Amalie Robert Update: 2019 Pinot Meunier Release!

Hello and Welcome, 

 
This is an Amalie Robert Estate Trade Update: 2019 Pinot Meunier Release! A FLOG communication (Farming bLOG) from Dena & Ernie @AmalieRobert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 
 

We like to release Pinot Meunier just before the holidays. There is not a more festive, entertaining and food friendly wine than Pinot Meunier. It goes with EVERYTHING! Have a glass and a little pâté waiting for Santa this year, and just see what you find under the tree Christmas morning! We are sure you will not be disappointed, and you may even make up some points from last year’s gag of beer and doughnuts. Even though the maple bars were a nice touch… They really didn't agree with the dog.

Tasting Notes: Jolly Rancher cherry red. Translucent transcends to scents of Christmas past, dark chocolate covered cherries, freshly grated cinnamon stick and a waft of allspice from a still cooling pumpkin pie. Elegant and lithe, playful on the palate with intention and discipline providing virtuous restraint. That’s as far as I go. And just as pretty as the day is long. Unfined, Unfiltered and Unrepentant.
 
Culinary Inclinations: Roasted steelhead steaks seasoned with savory, thyme, white pepper, smoked paprika and a dusting of ground ginger alongside steamed artichoke hearts with fresh dill aioli and herbed red potatoes sautéed in duck fat. And then, a little chèvre with raspberry preserves.


 
But this year is a bittersweet release. The 2019 vintage saw a light fruit set which directly impacts wine production. We typically ferment and bottle about 100 cases of Pinot Meunier each vintage. In 2019, we produced just under 70 cases. But wait, it gets worse. There will be no 2020 vintage Pinot Meunier. Or any other 2020 vintage wines from Amalie Robert.
 
Just last week we got word from Gordon Burns, Technical Director at ETS Laboratories. While it was nice of him to write, he was not bearing good news. Our smoke taint theories have just been confirmed. Kind of like the last election, most folks have a pretty good idea how things are going to end up, it just has yet to be confirmed.
 
Many October winery visitors took advantage of tasting our fermenting 2020 vintage Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Meunier. That is all we harvested as we knew vintage 2020 was a forgone conclusion. Some tasters said yes, I get a little hit of smoke, others did not and some were not sure. What was consistent across all tasters was that something was askew. (Google “askew” and see what that page looks like. That’s the hi-tech guys and gals, having you on.)
 


And Gordon was kind enough to put together this handy dandy interpretative chart. Free Guaiacol is the compound he tests for and we’ve got it. The first graphic is for wine berries. The second graphic is for fermented wine. As you can clearly see that the graphic stops at 6. Our result came back at 8. We smoked that test! While we are not speaking for anyone else in the Willamette, Ernie can frequently be heard saying Damnit!
 
So, what does that mean for you? If you are currently working with, or leaning toward adding, the Pinot Meunier, you may want to consider stocking up. It is going to be a long, dry spell before we see any 2021 Amalie Robert Pinot Meunier.
   

Kindest Regards,
 
Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Harvest After Action Report: Vintage 2020 Creates a Vacuum & Our Vintage Statement

Hello and Welcome, 
  
This is the Amalie Robert Estate Harvest After Action Report: Vintage 2020 Creates a Vacuum and Our Vintage Statement. A FLOG communication (Farming bLOG) from Dena & Ernie @AmalieRobert. Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 
 

 
There will certainly be less top tier, premium wine produced in fire and smoke affected areas of the West Coast winegrowing regions this year. This will impact several sectors of the wine trade from vineyard owners and harvest workers, wineries and their suppliers including barrel coopers and glass vendors, all wine distribution channels, Federal and State excise taxes, and of course the people that ultimately enable the entire wine industry - the wine consumer. Something for everyone really (except the fruit flies), misery loves company. Quite a vacuum indeed, or you could say it sucks.
 

Every vintage is a battlefield from the agrarian point of view. The off season starts when harvest is finished. This time is dedicated to renewing the vineyard floor with winter cover crops and vine pruning to greet the new vintage come spring. Meanwhile, below ground are the pocket gophers and voles trying to eat the roots off our vines and girdle their trunks. And of course, the weeds grow all winter long slowly sapping whatever nutrients they can get from the vines’ root zone. In addition to lifting the morning fog, that is how winegrowers start the vintage.
 

Farm equipment is and has always been the product of necessity and invention. This conjures up images of baling wire and duct tape, along with this phrase, “If it looks stupid, but it works, it’s not stupid.” Whatever it takes to get ‘er done then get back to the barn and fix it up for the next day. The off season sees a fair bit of repairs and maintenance from the astute winegrower to prevent downtime during the growing season when there simply is “no extra time.” The concept is akin to “no extra money” which becomes relevant when the tractor repair bill shows up.
 

Ah, but sometime in April spring springs and the vines wake up. Then it is a race to put up catch wires to control the explosive growth of leaves and shoots that the vines will need to ripen their seeds and reproduce. Yes, it is all about them. Spring into summer is the time the vines need a helping hand getting all of this done. Vineyard laborers spend about 3 to 4 minutes per vine over the course of 3 visits spanning about 5 weeks. Yes, Pinot Noir vines are high maintenance.
 

 

June brings us flowering. This is the first real sign that the vintage is in play. Depending on the weather, the flowers will pollinate and turn into wine berries. The warmer and dryer the weather, all things being equal, the better chance the flowers will become wine berries. And wine berries are self-pollinating. They do not need bees or other insects to complete their task. They just need a few days of mildly warm weather, a little breeze and be left alone to do their thing. Kind of like they are taking a vacation in the middle of the growing season. And they get an extra day every 4 years to do it.
 

Mildew. Reminds us of Newman from Seinfeld. Even sounds the same – Mildew meet Newman. Here is the first clue that Mother Nature is having you on. Mildew affects grape vine tissues including the shoots, leaves and wee little wine berries. When the temperature and humidity are just right gazillions of little spores are released into the atmosphere from last year’s mildew colonies. This opening salvo starts around May and continues through August.
 
These spores land on the vines’ shoots, leaves and wine berries and do their level best to establish new colonies. Why do they do this? So they can reproduce and make even more spores. An active mildew infection is not a trivial event. It arrests the wine berry development preventing it from developing aroma and flavor. Left unchecked, mildew will render your wineberries null and void when it comes to the winemaking process. A mildew infection has a tendency to focus the mind.
 

Then along comes August, a turning point in the vintage when the wineberries start to change color from green to mauve to purple, or as we like to call it Pinot Noir en Flagrante. Assuming this is not Botrytis and you have fought back the aforementioned (and uncovered) perils, the birds begin to arrive bringing with them all of their friends and relations. We have bioacoustic controls to deter these winged pests by attracting raptors into OUR environment to interact with THEIR environment. It is a lovely thing to see when these two worlds collide. For the more exposed parts of the vineyard, we go old school and deploy nets.
 

Then we enter September, the wait and worry phase of the winegrowing program. The wine berries have not yet developed the aroma, flavor and texture necessary to be cluster plucked. So, we have to wait for that and worry we will not be affected by some plague or pestilence before we can cluster pluck our bounty. This worry is usually concentrated around Mother Nature’s precipitation schedule, which she refuses to confirm until the night before - usually. If you want a harvest crew, they need confirmation 48 hours in advance - always.
 
 
Life is a Beachie Creek fire. And that was our “AH HA” moment when we knew all was for naught. In the finance world, it is known as a sunk cost. That investment of time, money and intellectual capital is gone. Experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you want.
 
In gambling, which is like farming, you can go “double or nothing.” In farming, you pivot from The Great Cluster Pluck to winter pruning. But since the vines still have all of their leaves (and most of their fruit) you have to wait for it.

The concept in play for vintage 2020 is nonconforming goods. In a manufacturing environment, you order parts or pre-made assemblies from your suppliers. Upon delivery, the parts are inspected to verify they comply with the purchase order specifications. If they do, they are accepted into the production process flow. If they do not, they are rejected as nonconforming goods.
 
Most folks have ordered something online over the past few months – maybe even wine. From time to time, there is a mispick in the warehouse. You ordered red towels to go with your kitchen décor, but when you opened the box, you discovered they sent blue ones. Your options are to remodel your kitchen to accommodate the blue towels or reject them and reorder the red ones.
 
This applies to several industries including the beleaguered restaurants coping with COVID-19. In the farm to table world (which we whole heartedly support), if the tomatoes are underripe at the farmers’ market, then the BLTs are going to have cucumbers or avocados that day, not tomatoes.
 

Yes, we did make wine. And yes, it smells fine, mostly. Does it have smoke taint? Certainly. Much like the other affliction that is a worldwide phenomenon, you could have it and be asymptomatic. Then one day, you have all of the symptoms. Smoke taint can be masked in a young wine, only to express itself as the wine matures in barrel or bottle. You can treat smoke tainted wine before bottling, there are companies that do that. Then maybe a dilution approach is the answer by blending the affected wine into exceptionally large lots of a “red blend.” A ubiquitous category, at best.
 
A product recall is the logistical equivalent to the software “edit undo” function and can significantly impact a brand’s reputation. Two examples come to mind on how to execute a product recall. The first is from the hi-tech world when Intel discovered a flaw in their Pentium chip and handled it poorly. The second is when the makers of Tylenol discovered someone had tampered with their product in a retail environment and handled it exceptionally well.
 
In vintage 2020 a recalled wine means someone knew, or should have known, of a tainted product and went forward with a release. The Ford Pinto is a case in point of what NOT to do when in doubt. They chose very poorly and achieved a catastrophic result.
 
And yes, we considered other options to convert wine berries into alcohol. Mostly at increased costs with little to no expectation of finding a market for whatever alcohol-based product you have produced. But is it wine? By definition it could be. Or it could be distilled into a smoky brandy. Highly unlikely to give Lagavulin a run for its money. Scotch is a peaty smoky experience - on purpose. We concluded that perhaps this vintage is destined for its last best social purpose as hand sanitizer.
 

Cuvée de Bovine. But maybe the step just before the last best social purpose of a fermented alcohol product is food. We found a rancher who was interested in a little Pinot Noir for his herd. Well, why not? Maybe someday a nice dish of beef bourguignon will find its way onto our dinner table.

Click on the Cows to watch Beef Bourguignon on the Hoof.

 

 

 

 

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage 2020 Statement.

 

We have chosen to involuntarily withdraw from vintage 2020. We live on our vineyard property and bore firsthand witness to the smoke event that spanned September 7^th though the 16^th. The intensity, duration and physical impact on our vines is undeniable.

 

Our underlying philosophy is to express the purity of our site through the unique characteristics of the vintage. We ferment with whole clusters, indigenous yeast and barrel age our wines for 18-24 months. We bottle without the addition of fining agents such as egg whites and we do not filter or otherwise manipulate our wines before bottling. We are 100% estate grown.

 

These traditional wine making fundamentals have stood the test of time well before we founded Amalie Robert Estate. They have also served us well for the past 20 years. When we release a bottle of wine you can depend upon our stewardship of the land from vine to bottle and commitment to excellence.

 

To make smoke taint free wine in vintage 2020 by following our guiding principles was simply not possible. We knew there was no pathway to release a premium quality wine under our name.

 

These are our choices, and they are the right choices for us. We have high hopes that these fires and the devastation they have caused will provide a strong impetus to better manage our natural resources, including the life sustaining air that all earthbound plants and animals require.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

 

You can read our real time wildfire updates posted to our FLOG (Farming bLOG) here:

September 11, 2020: Special Update: Oregon Wildfires and Potential Harvest Impacts

September 22, 2020: Special Update: Oregon Wildfires II and Wine Implications

October 20, 2020: Amalie RobertEstate Official Statement on Vintage 2020

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: September Vintage 2020 - Say It Taint So!

Hello and Welcome, 
   
This is an Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: September Vintage 2020. This is the Big One. A Farming bLOG FLOG communication from Dena & Ernie @AmalieRobert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 
 

Pinot Noir awaiting The Great Cluster Pluck, Vintage 2020

September in Willamette Valley wine country, Vintage 2020. We will never know it all, but we now know enough to know - it is not farming good. This communication will lay out the events for the month that provided us all so much Mother Nature  “Mama Drama” and we will endeavor to answer the question that may be on so many minds as we confront harvest, Vintage 2020.
 
What does that mean, and why should I care?
 

A once in a lifetime event

 
The month started out just great and that lasted for the first 7 days. Hey that’s 25% of the game and we will take it. The next 10 days provided a once in a lifetime wildfire and associated smoke event. This was due to the extreme winds originating in the central US blowing with tornado force gusts through Central Oregon. Central Oregon just happened to be ablaze with the Lionhead and Beachie Creek fires at that time. The Beachie Creek fire went from a relatively small fire of 500 acres to over 100,000 acres in the span of 24 hours. Simply unprecedented in living memory.
 

Winds blowing due west toward the Willamette Valley, Sept. 9^th at 5:58 am

https://twitter.com/i/status/1303679122967728129

 
The easterly winds very quickly spanned the 60 miles or so between us and the Beachie Creek fire. The result can best be described as waking up to a full solar eclipse. The smoke remained in the valley and was fed by southwesterly winds for several more days. All vineyard work was ceased due to air quality conditions.
 
The next few days, September 17^th - 19^th, provided some relief in the form of northwest winds ushering in cool rain – 0.97 inches to be exact. This rain was preceded by a smashing crescendo of thunder and lightning – quite a show to be sure and very hard to miss. Note: Our records indicate Vintage 2019 received exactly 0.97 inches of rain September 16^th - 18^th. Most likely a glitch in the matrix.
 
The following week, or most of it, was spent assessing the potential impacts of smoke exposure and smoke taint. The short answer is that if you had significant smoke exposure any smoke molecules that landed on the wine berries are now bound up in the skins or more likely bound to a sugar molecule inside the wine berry. This phenomenon does not always lead to smoke taint, but sometimes it does. In past years we have had California smoke (from forest fires) in the air, but no smoke taint.
 
And then there was even MORE rain from September 24^th – 26^th. We add another 1.87 inches to the previous 0.97 inches and that provides us with 2.84 inches of rain coming up to The Great Cluster Pluck. Available soil moisture to the vines is no longer an issue for Vintage 2020. One less thing to worry about.
 
The rest of the month was much like the first of the month. Very pleasant, cool breezes, high temperatures in the low 80’s and low temperatures in the 40’s. EXACTLY how you want September to pass the torch to Okto-Vember.
 

Ready and waiting to go to the winery to get weighed

Now we get to the essence of winegrowing in a post-apocalyptic environment. What does all of this mean, and why should I care?
 
The first answer is we no longer have to worry about high alcohol wines. Near enough to 3 inches of rain in mid to late September has allowed the vine roots to bring up water that is diluting the sugar concentrations in the wine berry. This is a good thing as high sugar concentrations turn into high alcohol wines. No one likes that, mostly.
 
Diluted sugar concentrations do NOT mean diluted aroma and flavor. Quite the opposite is true. By diluting the sugar concentrations, we can allow the wine berries to hang longer into the growing season to develop MORE aroma and flavor. And the rootstock most adapted to this “win-win” scenario is our old friend 5C. That’s 5C on Bellpine soil mind you. Right here in Dallas, Oregon, zip code 97338.
 
But there is a limit. 3 inches of rain this late in the growing season over a 2 week window awakens our nemesis Botryotinia fuckeliana. The noble version of this mold is responsible for those heavenly sauternes and the once in a lifetime Pabuk’s Gift Late Harvest Chardonnay. But most of the time in the Willamette Valley, we get plebian bunch rot and there is a saying that goes along with it. Specifically (in relation to trying to make wine from the Botryotinia fuckeliana infected wine berries), “You can’t polish a turd.”
 
This means we have about 3 weeks before Botryotinia fuckeliana will compromise the wine berries rendering them unsuitable for ultra-premium wine production. So, we need to get to Cluster Plucking while the Cluster Plucking is good, or we will be fuckeliana’d.
 
In contrast to several recent hot vintages, excess sugar concentrations were forcing early harvest schedules. Now we have the luxury of lower sugar concentrations to gain hangtime, but this is checked by a shortened harvest window due to the threat of developing Botryotinia fuckeliana. Somewhere in all of that from here to mid to late October is a sweet spot where a significant amount of Cluster Plucking would normally occur.
 
Before we dive into the qualitative aspects of Vintage 2020, let’s take a look at the quantitative aspect – The Numbers. September added 435.6 Degree Days to the vintage providing a growing season to date total of 2,210.8 Degree Days.
 

 
The high temperature for the month was 97.7 degrees recorded from 4:00 to 5:15 pm on September 3^rd. The low temperature was 44.8 degrees recorded on September 13^th from 7:24 to 7:48 am. Rainfall totaled 2.84 inches. While everyone likes to be clean for The Great Cluster Pluck and their trip to the winery to get weighed, we were a little over received on rainfall.
 
But what exactly, are we harvesting? Are these wine berries the sublime and ethereal beginnings of sublime and ethereal wines? Or is the smoke exposure event from mid-September going to reappear at the moment of truth in the glass? No one really knows for sure how this is going to play out. The new buzz word is “Guaiacol.” And, you don’t want any of it in your wine berries.
 
What we do know is that during fermentation the sugar molecules are vanquished and alcohol is produced. If there were smoke molecules bound to a sugar molecule, they are now in the finished wine. Sometimes you can smell and taste them and sometimes you cannot. The only way to know for sure is to send a sample of a fermented wine to a lab to test for certain compounds associated with smoke taint.
 
This means we can know if our wines have the markers for smoke taint, but due to the backlog of everyone else wanting to know the same thing, at the same time, we cannot know before harvest. And here is the thing, the sample has three possibilities. This in itself presents a problem in that the standard 2-bit coin only has 2 sides, even the Vulcan ones. First, there could be no markers of smoke taint. Yippeeee, we are clean. The next thought is that you should have cluster plucked the entire field, not just the good blocks.
 

Shaded fruit zone to impart elegant and refined tannins

The second easy answer is if the smoke taint markers are off the charts. Then you know you are doomed and can go out for tricks and treats with Charlie Brown. Or maybe not. There are ways of removing some of these smoke taint aromas, flavors and textures, but it means doing things. Doing things that we are not willing to do to a wine with our names on it.
 
And third, your results could come back with low levels of smoke taint markers. Then you have to decide how low is low enough. These smoke taint compounds are most likely bound up in the aroma, flavor, texture matrix of the wine and not detectable at this moment. But as the wine ages, those compounds could become volatile and then you can detect them. Hard to say at this point, but time will tell – on you.
 
But our very good industry partner ETS Laboratories run by the man, the myth, the legend Gordon Burns has devised this handy dandy interpretative chart to help guide the wine industry through our own apocalyptic pandemic.
 
As you look at this graphic, there are two red arrows. While they both point to the right, the top one is for samples of wine berries. The unit of measure is micrograms per kilogram. For those of you who no longer wear the white lab coat, a microgram is one millionth of a gram. There are 1,000 grams in a kilogram. That’s not a lot to work with, but it is why we pay Gordon the big bucks.
 
So, logically, if you have just 2 micrograms of Guaiacol in 1,000 grams of wine berries, Botryotinia fuckeliana is no longer your primary concern. And get this, the wine berries taste good! So good in fact, you want to cluster pluck them and ferment the sugar out of them! That is what we have been pruning and preening the vines for all year.
 
And so you do, but only enough to do a microfermentation. This is typically about 20 pounds of wine berries and carries a winery designation such as BF “x.” Where BF represents Bucket Fermentation and “x” is the number of the fermentation in case you are “doing” multiple BF’s at the same time (or maybe just a replicated trial). This is chemistry, and something is bound to give a result that is more confusing than enlightening. So, add more trials and weed out the results that do not fit the standard bell curve. Besides, no one lives at either end of the curve anyway. Right, John?
 

 
After doing your BF, you are at the second red arrow that points to the right. Here we see there is more leeway as we can go up to 6 micrograms of Guaiacol. However, the sample size is now a single liter of wine that has been fermented to dryness – no sugar left for the Guaiacol to bind to. And the Guaiacol is either volatile where it can be detected, or nonvolatile where it cannot be detected - at this time.
 

Gewürztraminer cluster ready to be microfermented

So if your wine sample results come back with a number greater than 1 but less than 3, you have a decision to make. You can harvest the wine berries and hope for the best or you can forgo the vintage and plan for vintage 2021. Ernie’s Gewürztraminer is going to be the test platform for our trials. He ferments it clean in stainless steel with no residual sugar. If there is smoke taint to be found in that wine, he will find it. It may take replicated sensory evaluation trials, but he will find it. Of course, there may not be any wine left to sell but at least we will be confident in our decision.

Kindest Regards,
 
Dena & Ernie

Special Update: Oregon Wildfires II and Wine Implications

Hello and Welcome, 

Welcome to the first day of fall, September 22, vintage 2020. This is a Special Update: Oregon Wildfires II and Wine Implications. A Farming bLOG FLOG communication from Dena & Ernie @AmalieRobert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

The Sun overlooking Clone 95, Amalie Robert Estate September 16

Life is a Beachie Creek fire. As most of the continental United States is aware, the West Coast was set ablaze in spectacular fashion on Monday evening, September 7^th. Fanning those Beachie Creek flames and ushering in all of that smoke to the region was a wind event that is predicted to happen 2 or maybe 3 times a CENTURY.
 
We recognize that other parts of the country were and are still dealing with severe fire, smoke, winds, rains, and the fallout from those natural disasters. However, much like the Earth is the only planet that grows wine, the West Coast is a significant contributor to domestic wine production. Vintage 2020, the real VINTAGE of the CENTURY, hangs in the balance.
 
The following smoke maps will give you an idea of how much smoke was produced and the vast expanse that density of smoke covered.

This image is from Saturday, September 12^th. Most of the smoke is still confined to the West Coast and is blowing out over the Pacific Ocean.
 

 
This image is from Monday, September 14^th. The Jet Stream is starting to distribute the smoke north and east from the West Coast, but no meaningful airflow to the region.
 

 
This is the 97338 zip code (Dallas, OR) Air Quality Index for Monday, September 14^th.
 

 
This image is from Wednesday, September 16^th. The Jet Stream is starting to distribute the smoke farther afield to the eastern seaboard. Eventually, the entire United States and parts of Canada were able to enjoy some colorful sunscapes due to these fires. The winds are beginning to come from the southwest bringing Northern California smoke into the region and up through into Canada.
 

 
Finally, the winds shifted and brought northwest winds and rain from the Gulf of Alaska into the region beginning September 17^th complete with thunder and lightning. Mother Nature certainly put on a show, and with great effect. We received 0.97 inches of rain over those two days. Even though the rain has given the wine berries quite a bath to wash off the ash residue, they have been exposed to a significant amount of smoke from the Beachie Creek Fire.
 
But since then, it has been really nice. We have rejoined a beautiful Willamette Valley wine country fall already in progress. But the damage is done, or is it?
 
WARNING: A little chemistry ahead.
Definition: Volatile = able to detect sensory characteristics.
Definition Nonvolatile = Unable to detect sensory characteristics.

Situational Analysis - What we know. At this point we know we have had the better part of 10 days of smoke EXPOSURE. We know that smoke molecules have most certainly penetrated the skins of the wine berries. We know that once the smoke molecules cross the cell membrane into the juice, they will bind with sugar molecules forming nonvolatile glycosides.
 
Nonvolatile glycosides do not give off any smoke taint aromas, flavors, or textures, hence the modifier nonvolatile. During fermentation and aging, these nonvolatile glycosides may break down and become volatile glycosides. That means they release volatile compounds that are detectable in aroma, flavor and texture.
 
There is more to the story. The nonvolatile glycosides can hold off for quite a while. They may not be broken down until they come in contact with enzymes in saliva. Even though the wine may not have any smoky aroma, it may very well have a tainted flavor and/or texture that is discernable on the palate.
 
That’s all the chemistry we need.
 
Situational Analysis – What we do NOT know. We do not know if our smoke exposed wine berries are smoke TAINTED. Micro-ferments, the false negative and the “GO or NO GO” decision. Syrah is different.
 
Micro-ferments are fermentations on a very small scale – such as in a 5 gallon bucket. These are not difficult to do, and in past vintages Ernie has micro-fermented small lots of Syrah Rosé and Gewürztraminer. To give you some scale, a typical Amalie Robert fermenter holds 3,000 pounds of wine berries, a micro-fermentation (bucket) may hold 20 pounds.
 

Gewürztraminer micro-fermentation

Once a fermentation has completed converting sugar to alcohol, it is time to get 6 to 10 people together to taste the wine. This is the easy part. Everyone wants to taste wine, even experimental wine. As researchers have stated, 25% of the population will not be able to discern smoke taint, so factor that into the result.
 
The false negative. As the wine is poured, swirled, evaluated, and spit out, smoke taint will be detected (positive), or it will not be detected (negative). If not detected, it could be that the 25% of the group that cannot discern smoke taint is actually 100% of the group. Not likely, but not impossible.
 
Also, if not detected it could be that the glycosides identified above are still in the nonvolatile condition – they do not impart any tainted qualities. Or lastly, there are no glycosides present in the finished wine. So far, we are 3 for 3 in the negative column. But just because we cannot detect them, does not mean they are not there. This is the False Negative Scenario.
 
However, what we cannot test for is the aging effect in tanks or barrels and the eventual bottle maturation (time in bottle) that will occur after bottling. Over this maturation period the nonvolatile status may shift to volatile at any time. Then the moment of truth is revealed when the wine is poured into a glass and consumed months or years down the road. What are the chances of that? Maybe 5%, maybe 50%? If it happens to you, it happens 100%.
 
The Syrah wine berries are different. They naturally contain these precursors to taint. So even though they may be tainted, that may simply add to their charm, or may not. Think Botox treatments – a little is OK, but don’t overdo it.
 
Vintage 2020 and The Great Cluster Pluck. The “GO or NO GO” decision. The ultimate answer is to have a professional lab determine if glycosides exist in your wine berries or micro-fermentations. A quick call to the ETS laboratory, which is the winery “go to” lab, revealed they are expecting results in late October from samples they received in August. Right, they are some very busy people with a lot riding on their analysis. The harvest window will be closed by the time we know if we are tainted. We might have better luck taking the “no-win scenario” Kobayashi Maru exercise and then drinking the micro-fermentations.
 
So, we are polishing up the quarter that Ernie saved from taking the CPA exam. So far it is 756 heads we GO and 821 tails we NO GO. We will see who gets to 1,000 first.
 
Before we go, let us add our voice to the national conversation. Are the climate conditions that have spawned these horrific natural disasters including the devastating wildfire and smoke that we have been experiencing over the past few years the new normal? Is this situation our destiny?
 
We are the species that has most evolved. Are we unable to adapt and manage our natural resources in a way that benefits all species on this planet as well as our natural resources and our environment?
 

Sadly, they were unable to adapt to their ever-changing environment.

Kindest Regards,
 
Dena & Ernie