or your gift giving options could be less than optimal.

 

VIOG19 and smoked black cod palmiers. Our interpretation of this culinary inclination is a savory. We consider a puff pastry to be the perfect delivery vehicle for exquisite smoked black cod and herbed goat cheese.

 

This is a sheet of thawed puff pastry shmeared with herbed goat cheese and then topped with smoked black cod. Alternatively, you could use lox style smoked salmon on one side. You then roll the opposing sides to the center, much like an ancient scroll. A quick brush of egg wash, slice them about 3/8” of an inch thick, then a run through the oven with a fresh sprig of rosemary at the very end, and out they come just as pretty as you please.

 

And you can accessorize! A creamy cucumber dill sauce served chilled adds sophistication from the “afternoon high tea” theme. Pesto is a classic accoutrement, however we are not so keen on pine nuts. Our interpretation of this classic substitutes almonds, and we add sun dried tomatoes including a little of the olive oil to the mix. And then there is aioli, lots and lots of ways to go and none of them are wrong. To round out the colors we suggest a roasted red pepper and garlic aioli. Yes, that should do it, very nice indeed!

 

A note on serving Viognier. We often find Viogner to have a very narrow serving temperature range. Slightly cooler than Pinot Noir, but not so cool as to lose the scintillating aromas that only Viognier can provide. We suggest starting off cool and letting the wine warm in your glass until you achieve maximum olfactory and frontal lobe satisfaction. You will know it when you find it. “Oh, did I say that out loud?” Yeah, that happens…

 

As your guests are polishing off the palmier plate, quite literally, and have found your last stashed bottle of Our Muse Viognier, it is time to move onto the main course. Lamb rack, or crown roast of lamb for a much more stunning presentation, and Satisfaction Syrah. Often times dressing can be made and cooked separately or in the middle of the roast. We prefer cooking any dressing separately, to ensure the correct temperatures of both dishes are achieved at the proper time. Otherwise, one is left cold, waiting for the other to finish.

One of your first decisions in approaching this culinary inclination is whether to decant the wine, and if so when to do it? Whether you are contemplating our Satisfaction or Top Barrel Syrah, we encourage decanting this wine before serving. And more importantly, here is why.

 

Wine decanting and whole cluster fermentation. The decision to decant a wine is really all about exposing the wine to air to allow it to evolve into a more enjoyable experience. In most dining situations, air is defined as 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% of the stuff that is most likely going to get us all. Let’s concern ourselves with the 21%.

 

During the winemaking process, we limit the amount of air exposure in our wines. Once fermentation is complete, the wines have a high concentration of carbon dioxide. This is a preservative, and over time this will dissipate. Sulfur dioxide is also a preservative that will dissipate over time and is added to the wine as it matures in barrel. And we do not transfer or rack our wines from barrel to barrel. In the case of our Syrah, once the barrels are filled, that is their home for the next two and half years until we gently transfer the wine to tank and use gravity to bottle – no pumping.

 

That means your bottle of Amalie Robert Syrah has had very little air exposure. In fact, the only air exposure would have come through that wee little piece of tree bark we use as the cork. And that is by design, we use natural corks precisely because we want that air exchange. While each cork is unique in its air exchange properties, we do know that some oxygen is getting through the cork and interacting with the wine. As air interacts with the wine, its first target is tannin. Oxygen degrades (softens) tannin.

 

Here is where it gets interesting. Whole cluster fermentations add tannins to the wines from the stems. Stem tannin is different from skin tannin and that’s the only way to get stem tannin - from the stems. And we ferment Syrah with whole clusters. A whole lot of whole clusters, about half the fruit in the fermenter is still attached to the stem. Add about five to seven years in the bottle and that little bit of air that has been slowly softening those stem tannins, has evolved them into spice and texture and length of finish. No other winemaking technique can provide such pleasure, but you have to wait for it to happen in the bottle.

 

So we say: Hell yes, decant that wine! But do it gently. We recommend sitting the bottle upright for at least 24 hours in a slightly cool area. Pour the wine from the bottle down the side of the decanter trying not to splash the wine. Toward the end of the pour look down through the neck of the bottle for sediment and stop pouring if it becomes excessive. It is harmless, but will make the wine appear cloudy in your glass.

 

Now you must wait, or plan ahead and decant so the wine is ready when the crown roast and dressing are ready. A good place to start is about an hour before serving time. You can stopper the decanter or use cling wrap to close off the top. There is plenty of air in the decanter to achieve the desired result. They design them that way. Of course, periodic sampling is in order. Be diligent as time permits.

 

By now your lamb should be making its way to the carving station. If it is an herb encrusted rack of lamb, it should be looking something like this.

 

Roast winter squash, garlic braised broccolini and sautéed Chanterelle or Morel mushrooms are at the ready. The cheese course should be out of the refrigerator and prepared for service.

 

Internal temperature is another point of contention among diners. When is it done? How much is too much? What if it is still moving? Here is a handy visual aid to give you a guide to internal temperatures. While this is handy to look at, it is the texture of the meat that is most affected by temperature. That and let the roast set on the carvery for at least 5-10 minutes before carving.

 

Final Note: We have taken up the practice of washing the dishes and rinsing the stemware the night of, and then washing the stemware the following morning. We find we get more uses from the stemware this way. 

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: May 2020

Hello and Welcome, 

  

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

May was a Dr. Seuss type month. First it was hot and then it was not. There was no rain and then it rained a lot. In farming you get what you get and that’s what we got!

April was the month where Ernie focused on preparing the vineyard floor for vintage 2020. The vines noticed the tilled soil and welcomed the newly germinated cover crop. Freshly cycled nutrients and frequent showers made an abundance of nutrients available to our vines. And now they are on a tear!

Our vines have just explosive growth early in the season. Our job is to capture that growth, in an orderly fashion, with three sets of trellis wires. At the end of the growing season, we want good separation of the clusters of wine berries to minimize the chance for mildew or bunch rot to take hold. And here is how we do it - by hand.

The first activity to clean off all of the excess new growth early in the season. “Nip it in the bud” is the colloquial phrase. This means to remove excess or poorly positioned shoots before they can tap into the vines limited spring resources. We are looking for about 15 growing points on any given vine. The vines are survivors and they will start the year off with maybe 30 growing points, including the shin kickers at 3 inches off the ground. Our goal is to focus the vine’s energy in those 15 growing points that will bear the best quality wine berries. Their next stop is the winery where we will ferment the sugar out of them!

This brief video will give you an idea of how we do shoot thinning, taking us from 30 down to about 15 shoots. You can check out several other exciting videos (viticulturally speaking) on our YouTube channel.

Click to watch the Shoot Thinning video at Amalie Robert Estate

The freshly germinated cover crop also has a role to play this month, Buckwheat in particular. This little plant has superpowers. The first of which is that it will flower about 3 weeks after it germinates. This is quick in the plant kingdom. The flowers provide pollen for our army of beneficial insects. Beneficial insects are the insects that eat the nasty-bad insects that like to feed on our vines. Ladybugs and earwigs are good. Cane borers and some mites are bad, but they taste good, apparently. Buckwheat flowers provide protein, in the form of pollen, for our army of beneficial insects when they can’t find any nasty-bad insects to vanquish.

The alternative is what is known as a completely “clean cultivated” vineyard floor. That means each row is barren earth. No life-giving pollen or places for your beneficial insects to hunt down those nasty-bad insects. The reasoning behind clean cultivation, such that it is, is that there will be more water available to the vine roots. Maybe, but this is Oregon and it does rain here spring and fall. Speaking of which, has anyone tried a 2007 vintage Pinot Noir lately? Just sublime…

Either way, we like the little ecosystem we have created for our “first responders”. And the cover crop and grass help maintain a healthy soil high in humus – good for the worms. It also informs the vine that if it really wants water, it needs to send those roots deep. And that is the ultimate advantage of old vines, deep, deep roots. Assuming you chose the right rootstock to begin with.

Ok, let’s change our view to 38 inches above the vineyard floor. That is where the canopy management action was happening in May. Our first of three sets of trellis wires are positioned at 8 inches above our 30 inches fruiting wire. Ultimately, the vines will top out at 90 inches above the vineyard floor. That gives us a 60 inch tall canopy – or active solar array as Ernie thinks of it. Our job is to get those 15 shoots contained within those wires and clipped into place.

You are all accustomed to the climate numbers Ernie has been tracking since we established the vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate, but he has a whole other set of workbooks that track oh so much more. There are 49 blocks planted on the property, 42 of them are numbered and 7 of them have their own alpha-numeric nomenclature. Odd for computer science people we know, but it is better than using binary or hexadecimal ordering – which we could do.

Ernie has been tracking vineyard activities for quite some time. In the case of this first set of wires, it took 568.53 hours to raise wires and tuck in all (mostly) of the vine’s shoots. That comes in at about 39.864 seconds per vine times 51,343 fruiting vines. That’s good news because it is a full 3 seconds faster than the trailing 4 year average! It took Einstein a while, but he finally came around to the “time is money” axiom, just after he finished the theory of relativity.

Ernie still hasn’t finished his book “Negotiated Reality – My Turn in the Barrel”. But thanks to the inherently unique nature of the wine business, he has an abundance of source material to pull from.

Now we thought it would be interesting to present some vine association graphics. This is what your wine looks like in the vineyard right about now, and what it is going to look like in a year or so.

First up is Chardonnay.

Then Pinot Meunier.

To complete the Champagne Deconstructed theme, we have Pinot Noir.

Here is our Syrah.

And our Viognier.

Lastly, a cluster of what will become wine berries. Bonus points available if you can accurately identify the variety.

After all those pictures, we get to some numbers. The month of May contributed 257.4 Degree Days to vintage 2020, bringing us to a grand total to date of 390.9 degree days.

The high temperature for the 30 day period was 88.9 degrees and the low temperature was 37.4 degrees. The first half of the month was cooler registering 111.6 Degree Days, however the second half of the month recorded the low temperature.

The second half of the month registered 145.8 Degree Days and recorded the high temperature.  Rainfall was 3.76 inches for the month providing a growing season to date total of 5.09 inches and is significantly more than the 1.33 inches recorded in April. Maybe that explains why Ernie is spending so much time mowing the grass.

Next up in June we will have countless flowers in the vineyard and the second set of trellis wires up. A little farther down the road, The Great Cluster Pluck will visit itself upon us in about 120 days. But until then, these little blighters are starting to make themselves known and will be doing their best to keep us entertained. Despite what you may have heard, these are considered nasty-bad insects.

iPinot COVID-19 Pivot Pricing is now in effect at $120 on six bottles 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

Amalie Robert Portfolio Focus: Syrah

Hello and Welcome, 

  

This is a portfolio focus on cool climate Syrah from @AmalieRobert Estate. A FLOG Communication. 

Tucked into the center of our 35 acres of estate grown vines is block 13, our little acre of Côte Rôtie. Ernie was confident that he wanted to grow Syrah and Viognier. Dena said OK, but you can only have 1 acre – no more. The fortuitous siting occurred when opportunity and preparedness met face to face with luck. 

Having Dick Erath wander around your property before planting anything was also quite fortuitous. With Dick’s help, we selected the warmest, most sheltered little spot to nurture our Syrah and Viognier. But what clones of Syrah to plant? And how do you know?

A most fortuitous adventure to Burgundy included a detour to the Northern Rhône. In the little town of Ampuis we were once again face to face with opportunity, preparedness and luck. But this time our fountain of knowledge was Marcel Guigal. And that brief encounter provided the answers to “What clones of Syrah to plant? And how do you know?” The vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate was planted to 1,188 Syrah (4 clones) and 297 Viognier vines in 2003.

All of the local growers thought Ernie was daft. “Yeah, sure, go ahead. Let us know how that works out for you! Ha!” If you have met Ernie, you know he doesn’t really run with the traffic. He was simply more “encouraged”. The 2007 Amalie Robert Syrah was selected for the “The Year’s Best American Syrahs” by Wine & Spirits Magazine with a 93 point rating. And in 2008 our Syrah had a new name: “Satisfaction”. And that’s how it worked out for Ernie.

And as time went by, slowly at first, the vines did their part in growing their root systems and colonizing the soil. They were gaining vine age. And Ernie was doing his part, tending the Syrah vines to their own schedule and waiting for the optimal harvest window. Harvest for cool climate Syrah, as it turns out, is optimally executed in November at Amalie Robert Estate.

The resulting wine, maturing in barrel at the 24-month mark, was hauntingly familiar. As if we were transported back to the Guigal cellars in Ampuis tasting La Turque from barrel. The vintage was 2010, and at that revelation the reserve Syrah program was born – Top Barrel Syrah.

“Amalie Robert, whose vineyard is in the western part of the Willamette Valley, makes a very strong case for Syrah, but production of their two graceful wines is painfully small, as in just a few barrels of wine per vintage.” - Josh Raynolds, Vinous, February 2018

Both the Satisfaction and Top Barrel Syrahs are 100% estate grown and indigenously fermented with a significant portion of stem inclusion. While the Satisfaction Syrah represents the four clones alluded to above and a wee bit of interplanted Viognier, the Top Barrel Syrah is a single barrel and quite often a single clone. But Ernie’s not telling which of those 4 fortuitous clones it is.

However, he will tell you, in excruciating detail, how he harvests the 12 row Syrah block moments before the arrival of the growing season-ending rains: clone by clone, 3 rows at a time. And what about the interplanted Viognier? It goes in the harvest buckets right alongside the Syrah. That’s just the old world having its way with the new world. C'est la vie.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

About Amalie Robert Estate:

It was the spring of 1999 when we happened upon Bob and his Montmorency cherry orchard. We had been studying soils and climate in the Willamette Valley and doing our level best to evaluate as many wines as we could. It didn’t take too long before Ernie said, “Bob, I got here too late. You have your cherry orchard sitting on top of my vineyard.”

We chose the Willamette Valley because it was the last best place on the planet to grow Pinot Noir. All of the other planets had one issue or another - soils, climate or the proximity to established markets were some of the most significant drawbacks.

And so it began. April of 1999 is when we became cherry growers for just long enough to bring in the harvest. From there on out, our singular focus was to develop our 60 acre property into a world class vineyard and traditional winemaking operation that we would own and operate ourselves.

The benefit of starting with a cherry orchard is that you are not buying someone else’s vineyard and their deeply rooted mistakes. You have the opportunity to make your own mistakes - and learn from them. From those humble beginnings we decided on our own rootstocks, vineyard spacing, trellis design, varieties of wines to grow and their specific clones. We learned how to farm wine to showcase the inherent qualities of our vineyard. We had help from some great and patient mentors including Bruce Weber, Dick Erath, Mike Etzel, Steve Doerner, and many, many others.

When it came time to design the winery, we only wanted to build one, so we found the best architect with the most experience in the Willamette Valley and that was Ernie Munch. Aside from the aesthetics and site placement, the guiding principle was gravity flow. Our crown jewel is the 1,200 tons of below grade concrete that maintains our naturally climate conditioned barrel cellar and the 500 or so barrels entrusted to mature our wines.

And what about the name? Amalie Robert is a combination of Dena's middle name, “Amalie” (pronounced AIM-a-lee) and Ernie's, “Robert.” We are them.

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: 2019 Harvest After Action Report - The Great Cluster Pluck

Vintage 2019 Harvest After Action Report – The Great Cluster Pluck 

  

Hello and Welcome, 

  

This is the @AmalieRobert Harvest After Action Report. A FLOG Communication.

Vintage 2019 will be remembered as the vintage that wasn’t ready, until it was – all of it – all at once. Yes, there was the typical atypical rain, as there always is in September. Good canopy management during the growing season is the preventive cure for that. But Botrytis will not be denied, and the clock started ticking with a pretty big shot of rain on the 10^th of September. A little too much of a good thing with many returns to finish the month of September with 2.72 inches of rain.

To put this in perspective, August registered 0.11 inches of rain, and we received no measurable precipitation whatsoever during the first 15 days of October. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what’s known as the sweet spot of harvest. If you could hold out that long. And we did.

And so October, which is the first half of Okto-vember, made its way into the decision matrix. Hmm, that’s a pretty nice block of Chardonnay you got there. Why are the wine berries turning purple? And that is how you know Botrytis had caught up to The Great Cluster Pluck of 2019.

A little Botrytis is ok, kinda nice in Chardonnay actually. But that is your nudge that it’s time to bring it in. Despite your best canopy management efforts, the Chardonnay wine berry is highly susceptible to the wayward advances of Botrytis. And since it was now Okto-vember, more Botrytis encouraging rain was most surely on the way – but it wasn’t.

It was Okto-vember 1^st at first light, when Ernie lit up tractors and we rolled up on block 24 from the south. The morning air was cool, with a little breeze and dry conditions prevailed as we Cluster Plucked our Dijon Clone Chardonnay. And that is when we verified another mystery of Vintage 2019 - a light fruit set. And at the end of that morning it was confirmed that Vintage 2019 was going to be low yield. Except for the Gewürztraminer, of course. A few more vines were bearing this year, so our yield almost doubled. Ernie still fermented it in “small, open top fermenters” (aka buckets), but he is up to about 5 cases worth now…

And by the end of that first week of Okto-vember our operation was up and rolling with Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir coming on. The September rains were a distant memory. Clear blue skies, a light breeze and cool nights were on tap for the next two weeks. The weather provided a most perfect opportunity to finish ripening our wine berries. For which we took full advantage – 8 days a week.

The Great Cluster Pluck of 2019 was on, and we were on it! We had daylight burning and Bird Gards squealing. The Cluster Pluckers arrived before dawn and set out their buckets and punch cards. Our production is entirely estate grown fruit and the clusters are all plucked by hand. Into the buckets they go at about 20 pounds per each and then into the harvest bins. Snap on the lids to deny Vespula germanica any of our prized booty, and off to the winery we go.

Rinse and repeat, and don’t forget to eat. The clear skies and dry conditions continued, and Okto-vember provided exactly the hang time conditions we needed to accentuate our aromas and flavors while keeping Botrytis in check. However, this fortuitous set of ripening conditions did not escape the opportunistic attention of those Flocking Birds. While not everyone could hold out as long as we did, the fruit quality was oh soooo worth the wait.

And there was not a lot of waiting to be had. The Great Cluster Pluck 2019 started on Okto- vember 1^st and concluded on Octo-vember 15^th. Everyday was full on, and we modified the work calendar to make more time. We added a day to each week of The Great Cluster Pluck 2019 by combining Saturday and Sunday into a single day. We would wake up on Saturday morning, but when we went to bed that was our Sunday night. The next day, which we have not yet named, was an extra work day! That’s 8 days a week! Ernie is a numbers guy and a calendar is just a mathematical construct. Not too big of a lift really, when you consider the legitimacy of daylight savings time.

Now, since you are there reading this instead of being here helping us, you probably do not know that we sort all of our wine berries twice. Our first sort is in the vineyard as the wine berries make their way into the harvest bins. That is when our nemesis Botrytis is dealt with. Yep, we sort that out right up front. And then in the winery, we have another look see. Any wine berries that are compromised are destined for the compost pile. But there aren’t so many of those as we do a really good job of canopy management during the growing season and sort at the harvest bin. What’s left for the fermenters is the duck’s nuts. Or the bee’s knees, if you prefer.

There’s a lot that goes into it, growing wine. But at the end of the day, we are just going to bring in those pristine wine berries and ferment the sugar out of them. And after that we are going to convert their malic acid to lactic acid. We have a bacteria for that. Then its off to a toasty oak barrel for some well deserved élevage. Of course, most folks are unaware of these things. But by the time the wine makes it to your elegant stemware, you are enveloped in the bliss of our viticultural prowess and oenological stewardship. And maybe some marketing along the way. At least that’s what we are shooting for.

The Great Cluster Pluck of 2019 proceeded undaunted amid the continual harassment of those Flocking Birds. Everyone knows who they are. Robins and starlings gather in trees and fly to pluck a wine berry then return to the safety of the forest’s edge. Ernie has counter measures called Bird Gards, but this year the birds were voracious. The last resort is to deploy the nets. This was especially important for the Syrah which was the beneficiary of our excellent hangtime weather up until it’s final day of ripening, Okto-vember 37^th.

Our indigenous species of raptors seemed to be off on holiday or were simply molting. And without this air support, the Flocking Birds demonstrated air superiority early on. But as we were cluster plucking the last of the Pinot Noir clusters to be plucked on Okto-vember 15^th (a Tuesday), the raptors returned. Red tail hawks are the “Constitution Class” of the raptors and define air superiority. The next best raptors to have in the avian theater are the Cooper’s hawk and the sharp shinned hawk. These are forest hunters and their aviary skill is equally at home among the vineyard canopy. The Syrah and Viognier had the good fortune to finish ripening under the hawkish eyes of these Amalie Robert Estate raptors. Don’t pay too much attention to the robin and starling carcasses littered around the vineyard. That is evidence of a healthy ecosystem.

Causation, correlation or coincidence? An exercise in climatically predictive wine quality. What we present to you here at this time, in this space, is what happened during the growing season. While that will have an impact on the quality of the vintage, it is much like evaluating the size of one’s wand. Where in fact what we are more concerned with is the magic in it. And more to the point, when that magic is ready to be presented and consumed. Perhaps, in the case of Pinot Noir, a better title would be “Bewitched, bothered and bewildered.”

Vintage 2019 was really a pretty nice vintage. Not too hot and a clean break from the arid conditions of the last several vintages. But not too cool, more of a 2007 mixed with 2008, and certainly warmer than 2011. Slow and steady ripening with a shot of rain just before harvest. Statistically more rain in September than most vintages, but not an overall significant factor @AmalieRobert Estate. Once again, this vintage is a grower’s vintage. When your winemaker wears the winegrower’s hat, it is always a grower’s vintage.

Vineyard labor is a lesson in economics. Good old supply and demand is alive and well. The supply is fairly fixed, but the agricultural demand continues to expand. And except for hedging, there is little vineyard mechanization to be had. That means virtually all of our canopy management is performed by, and the biggest chunk of the vineyard budget goes to, skilled vineyard labor.

Good canopy management demands timeliness, focus and attention to detail. The best weather conditions in world will not save you from untimely or poor quality vineyard work. The condition of the vineyard canopy, and the wine berries in it, during mid-September has a substantial impact on when to Cluster Pluck. And that in turn reveals more about the quality of the vintage than any Degree Day summation or growing season rainfall. Yet as humans, we are fixated on quantitative measures to compare and contrast. They help us comprehend the seemingly unending factors that culminate in a glass of wine.

Aromas and flavors develop on the vine over time. Sugar accumulation (alcohol potential) is a response to heat. As long as the vintage does not accumulate excessive heat (Degree Days), the longer the wine berries are on the vine, the more aromas and flavors are available to be captured during fermentation. While the presence of Botrytis can be an indicator that it is time to start Cluster Plucking, excessive sugar accumulation tells you it’s time to finish it up, right farming now.

This is why Syrah hangs until early November at @AmalieRobert Estate. Each and every day we are increasing the intensity of available aromas and flavors. Thanks to a cool climate, Syrah sugar accumulation is kept in check and the wines normally vacillate around 13% alcohol.

Deciding to Cluster Pluck because you believe the aroma and flavor profile of the wine berries is going to make the style of wine you like is the goal. Having spent the entire growing season focused on canopy management, positioning shoots, thinning and performing other timely vineyard tasks helps to ensure that when the rains do arrive, the canopy, and the wine berries in it, will take some rain and continue to ripen aromas and flavors without significant rot.

Or not. After that shot of rain in early September, some folks discovered their Cluster Pluck schedule would more be determined by the advancing rate of rot than by aroma and flavor development. There is little if any remedial action that can be taken at this point of discovery. This is not the goal. And it should not be a surprise to anyone that September brings rain to the Willamette Valley.

And how do we know this, you may ask? We saw it first hand in our Chardonnay. But that is Chardonnay and it is to be expected. Unfortunate, but not uncommon. The key there is to take the fruit before Botrytis spreads and can compromise the wine. We have been there and had that done to us with Typhoon Pabuk in 2013. The remainder of the vineyard however, and more to the point is that the Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, was rock solid. And we heard a fair bit about it from our harvest crews.

Harvest crews represent an informal information network of how the vintage is progressing. They go where the work is and see hundreds if not thousands of acres of vines. They will tell you where they have been and what they have seen. Time and again we were told how our wine berries were the cleanest they had seen. And they kept coming back to help us. This is an important indicator, as Cluster Plucking around rotted fruit is less financially rewarding.

Why are we telling you this? As a climatic predicator of wine quality, we are trying to point out that harvest dates provide clues. How were those wine berries farmed all summer? What was their condition after the rains? Did you harvest because you wanted to or because you had to? Being able to handle some challenging weather conditions and let your wine berries hang through to develop aroma and flavor ripeness is a strong predictor of wine quality. The amount of Rosé produced might be another indicator of vintage quality.

Now the numbers, which honestly do have some meaning and relevance. While not a predictor of wine quality per se, they do provide a comparison to previous vintages and a historic continuum that can be the basis for debate. As we assess the vintage growing conditions, it is important to bear in mind that our ability to measure far exceeds our ability to comprehend the effects of what is measured.

Let’s start with the Heffalump in the room that joined us in September. There were three appearances spread throughout the month. The first was around the 10^th which gifted us 0.68 inches of rainfall. Next up was around the 18^th with another 0.97 inches of rainfall, and again on the 20^th with 0.42 inches. And lastly around the 30^th with 0.55 inches of rainfall. September total was 2.72 inches of rainfall. Squish, Squish, Squish… Not too bad if you are a duck, you know.

But then it was dry during the @AmalieRobert Estate Cluster Pluck vintage 2019 until the 16^th of October when about 0.96 inches of rainfall came rolling in. Not to be outdone, the 21^st brought in another 1.63 inches of rainfall. That was a soaker. And then again dry all the way through November 6^th when we Cluster Plucked the Syrah and Viognier. October total was 2.59 inches of rainfall. The 2019 growing season total April through October was 13.78 inches. And in preparation for next Spring, we can expect about 30 inches of rain between now and then.

Degree Days (aka heat units or heat accumulation) help provide an understanding of how the vine was able to ripen its wine berries within the constraint of available heat during the vintage. Matching heat accumulation to harvest date ties it all together. We track our readings every 20 minutes, so we have a pretty good idea what the vines are going through. Daytime highs, nighttime lows and the diurnal shift also tell the tale of ripening during the last few weeks before harvest.

While the growing season total is handy for multiple vintage comparisons, a detailed monthly view is more useful in understanding the character of the vintage and is an exercise left to the reader.

Coming into the home stretch of Vintage 2019, September registered 316.5 Degree Days, providing a growing season total of 2,220.2. The first half of the month recorded 195.0 Degree Days and the second half of the month recorded 121.5. The high temperature was 92.8 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on September 5^th at 4:36 pm and the low temperature was 37.2 recorded on September 28^th at 3:00 am.

Now the sweet spot of Vintage 2019 was the first half of October where we recorded another 55.0 Degree Days, and not a drop of rainfall to be had. The high temperature was 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on the 7^th at 5:00 pm and the low temperature was 31.6 recorded on the 9^th at 7:36 am. Heat accumulation through the middle of October was 2,275.2 Degree Days and that concluded the Great Cluster Pluck of 2019 – except the Syrah and Viognier.

The second half of October brought another 46.7 Degree Days for a monthly total of 101.7 and a growing season total of 2,321.9. The high temperature was 72.3 6 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on the 22^nd and the low temperature of 24.6 recorded on the 31^st at 7:00 am. That‘s frickin’ cold!

The Great Cluster Pluck 2019 was officially completed November 6^th, 2019 with the Syrah and Viognier. We accumulated an additional 11.8 Degree Days through the 6^th of November with a high temperature of 66.6 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on the 3^rd at 2:00 pm and a low temperature of 32.9 recorded the same morning. This represents a one day diurnal shift of 33.7 degrees. Total Vintage 2019 Degree Days stand at 2,333.7

While most of the Willamette Valley experienced similar conditions, within a standard deviation or two, the cipher to understanding Vintage 2019 will most likely be harvest date. A sloppy September gave way to an ethereal October. If you were a Rhône Head, you were riding the temperate weeks into November. And at a harvest brix of 24.0, you were feeling pretty good about that.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: 2018 Harvest After Action Report (AAR)

Hello and Welcome,  

The is the 2018 Harvest After Action Report (AAR) from Amalie Robert Estate. A FLOG Communication.  

Bringing in the harvest is the last act of farming. It is the culmination of all that has happened since the last time you harvested. And harvest equipment is kind of like winemaking equipment. You own it all year long, but you only get to use it once a year. You will look pretty silly running the harvest trailers around the vineyard in mid-April, unless you are from down under. Farm equipment, on the other hand is used most every day during the growing season, but not so much during the dormant season. The dormant season is when you perform the sacred “equipment maintenance” ritual along with a few “Hail Marys” and prayers to the patron saint of all things mechanical – Rube Goldberg.

But it is the vertically integrated wine growers and winemakers (the “ers”) that keep busy year-round. And let’s not forget the marketers. Without whom, you would not be able to enjoy a fine and pleasant FLOGing on a semi-irregular and somewhat irreverent basis.

Enough about us, let’s explore the tons and tons of sublime wine berries that were brought in this year by the human harvesters. We will leave the winged and hooved harvesters (aka blighters) for another FLOG.

Of course, there is math, just no avoiding it as a farmer. So, pull a cork and sip-along. First off you will need a piece of scratch paper, unless you want a permanent record, then go ahead and write it on the table with a Sharpie. In the upper left-hand corner, draw a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a handle.

Now go ahead and write the number “20” inside the bucket that you just drew. This represents how many pounds of wine berries are harvested in any given bucket. Now to be sure this is just an average. There may in fact be one or maybe two buckets that actually do weigh 20 pounds, the law of large numbers will see to that. By far and away, most buckets will not contain exactly 20 pounds of wine berries. (How many months have 28 days? – All of them…)

Most will contain at least 20 pounds, so we have a little wiggle room when a bucket gets spilled or contains a compromised cluster that needs to be “sorted out”. Yeah we do that right there in the field for the rest of the clusters see. They feel shame.

The harvest bucket is the keystone to making harvest work. So much is riding on this little piece of molded plastic with a half moon metal hoop precariously attached to the top. For Pinot Noir in particular, it takes about 4 clusters to make up a pound. You could say 4 ounces each, or if you are metrically oriented, that would be 454 grams divided by 4. Note: This is an exercise left to the metrically oriented reader.

Clearly, you can see which way we are oriented. (Note: Oreintated is not a real word. The same holds true for substainable, even here on the farm.). It‘s not that we are metrically challenged, it is just one more conversion to do when your synapses are already firing as fast as humanly possible. Even Einstein would tell you to write these conversions down for quick reference, so you could occupy your brain with more important matters. Like clusters per bucket, then buckets per harvest tote bin and followed-up with Ernie’s favorite measure: furlongs per fortnight.

And if we have done a good job in the field, any given vine will have about 12 clusters representing 3 pounds of wine berries. Now, you see where we are going. If a harvest bucket weighs in at around 20 pounds, this means there are going to be somewhere around 80 clusters in there. This is true for the metrically oriented reader as well, no conversion required - yet.

Here is where the math gets a bit more intense. If we harvest 80 clusters per bucket and any given vine has 12 clusters, how many vines are harvested for each two bucket human harvester trip to the harvest trailer? The old story problem brought back from the far, far away elementary school days. Well, the answer is “it depends”, which is mostly what they teach you to say in MBA school. If only we knew that as kids, we would have aced math class!

Assuming all the clusters on the vine are actually harvested, and you know some of them won’t make “the cut”, we can get between six and seven vines harvested per bucket, or let’s just say 13 vines for every pair of buckets coming up to the harvest trailer. But sometimes the winged harvester and the hooved harvester have visited the vine before the human harvester. This adds systemic variability and skews the entire multivariable equation in context of the time space continuum.

The long-range implication of that revelation is that we have about 55,000 vines to harvest. So that is roughly 4,250 two bucket trips to the harvest trailer. And to consider the human factor, we would say that is one human making 4,250 trips to the harvest trailer, or 10 humans making 425 trips to the harvest trailer, or maybe 20 humans each making 210 trips to the harvest trailer.

We go with the 20 human option, spread over a few weeks in the time space continuum. To give credit where credit is due, the human harvesters work very, very hard. It is physically demanding work and not well suited for the chronologically advanced. As most of you know, premium Oregon vineyards are situated on hillsides which makes running up and back down the rows more challenging. This adds a dimension of complexity that is clearly present in all of our wines.

A full day for any human harvesting wine berries is 100 buckets (50 two bucket trips) to the harvest trailer. That comes in as 20 pounds by 100 buckets for 2,00 pounds, or one ton. A metric ton is 2,205 pounds, and, well quite franc-ly, what do you do with that?

Now go ahead and draw a harvest tote bin just under the bucket. A harvest tote bin is 4 feet square by about 30 inches tall. Ours are white, so we know when we get them clean, but you can make yours whatever color you like.( Maybe a rainbow with a unicorn would be nice – parenthetically speaking). A harvest tote bin at Amalie Robert Estate should contain 36 harvest buckets and then a lid is snapped on to indicate to the yellow jackets that these wine berries are ours. Then we say the UK abbreviation for post office, which happens to be “P. Off”. Trust on this, Dena lived there and Ernie has never let it go. They speak English and we speak American. Good to know if you are planning a trip and need to ask someone where to “post” something. They will most likely tell you “P. Off!”

The key to the winery operating as smoothly as it was expertly designed by Mr. Munch, is getting 36 buckets (20 pounds each) of wine berries into each of these harvest tote bins. Now, go ahead and draw 36 buckets worth of wine berries in your harvest tote bin and then draw a lid on it. You can add a few angry yellow jackets (V. germanica most likely) buzzing about trying to sting people, or actually stinging people, or stinging you, depending on how you are oriented. Quickly draw an Epi-Pen if you are feeling like you may be going into anaphylactic shock. Whew, that was close.

Legal Disclaimer: If you publish your drawing and become rich and famous, we want a cut of the action.

There are three harvest bins on a harvest trailer that is hooked up to the tractor that Ernie drives to the winery to drop off full harvest tote bins and return with empty harvest tote bins. Ernie is inside a cab, so don’t draw any yellow jackets in there. But he does have his genuine USPS 1989 Montana Statehood commemorative stamp coffee mug full of morning accelerant if you want to draw that. A postage stamp in 1989 was 2 bits. Even in Two Dot, which is located in Wheatland County, Montana.

And now, the magic of 36 will be revealed for all to see. Just to the right of your harvest tote bin, go ahead and draw a fermenter. A fermenter has the same footprint as a harvest tote bin, but it is about 4.5 feet tall. Again, ours are white HDPE plastic, which makes it easy to see the wine berries and resulting wine. But to each his own.

Now, you don’t really need to know any of that, it’s called a red herring. Doodle one of those on your desk blotter, because you won’t have any space here. But what you do need to know is that our fermenters can only hold 1.4 tons (2,800 pounds when you ferment with whole clusters as we do, and you would too). Herein lies the lesson: 36 buckets by 20 pounds by 4 harvest bins fills a fermenter properly. And by properly we mean it is so full that we can get a warm (but not hot) fermentation to extract all the great aroma, flavor and texture, but not so full that the wine overflows and makes its way to the drain. You know, a proper fermentation – not too hot, not too cold and certainly not overfull. On the other side of the coin, an overfull fermenter is a sad, but self-correcting situation.

But wait, there is more math. We have 36 harvest bins. And that just so happens to be 12 trailer loads of 3 harvest tote bins. And those 36 harvest tote bins, at 4 per fermenter, will exactly fill 9 fermenters. How do you suppose that happened? Recheck your math on that furlong to fortnight conversion.

On the remaining open space of your paper, or the rest of the table, draw as many fermenters as you have room for. Now, fill them until all of the grapes are harvested or all of the fermenters are full, whichever comes first. Your mileage may vary.

The weather coming into harvest this year reminded us of the World Series. Those boys from Beantown won one, lost one and then they would simply not be denied. Even if it took 7 hours and 20 minutes to do so. It became a World Serious! Congratulations and ring up those folks at Gillette and get yourselves some razors.

We started The Great Cluster Pluck of 2018 with a warm, late September pluck for Ernie’s pre-sparkling wine project called the Bellpine Pearl. This wine is made from the wings of Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. The first vintage was 2015 and it was a white wine, and with 2018 we return to that style. Maybe, someday, it will actually be a proper sparkling wine, or Ernie will mess something up and it will be fizzy in the bottle. Until then, you will need a tall narrow glass, a straw and some form of eye protection (OSHA approved) to make your own bubbles.

Then, it rained. It was amazing and just what we were all hopping around the vineyard for - aka the rain dance. The first week of Okto-vember was cool and damp. Not enough to encourage the Botrytis, but enough to slow down sugar accumulation by rehydrating the wine berries. The best gift of all was to allow a little more hang time for aroma and flavor development. It was a gift from Mother Nature and all was right with the world.

The next week we were right back up in the 90 degree range. So much for a repeat of the wonderfully expressive 2007 vintage. The rest of October, just like those Red Sox, kept the heat on. It was GO, GO, GO and then GO some more! And so we did, 36 buckets per each. Vintage 2018.

The terms “indigenous fermentation” or “wild fermentation” refer to those select few individuals who choose not to add commercial yeast from a bag to their fermenters. We are included among those individuals. Instead, we rely on the yeast from the vineyard to start and complete our fermentation.

It is true, that the wine berries not only have indigenous yeast on them when the arrive at the winery, 36 buckets per harvest tote bin, they also have some other nefarious yeasts and bacteria. All of that gets mixed together, 36 buckets as whole clusters and 108 buckets as whole berries, into a fermenter and off they go! It’s a “Party in our Pinot”, microbially speaking.

All of this pre-supposes that you have successfully chosen days to process said wine berries when the power company has not chosen those very same days for “infrastructure maintenance" resulting in a loss of electricity. Fortunately, punchdown is done by hand, so no worries there. The other environmental concern to be aware of is when the State of Oregon lifts the backyard burn restrictions. That is usually at the end of October, and it becomes quite obvious who the closet pyromaniacs are in your neighborhood. They are all out in full regalia for opening day!

So, while all of this is very interesting and quite esoteric, you may be wondering how we know the indigenous yeast from the vineyard is going to ferment the wine berries. For an illustrative answer to that question we turn our attention to that horrible little insect, the fruit fly (Horribilis minimus).

Fruit flies, as annoying as they are, can teach us all a great deal about indigenous fermentation. Much like the yeast that ferments our wine, fruit flies seem to appear out of thin air. Two of the right fruit flies, or maybe just one of the wrong ones if you are (un)lucky can spawn an entire army that will colonize the winery in an exponentially reproductive fashion. We all know that 2 plus 2 is 4 and that 2 squared is 4, but 4 plus 4 is 8 and 4 squared is 16. Even Einstein’s theory of relativity informs us that time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. Or was that Groucho Marx?

Yeast rely on cell division to reproduce, so none of that egg laying business. However, it would seem that the exponential population growth of both indigenous yeast and fruit flies are quite similar. It is a sad day when the first couple of fruit flies are spotted. From that point on, Ernie is somewhat militant, in an “A type” manner, about cleaning everything that has, or has had, contact with a wine berry.

Conversely, when you see the first carbon dioxide bubbles of fermentation, you are elated! Fermentation has begun! It actually worked! We were not so sure in 2006, with our first vintage in a brand new building. Two weeks is a long time to wait to see any sign of fermentation. We had fruit flies the first day for sure, but we had to wait for the indigenous yeast. Now that the building is inoculated with our own Amalie Robert Estate indigenous yeast, it just takes a couple of days or so and we behold the magic of fermentation. Often times through the purview of the fruit fly.

What gets measured is what gets done. That is a bit of wisdom Ernie picked up early in his career and it has served him well. Fully integrated and somewhat autonomous self-calculating spreadsheets track every vineyard activity and operation. A nickel is not a big deal, but multiply that little nickel by 55,000 vines and suddenly you have a meaningful number.

Ernie doesn’t start tracking the fruit fly population until it gets to about 1 million. Once it gets to 5 million, all of the fermenters should be full of indigenous yeast and actively producing carbon dioxide. Note: The vines are going to need that carbon dioxide next Spring, but in the meantime, Ernie has a plan.

Refer back to your diagram and notice the section with all of the fermenters. You probably drew them from a side view, and that is fine as you can now speckle your drawing with 5 million fruit flies. And don’t forget to put yourself in the picture. Maybe you are doing punchdown or washing the floor. Or maybe you just got stung, again… Kinda looks like a Jackson Pollock sort of thing. Well done, well done indeed!

And soon enough the fruit fly is interacting with your environment. From their point of view, you are interacting with their environment. Hard to say who is right or wrong, but a fruit fly in your ear or up the nose is clearly right out. And when they show up at your house, because they are in your hair and your clothes, you have performed cross inoculation - whether you knew it or not. And the whole cycle starts all over again, in your environment.

Ernie takes a more top down view. His view is looking down from directly above the fermenter. And he sees a piece of 4x4 HDPE plastic that sits on top of the fermenter and covers the wine berries.

He had these tops custom cut and they sit just inside the lip of the fermenter. At each corner there is just a wee little bit of a gap where they don’t fit snug. The fruit fly is predisposed to find this opening, and this is where they try to gain unauthorized access to the fermenting wine berries inside.

But they are greeted with the by product of indigenous yeast – carbon dioxide. A fermenter will produce about 14 times its volume worth of carbon dioxide. Ask anybody, that’s a whole lotta gas. With the tops in place, all of that gas has to escape from the 4 corners where the tops are not snug. And that is where the fruit flies mass for attack. But there will be no attack because they have all been asphyxiated. That’s a twofer for carbon dioxide. It’s not such a bad gas after all.

The other alternative is a Venus flytrap plant. Ernie first saw one of these in a winery setting while chatting with Steve Doerner at Cristom. We were delivering Pinot Noir wine berries to Cristom before we built our winery, and the significance that that plant represented was lost on us, at the time. The Venus flytrap plant is a poignant reminder of the sheer magnitude of the situation.

Eventually, about 4 to 6 weeks after harvest, the indigenous yeast complete their task and transform Fructose and Glucose into alcohol. They have produced a boatload of carbon dioxide responsible for killing most of the fruit flies and now lie dormant at the bottom of the fermenter, and on virtually every surface of the fermentation deck. They lie in wait, ready for the next harvest and the onslaught from a new battalion of fruit fly.

Then it was done. The end of October saw the Syrah and Viognier harvest, just before a nice shot of rain the next day. After the rain, the soil was perfect to drill in the fall cover crop. This gave Ernie a chance to get a jump on vintage 2019. The best laid plans…

If it has wheels or balls it will cause you trouble sooner or later. Today, this is in refence to tractors, Italian tractors in particular, to which Ernie owns three. One has steel tracks, and two have wheels. Out of the two with wheels, one has balls. The tractor in question has both wheels and balls.

Dena holding a pair of “Tractor Balls”

Off he goes, drilling away on a beautiful November day. It was simply perfect, the week of the ¡Salud!Pinot Noir auction planting our cover crop that will hold our soil through the winter rains and provide nutrients for our vines next Spring when it is tilled under. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, once Ernie got the tractor out of the 7.5-foot-wide row, he could clearly see what went wrong. The tractor balls were in place holding the seed drill to the three-point hitch, but he was missing a few lug nuts and a wheel stud or two.

Based on his 20 years of farming experience, and a few years of street racing, he knew what he needed to do. He also knew he had to get that tractor out of the field before the rains would most certainly arrive. Or, like back in Montana, wait until next spring to drive it out. It was a situation to focus the mind and provide a sense of urgency. What a time to be out of beer.

The decision tree went something like this. Order a new wheel, wheel studs and lug nuts, swap the tire onto the new wheel and remount on the tractor. Then finish drilling cover crop and drive the tractor out of the field before the rains made it a permanent fixture. As Ernie set this plan in motion, he remembered the words from his old boss at Microsoft - the Army guy. He said, “A plan never survives first contact with the enemy intact.”

It turns out that agricultural tractor wheel technology had changed over the past 20 years, and his style of wheel was no longer being produced. A glimmer of panic ensued. A call to the local dealer turned up a very small wheel that could be used to move the tractor, but not a permanent solution. The glimmer began to glow. The local Ag store had never seen anything like this wheel before. But they offered to build one out of scratch… Burning brightly now.

So, a call to the importer was the next step. The parts man was Clarence and while he was reluctant to deal with an “end user”, he finally relented to Ernie’s subtle “A-Type” ways. Any parts man worth his salt will ask for the serial number of the tractor as a defense mechanism. No serial number, no parts and goodbye. Ernie had his newly renewed insurance policy on the counter, thumbed through some pages and there it was. The serial number was the key to taking the next step.

Clarence was not impressed. He said the tractor came with 20-inch front wheels. Ernie confirmed his wheels were only 18-inch. “Well, then I can’t help you.” Ernie’s mind flashed back to the day he was standing at the Guigal winery talking with Marcel Guigal about Syrah clones. Think of something to say, and do it now!

“Well, the tire size is 280x70x18. Do you have any wheel that would fit that tire and my tractor?” Ernie’s question was met with a “Harumph.” But that happened to be the magic question that returned a part number! HA! This is going to work! But the next question foreshadowed things to come.

“Do you have one in stock?” Ernie asked, oh so gingerly. “Nope. The last one we sold was in 2006.” It turns out that no one in the United States had one in stock. And that if Ernie were to get one, it would have to come from the supplier, if they still had any. Being an Italian tractor, with both wheels and balls, the supplier was located in Europe, mostly likely Italy and that was a 2 week lead time, at best. If they had one. Cost approaching $1,000 all in, converted from metric.

Plan B arose like a Phoenix out of the smoldering ashes of the decision tree. It turns out, Ernie had a spare wheel from his other wheel tractor, that does not have balls. It is 100 horsepower, just no balls. The wheel leaked air, so he replaced it. The replacement wheel also leaked air, so he put a tube in it. But the wheel fit a 20-inch tire, not an 18-inch tire. However, the center mounting spokes were identical.

The local tractor dealer said that he knew a guy that could help Ernie with his problem. And would he be interested in checking out a new tractor while he was here? Off to King’s Industries to meet the key to this whole sordid affair. Ray King has a relatively small, but very well-kept machine shop not very conveniently located to the vineyard.

Friday afternoon, on the way to the ¡Salud! Pinot Noir auction, we met Ray King. Ray looked at Ernie’s handiwork on the 18-inch wheel and the nearly new 20-inch wheel and gave a quick nod. “I am not sure I can have it done today, but I am leaving town on Sunday, so I have to get to it before then unless you want to wait until next week.” “I can pick it up anytime tomorrow, if you can get to it,” Ernie heard himself say.

Saturday morning, he got the call. “Your wheel is done. You can come by and pick it up anytime.” Ernie thought to himself, either this Ray King guy is really good, or he has no idea what he is doing. Ernie was betting on the former. He wasn’t asking for a miracle, he was depending on one.

Sure enough, the wheel looked like it was just shipped from the factory. Ray explained how he tack welded a ring onto the good spokes, cut them off the wheel as one piece and then welded them into the 18-inch wheel. Ernie smiled and said, “I see you have done this before.” $175 dollars and 4 days later, Ernie was back drilling cover crop. Almost.

It turns out those wheel studs and nuts were as scarce as the wheel. So, it was another call back to Clarence. No serial number required this time, so it was a much shorter call. Add $150 for a set of 5 wheel studs, nuts and washers - Next Day air.

Back to Les Schwab to get the tire mounted onto the newly repaired wheel. Ray insisted the tire be taken off the wheel as he did not want the tire catching on fire while he was welding the wheel. Ray is the kind of guy that doesn’t run with scissors. Add $75 for a new tube, dismount and remount.

Now, Ernie had all the pieces to complete the repair. The glimmer of despair was replaced with the boldly burning fire of conquest! Pull out the floor jack, turn on the air compressor and get the impact wrench! We are going to mount this wheel! And so he did.

Every time Ernie goes to get in a tractor now, his precheck sequence has added responsibility. He must check not only their wheels and balls, now he has to torque their Italian studs and nuts.

Finally, the numbers. Let’s start with some serial numbers. While you are not likely to run across these unique sets of numbers, they are the real deal. If you happen upon them or they upon you, please let us know. Or your local law enforcement officials as they will know what to do.

260-75754

117-33556

B6258927

18401PZ163

3.141592653 (Actually this is not a serial number. It is Pi and goes on forever!)

And we have a NEW video to share! You can check out the Facebook page for the Dallas Oregon Sheriff’s department here. Recognize anyone? See something, say something.

https://www.facebook.com/PolkCountySheriffsOfficeOregon/posts/2174175509294985?__tn__=-R

And the farming numbers. “Hotter than the hubs of Hell” was the expression Ernie’s grandmother, Bert, used to say. Ernie just says, “Twenty-five hundred. You are a smart guy, you figure it out.” Way too farming hot to grow elegant Pinot Noir. Syrah, yes of course. A manly wine in touch with its feminine side. But Pinot Noir, not so farming much. But there it is. 2,502 degree days. Not since the horrific 2003 vintage (2,699 degree days) and the also ran 2014 vintage (2,499 degree days) have we been subject to such intolerable growing conditions.

Right. The last set of growing season Degree Day numbers we shared were April through August. The degree day accumulation through August was 1,954 Degree Days. Not so bad, pretty good overall. But what we thought would be a more moderate fall, morphed into a warm and exceedingly dry end of the growing season.

September added 342 Degree Days and October added 205 Degree Days for a 2018 vintage total of 2,502 Degree Days. You can check out the 16 year growing season Degree Day chart below to see how vintage 2018 stacks up. Channeling vintage 2007, 2010 and 2011: “Miss me yet?”

And it was dry, dry, dry as a popcorn flatulent. The first 2 weeks of September gifted us 0.51 inches of precipitation. However, the 90 day period preceding that September shower was one of the most beautiful summers to be had in Oregon, and all of those days were without precipitation. So that rainfall really didn’t get down to the roots. The opportunistic grass, gentle fall breezes and Photosynthetically Active Radiation (Farmer speak is PAR, you know it as sunshine) took care of that moisture in short order. Harvest began nonetheless on September 17^th as we were sure (praying) more moisture was in store for us.

October delivered on that promise. The 6^th of October registered 0.44 inches of rainfall. That was 3 weeks after the last 0.51 inches of rain, and as they say, too little too late. But we are farmers, and we just take it. Here is the second kick from our friend the mule. The high temperature in October was 82.4 degrees. That’s not bad, you think out loud. That temperature was recorded on the 16^th of October. A little late in the game for that kind of heat. Hey Frank, can you get us some more beer and sunscreen?

So, climatically speaking, we have just about an inch of rain from June 11^th through October 28^th. Heat accumulation from the same period, June through October, was 1,717 Degree Days. Simply unprecedented. And let us remind you that when we planted the Pinot Noir, Ernie was keen on the deep rooting proclivities of 5C rootstock as we were going the dry farmed route. We will talk more about 5C, but we are not there yet.

At this juncture, we know what you are thinking. Ernie is just whining about over extraction, the demise of elegant, lower alcohol Pinot Noir and you would be right. But he is also waiting out Mother Nature for his Syrah and Viognier.

Everyone thought Ernie was daft for planting Syrah in the first place. He took the first class, one-way, nonrefundable ticket all the way to crazy town by grafting those vines onto the deepest rooting, latest ripening rootstock available to him – 5C.

Everyone said 5C will never ripen Syrah. You will be lucky to get Pinot Noir to ripen on 5C. That rootstock sends the roots too deep looking for water and they will not experience the drought condition needed to stop growing leaves and start ripening fruit. The vines will be stuck in a vegetative cycle and direct all their energy to growing more leaves, not ripening the fruit. Everyone said you will not be successful growing Syrah in the Northern Willamette Valley.

If you see “everyone” tell them we said “hello”.

So that “ungrowable” 5C rootstock underlies most of the vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate from Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and, of course, Syrah. Wine berries grown on our sedimentary Bellpine series soil and 5C rootstock have been the “hot ticket” these past few vintages.

While everyone is freaking out over skyrocketing sugar accumulations from lesser, shallow rooting rootstocks, Ernie is planning his work and working his plan. He is about 20 years in on his plan and has seen most of the idiosyncrasies and agricultural vagaries. But every year is a new set of answers, even though the questions remain the same. Labor is a new and challenging issue each and every year. That’s farmin’.

And if you refer back to our handy-dandy Amalie Robert Estate, site specific Degree Day chart, you can see how the 5C rootstock with deep, moisture extracting roots, can help moderate these arid conditions of the last several years. In fact, 5C and own rooted grapevines are very similar in their rooting proclivities.

Mother Nature does have a sense of humor, or is that irony?. The 29^th of October gave us over 2 inches of rain, and that is when Ernie “pulled the trigger” on the Viognier and Syrah-ah-ah-ah-ah!

We apologize for the lateness of this communication, but we had a little more “action” than we were expecting this year. We endeavor to be more timely for vintage 2019. Hey, we are pruning the vines right now!

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie