Amalie Robert Estate: Vintage 2020 BOLO & Memorial Day Weekend Open House

Hello and Welcome,

May has been quite a busy month for the Pinot Noir vines at Amalie Robert Estate. They know there is only about 4 months to go before The Great Cluster Pluck. Yep, they are sitting pretty just waving in the breeze! Enjoy it while it lasts, because the first set of trellis catch wires is coming for you.
 

Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means.® A Farming bLOG (FLOG) communication from Dena & Ernie. Estate grown Amalie Robert Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Willamette Valley. Have a look and see what we see on Instagram @AmalieRobert Estate. We are posting on Facebook and LinkedIn. Check us out if you can. We can use all the likes we can get…

 

 

Open House Weekend!

 

The winery will be open for outdoor tastings and guided vineyard tours this Memorial Day weekend, Friday through Monday, 10 am to 3 pm by appointment. If you can make it, please click on the BIG RED BUTTON to be among the very first to access our NEW tasting appointment page!

 
If you are going to be somewhere other than here, we have for you the BIG BLUE BUTTON! With a click of this button, you will be transported to a matrix of wines to select from without leaving the comfort of your digital appliance. All purchases above $300 include domestic ground shipping (your PROMO CODE is preloaded). And the NATIONWIDE spring shipping window is WFO (Wide Farming Open)!
  



Vintage 2020 Preview.
 
It is about that time of year when you get to taste the latest vintage Oregon White and Rosé wines. You won’t be seeing any from Amalie Robert, as we chose NOT to release any wine due to smoke taint. However, we can give you a few discussion points as you taste and talk your way through the valley.


Heavy Smoke in the Willamette Valley Vintage 2020
 
When: The most important question you can ask is when was the harvest date. The smoke entered our part of the Willamette Valley around Tuesday, September 8^th right after Labor Day. If the grapes were harvested prior to that, there is little cause for concern. UNLESS the wines were blended with grapes harvested after the smoke entered the valley.
 
Where: Location made a significant difference in smoke exposure. The big fire that created the most smoke for us was from the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires. They were due east of Salem, and our vineyard, by about 60 miles. High winds helped the fires grow quickly and rapidly filled the valley with smoke. There were also large fires generating smoke south of Salem. We think the least affected areas early on were located at the north end of the valley, but eventually we all had some exposure.
 
How Much: Most wineries did micro ferments (using 5 gallon buckets) and sent the resulting wine out for analysis. While this was a good idea, the main lab we rely on, ETS located in St. Helena, was backed up. They were overloaded with samples, and closed due to fire danger for a few days, so getting results back before harvest was typically not possible. When we called, they suggested sending wine samples to Australia for testing, as they had experience with smoke taint and the turnaround time would be faster.
 
Exposure: When the grape skin is exposed to smoke, the particles cross the cell membrane and bind with sugar molecules (Glucose and Fructose). When tasting fresh grapes, they don’t taste smoky as the smoke compounds are bound to the sugars. After fermentation is complete, the smoke compounds are unbound from the fermented sugar molecules and can then be detected. The question is how much and at what point in the wines’ maturity will those aromas, flavors and textures be present. Sometimes right away, sometimes after a while and sometimes never.
 
Smoking Gun: The indicator compound is called Guaiacol. If the winery has tested the FINISHED wine for Guaiacol AFTER fermenting, but BEFORE going into toasted oak barrels, that would be good to know. Toasted oak barrels can also impart Guaiacol into the wine. And get this, you cannot test Syrah for smoke taint using Guaiacol as the marker, because Guaiacol is a naturally occurring compound in Syrah. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!
 
Our test after fermentation came back at over 8.0 parts per billion (ppb) and that is why we have no vintage 2020 wine to offer. Anything over 4.0 ppb is circumspect. Here is a resource from ETS covering the topic.
 

 
The Final Analysis: There were some fantastic wines made from vintage 2020. They are out there waiting to be discovered. And hopefully, vintage 2021 will be free of any environmental encumbrances and we can all get back to the task at hand.
 
 
Amalie Robert Estate Vintage 2020 Statement.
 

We have chosen to involuntarily withdraw from vintage 2020. We live on our vineyard and winery property and bore firsthand witness to the smoke event that spanned September 7th though the 16th. 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.

 

 

Additional Resources.

You can read our real-time, on-site updates written from the vineyard here.


2020 Vintage Update: Earth, Wind, Fire & Smoke


Special Update: Oregon Wildfires and Potential Harvest Impacts


Special Update: Oregon Wildfires II and Wine Implications
 

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

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate: 2021 February Pre-Vintage Pruning Update

Hello and Welcome, 

 

It is the dormant season in wine country. The first day of spring is not until March 20^th, but believe it or not, it is coming up fast. Witness the daffodils and crocus in the garden providing the early, wonderfully colorful signs of agricultural life below ground. This is their one time a year to “rise and shine” brightening up our disposition. And they are certainly a most welcome development, especially this year. 

A FLOG communication (Farming bLOG) by Dena & Ernie from Amalie Robert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Have a look and see what we see on Instagram @AmalieRobert Estate.



The vines may appear dormant, but that’s just a disguise. There is plenty of work being done inside the vine and below ground in the root zone. Their big day is bud break, and they are making all of the necessary preparations for the big reveal. And just like you toiling in your garden, it is our job to get our garden, the “vine-yard” ready to grow. We will begin with what we can see, and that is the transformation from last year’s canopy to a new start for vintage 2021.

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells and one farming eggplant!

A new start, how refreshing. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up one morning and find the to-do list from yesterday is gone? Just GONE! Or the first day back from vacation (or staycation to the back garden, or vine-yard as the case may be) and you find that your E-mail file has been corrupted. No old E-mails. No new E-mails, No follow-up E-mails. No back-ups and no farming E-mail whatsoever! NONE! Well if you were a vine, spring is just like that. No hold over from the past vintage to distract you or keep you from your dedicated purpose – which is to ripen your seeds and reproduce! If only…

They cannot do it alone. Actually they can, they are self-pollinating. But if left on their own, they just sprawl all over the ground. Not an ideal situation to produce top quality wine, which is our dedicated purpose.

So we have implemented a Vertical Shoot Positioning trellis system in which to manage their development during the growing season. During a typical harvest, sans smoke taint, we denude the vines of their wine berries and ferment the sugar out of them. What is leftover is the vertically “hand positioned” shoots of the prior vintage.

Vertical Shoot Position Trellis with Catch Clip.

Out with the old, in with the new growth. In preparation for vintage 2021 we have 4 “by hand” vine related tasks to complete: Removing the trellis wire catch clips, about 14 seconds per plant, making the primary pruning cuts separating last year’s cane from the trunk, about 30 seconds per plant, pulling the brush out of the trellis wires which is the physical equivalent to punch down in the winery, about 32 seconds per plant. And finally wrapping a new cane on the fruiting wire that will bear vintage 2021 wine berries, about 70 seconds per plant. This last task involves the use of a very low-tech bread twist-tie. Remember those? And then we wait (fixing whatever it is that still needs to be fixed) just as patiently as farmers do, for bud break.

Primary Cut Separating Last Year's Cane from the Trunk.
 

Brush Pulled Out of Trellis Wires.
 

New Cane for 2021 Wrapped on the Fruiting Wire and Tied with a Green Twist-tie.
 

In the vineyard it is true - No passengers, all crew. Ernie works in a little tractor time between the rain showers when he can. His job is to mow up all the canes from last year along with the tall fescue (Hey that’s grass, buddy). This mix of browns and greens puts the worms and soil microbes back to work returning nutrients to our sedimentary Bellpine soil. Everybody and everything has a job to do. It takes about 3 tractor passes with the flail mower to fully mulch last year’s canes into the vineyard floor. About once every 2-3 weeks or so is good timing due to the grass’s unrelenting spring growth rate.

Canes Ready for Ernie to Mow.

Rust on the tractor never sleeps and our army of beneficial insects never get a day off. There are good bugs and there are bad bugs. Good bugs eat the bad bugs that want to eat our vines. Good bugs are the ever-voracious ladybug, earwig, various and assorted spiders, and the praying mantis. The praying mantis is a special case. If you see a piece of straw fluttering in the breeze, watch where it lands. It could very well be a praying mantis. They are said to be good luck in a vineyard, unless you are trying to mate with one.

The NUMBER ONE bad bug is the Willamette spider mite. A subspecies of spider mites, this particular mite feeds off the vascular tissue of the leaves, thus draining the life force of the vine. The leaves turn rust colored and significantly reduce photosynthetic output. The antidote, other than the previously listed good bugs, is the Predatory mite.

Live Predatory Mites. Get them on AMAZON. Sold in lots of 2,000, more or less…

Fun Fact: Until relatively recently in the evolution of the human condition, leeches were thought by some practitioners to provide medicinal benefits. We now know that not to be true. Wine may or may not provide medicinal benefits, but from a chemistry point of view, it is a solution.

Here is the odd thing, both mites co-exist simultaneously among the vines. They both winter over in the bark of the trunks and just before bud break, they emerge to feed. The Willamette mite tries to eat the buds before they can burst forth with new life. If there is a significant population and they succeed in devouring all of the buds on a new cane, the vine could die. The Predatory mite is our first line of defense against this unwanted activity. But nobody batts a thousand.

What does that mean, and why should I care? This is an excellent time to point out that we do not use insecticides in the vineyard. Some wine growing regions are more prone to insect pressure than others. Due to our reasonable cold winters, the most harmful species cannot overwinter. The yellowjacket (and its natural predator, the flame thrower) is an unfortunate exception. While some chemical companies offer products to eradicate bad mites, and it is tempting to consider, these products are effective against all mites – the good, the bad and well they are all kinda ugly. So we let nature take its course. Each year we see some damage, sometimes more in a very hot and dry vintage.

And if you happen to see a dirt clod that just flew away, well then it wasn’t really a dirt clod after all but maybe a well camouflaged small raptor harvesting up a vineyard vole. Voles, along with pocket gophers do their business underground. By that we mean they are feasting on the vine’s roots. Very bad, very very bad!

The vine has no natural defense against such an unprovoked attack. But the aerial squadron of raptors that we have fostered provide a first line of defense. From the Enterprise class red-tailed hawk, through the mid-range Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks down to the Kestrel, they all contribute to the overall vineyard health, and get fed doing it – so they can reproduce!

It’s a bug’s life. The good bugs are out there 24x7 and are constantly “harvesting” bad bugs. When they can’t find bad bugs (protein), they are on the hunt for pollen. Pollen is their vegan solution to protein. And that is where our cover crops from last fall come into play.

We plant winter peas and cereal rye to hold the soil during the rainy season and also set nitrogen for the vines. Cereal rye takes up nitrogen and stores it for the spring when it is turned back into the soil as natural fertilizer. Winter peas are just that, they flower and produce pea pods during the cold winter months. Somewhere along the way, their program got messed up. But that is good for us and our battalion of vineyard insects.

Thinking and drinking. About now your left brain is running the vineyard pruning numbers and trying to determine how long it takes to get 55,000 vines ready for vintage 2021. And your right brain is ready for a little more wine. If you need some live Predatory mites for YOUR garden, you can order those from Amazon. No kidding!

PRO Tip: If you have wine in a cup and pretend to blow on it during your online audio video streaming (Zoom or DUO) session, people may think it is a cup of hot tea. Either way, tea or wine, it is a “best practice” to wear pants, in case you spill and need to stand up in a hurry. What you do on your personal time is your business.

The total elapsed time to complete the “by hand” vineyard pruning at Amalie Robert Estate is about 2,300 human hours. This estimate is based on a 4 year moving average that takes into account the vintage and crew variances in the vineyard. And while this is good to know, it is certainly only one piece of the puzzle. To put that in perspective, 2,300 human hours is 8 hours per day for 286 working days. A typical work year is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, 2,080 hours. Now we are getting somewhere.

Pay it forward. Pruning can start as soon as all of the leaves have senesced and fallen to the vineyard floor where they will become nutrients for the next vintage. The primary pruning cuts can happen independently of the other 3 tasks. However, the other three tasks of removing catch clips, pulling last year’s canes from the trellis and then wrapping a new cane on the fruiting wire must occur in sequence. The proof of such is left as an exercise for the reader.

So, logically, we have one very well experienced and trusted person making all of the primary pruning cuts in the vineyard. We also have a small, but dedicated vineyard crew following in sequence performing the remaining tasks. Ernie’s contribution is to source 55,000 green twist ties. Dena orders diesel for the tractor. We have already covered the raptor, insect and cover crop contributions.

Now the big question – how many calendar days do we need in order to get 286 working days? In a typical office environment, this is 5 working days for every 7 calendar days, excluding holidays, sick days, snow days, vacation days and now COVID-19 days. The working days are then factored by adding humans to reduce the elapsed number of days available to accomplish the work in the time allotted. And after all of that, it’s still farming and we will still be behind.

Agricultural work is a very unique proposition. Most of the time we work when we need to and other times we work when environmental conditions allow. Clearly one supersedes the other. While not a daily occurrence in the Willamette Valley, we do see snow and freezing temperatures that are not safe vineyard working conditions. This reduces the potential number of work days by an unknown factor.

Growing icicles – February 2021

Not to mention we are in a rural area where snow removal equipment is heard in the distance, but not seen in practice. So, not only being able to work, but being able to get to work are all part of the solution matrix. And of course, we have COVID-19 to deal with, just like every other community in the world. While not at all like taking the subway to go work in an office building, at the end of the day the results are not dissimilar. Except, you cannot do vineyard work from home. But you can get that back garden ready for springtime entertaining!

And pruning needs to be completed before the vines wake up and open their new little buds to greet vintage 2021. While this is not a fixed date, it usually occurs around the 15^th of April plus or minus a week or maybe two. Kind of like Easter, it varies from year to year.

 

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Update: International Pinot Noir Day!

Hello and Welcome, 

This is an Amalie Robert Estate Update: Today is International Pinot Noir Day! A FLOG communication from @AmalieRobert Dena and Ernie. Amalie Robert Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 

 

Today is THE day we have been waiting for all year! It is International Pinot Noir day! If you want to know the calendar for the other wine varieties, you can follow this link to the calendar of National Wine days.

https://wineloversvillage.com/national-wine-days/
 

Note: There is no mention of Pinot Meunier day. That’s fine, as we recognize Pinot Meunier Day at Amalie Robert Estate every fall, just before Thanksgiving when we release the latest and best vintage ever.

 

And speaking of new releases, Amalie’s Cuvée is making a debut this weekend! The 2016 vintage along with a few sister vintages are up on the tasting menu this Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23. Watch for your Evite and reserve your day and time.

 

Pinot Noir has three great growing regions on the planet. Closest to home is Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Among other clones, we grow Wadenswil, a Swiss clone of Pinot Noir. The next closest region is Burgundy, France, where they grow the Pommard clone. If you can spare the time, both the North and South islands of New Zealand farm it. However, they do it differently with the Gumshoe clone and 10x5.

 

Unfortunately, the International Pinot Noir Celebration was postponed this year due to COVID-19. That is the opportunity to co-locate in McMinnville, Oregon and taste Pinot Noir grown from all over the world. And maybe someday, things being what they are, we may have an intergalactic Pinot Noir Celebration.

 

Pop ‘em if you got ‘em! You can have a personal celebration without having to leave your own backyard. Online shopping and home delivery of your favorite ARB’s (Adult Recreational Beverages) are no more than a few clicks away.

 

 

If we can be of service, just click on the Big Blue Button. iPinot 6 packs including ground delivery are still running $120. The iPinot price will be manually adjusted after we receive your order. And any orders over $300 come complete with ground shipping in the continental United States included OR we will split the cost of 3 day air shipping with you. Please make a note on your order if you prefer air shipping and Dena will contact you to confirm before shipping.

 

Be prepared. The next big thing is August 28^th - National Red Wine Day.
 
 
Kindest Regards,
 
Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Update: Open House July 25-26 & Tractor Bypass Surgery

Hello and Welcome, 

  

This is an Amalie Robert Estate Update: Open House and Tractor Bypass Surgery. A FLOG communication from Dena and Ernie. Amalie Robert Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. 

  

Please join Dena and Ernie for our next Open House on Saturday, July 25 & Sunday, July 26, from 10 am to 3 pm by appointment. An Evite will arrive shortly to schedule your preferred tasting day and time. You may also reach Dena by email at Cuvee@amalierobert.com and by phone at 503-88-CUVEE (503-882-8833) to schedule your appointment, or to place an order if you cannot join us.

Well, we have turned the corner in the vineyard. Our three sets of catch wires are up and clipped into place, the first hedge is completed, and the vineyard crew has done their best at removing the proper amount of leaf coverage to just partially expose our wine berries. We wouldn’t want to show too much skin this early in the game. The fruit set looks to be light, but the numbers are not yet in.

Vineyard inspector number 527, without an appointment, ready for a little outdoor tasting @AmalieRobert

Open air outdoor wine tastings are happening from 10 am to 3 pm each and every weekend now through Labor Day. Make an appointment and come on by, you just don’t know who you might see. Here is the tasting protocol under the new shade canopy overlooking 35 acres of Amalie Robert Estate Vines.

Upon arrival you will be offered your choice of barrel station. Each barrel station is at least 6 feet away from any other barrel station and is equipped with a bottle of sanitizer to be used on your hands. Lip sanitizer, by definition, is part of the tasting program.

Your barrel station will include a new Amalie Robert Riedel glass (they make these just for us) for each person in your party and an unopened bottle of water that you may share among your party to rinse your new stemware. There will also be a double-sided all-in-one tasting program and order form. We may also include some laminated marketing SWAG that is sanitized before and after your tasting appointment. The tasting fee is $15 with the Riedel tasting glass and $10 is refundable on any two bottle purchase per person. You may also opt for the Riedel Burgundy glass for $25 and $10 is refundable on any two bottle purchase per person. The now christened Amalie Robert Riedel glass is yours to keep and may be rinsed again.

We understand travel is somewhat of a challenge this year. If you find that you cannot make it to the vineyard, let us pack up a little of our terroir and ship it to you, weather permitting. Use the Big Blue Button to pre-order for pick up, or to place an order for shipping.

If you are spending some quality time watching films, may we suggest some timeless classics such as the Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot series, or maybe the ever-thrilling Alfred Hitchcock or the short lived original Star Trek series. All very Pinot family friendly.

Now if you find yourself at the corner of confused and bewildered, you may have just crossed the border into the Twilight Zone. Or our local Safeway, where you can find the depleted shelves being restocked with never before seen products, such as this.

And so now that the vineyard is cruising on autopilot, you are probably wondering what Ernie is doing with all his spare time between now and harvest. Well, let’s just say he is keeping himself amused.

Has this ever happened to you? You sit down to peruse the daily inoculum of mayhem from your E-mail productivity program and it shows you nothing. Your first clue that something has gone awry is that you are using software written by the world’s second greatest marketing company, whose stock symbol is MSFT. The first greatest marketing company is, of course, Lionel Trains.

You click the little blue button with your pointing device (whose idea was originally stolen from Digital Equipment Company) and a medium sized blue screen appears that informs you that your (MSFT annuity based revenue stream) E-mail program is starting. Then the screen disappears, and that’s all you get. Sweet F@ck All, is the phrase Ernie picked up in MSFT Ireland.

Standard operating procedure is to shut down, pour another cup of morning accelerant and start up again. Rinse and repeat - same result. At this point you realize you are not the only person to have had this problem, just the latest one. Off to the wonderful word of web browsing to see just how bad this problem is, and how one might once again gain access to one’s E-mail file – in a timely manner.

Fortunately, this problem is unfortunate, but not uncommon. A quick little diagnosis reveals you may start the offending program in safe mode with this run command: Outlook /safe. You will notice there is a space in this command. Must be a typo, Ernie thought. Nope, it’s there on purpose. Remember, first and foremost, this is a marketing company.

And lo and behold Outlook starts in safe mode and right there in front of you are all of your E-mails and subfolders containing even more E-mails! And a history of every E-mail you have ever sent, just in case. Now the fix here is simplicity itself, just disable the add-in (that added itself in) that is causing Outlook to not start up on its own. Right, what’s a cubit?

Yeah, don’t hold your breath. After disemboweling the Outlook program, and rebooting each and every time, still no joy. “Aye captain, I’ve got some bad news for yea. I am afraid it is time to eject the warp core.” No, there is an even easier and faster solution that Ernie picked up working at MSFT. You quite simply and with great pleasure, uninstall the offending program! It is really simple and quite gratifying. Another half cup of mid-morning accelerant and a high fiber bran muffin is your reward as you watch the little blue bar get longer and longer as your Intel Core i7, 7th Gen x86 based processor vanquishes the malignant software. Now we are making an impact!

By the way, when are we moving off the x86 architecture? We really should be 4 valves per cylinder, direct injection twin turbos by now. Or hydrogen power, or warp drive.

Next up, install a clean, uncorrupted version of the offending software. A quick download is the norm, but here in the middle of nowhere with nowhere internet service, we have some time to bake a fresh batch of high fiber bran muffins. A quick reboot, and there it is. Everything is back to “new-normal” and you may resume your early afternoon onboarding of mayhem. Maybe time to back-up your files.

And then it hits you. It’s tractor maintenance week at Uncle Ernie’s work farm. Three Italian tractors, one German rototiller, one French hedger, one Canadian sprayer and an Irish-American mower. This year, we have a nice little crop of issues that really should have been non-issues except for the fact that the Italians seem to have lost a few pages in translation getting to ISO 9000.

After 20 years that overly tight zip tie finally cut through a heater hose going to the cab in the tractor in which Ernie spends a significant amount of quality time spraying the vineyard. No big deal you think, we really do not need heat in the cab this time of year, and besides the air conditioning was just repaired.

Tractor bypass surgery

Except for the fact that the heater hose is connected to the water pump which is connected to the radiator which cools the 100 horsepower diesel engine that powers the whole shebang. Lose all of the coolant and what you have left is a really big paperweight stuck in the middle of 35 acres of vines. At least the wheel studs are tight this year.

And then there is the ever-expanding puddle of transmission oil dripping off of the muffler mounted directly below the transmission. No matter how you spin that, it does not come out well. There is a single oil line coming from the engine compartment disappearing underneath the cab, behind the interior panels and reappearing just before the rear axle.

Turns out we have a metal clamp, without a protective rubber gromet, that secures this metal oil line to the transmission housing. And get this, there is a whole bundle of electrical wires zip tied to that metal oil line! Much like the Grinch, you can only put up with this for so long before metal fatigue becomes a rupture. What could this possibly operate? Doesn’t really matter, it is an oil leak that leaks on the muffler. You don’t have to be a winemaker to realize oil dripping on a hot muffler is not a sustainable condition. What is it with the Italians and their zip ties?

You know, these cell phones have incredible cameras these days. Who remembers The Eastman Kodak Company? A picture may well be worth a 1,000 words but sending off an image to the engineers who designed the equipment is priceless. And much less is lost in translation, even with the Canadians, eh?

Here we have a chain drive pump with an idler bearing. A classic and farmer tested design that has not evolved much, if at all since it was invented. And if it works, you don’t get to fix it - yet. But if the idler bearing is wearing out in less than 1 season, you cannot escape the conclusion, and $107 plus freight, that something is askew. And in this case it is the out of alignment lower pump drive sprocket “walking” its way back along the input shaft where it will meet certain doom when the chain comes in contact with the frame. This is a priority one repair, as in do it right farming now. Yabba Dabba Do It Now!

What the engineer sees

What the winegrower sees

Leverage. When you have applied the maximum amount of force with the hammers you have and are not making an impact, you need leverage. Leverage in the form of a 4 foot bar and your best hammer not so gently coaxing this sprocket back to its original factory installed position. Hence, we apply the principle E=mc2 where the mass does not change, however it does absorb significant energy. And over time, directly applied energy slowly realigns the lower pump drive sprocket with the upper sprocket, thus extending the life of said idler bearing. You learn Einstein’s theory of relativity in school, but applied percussive maintenance is learned on the job. Please refer to page 118 of the May issue of Modern Agrarian.

And of course, there are the standard oil, lube and filter chores for 5 diesel powered machines. Nice to see a pack of field mice thought the air cleaner was a good place to build a nest. Top off the radiator, check the tires and don’t forget to grease the zerks. They really appreciate it. And so, that is what gets Ernie out of bed in the morning, albeit very cautiously. Almost as much fun as opening E-mail…

But the vines sure look nice!

You can reach Dena by email at Cuvee@amalierobert.com and by phone at 503-88-CUVEE (503-882-8833) to schedule your appointment, or to place an order if you cannot join us.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: June 2020 and Salud Pinot Noir Auction

Hello and Welcome, 

  

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

  

iPinot COVID-19 Pivot Pricing is still in effect at $120 on six bottles with domestic ground shipping included. Just click on the Big Blue Button to browse available vintages and collect your favorite! 

You will not need a promo code to activate pricing. The pricing will automatically adjust when you select six bottles of iPinot and there is no further discount on iPinot. The shipping will be adjusted upon confirmation of your order. This is our contribution to the human condition, yours and ours. If you have any questions or need assistance, please E-mail Dena at Cuvee@amalierobert.com.

You don’t have to be crazy to grow Pinot Noir, but it helps. June has been quite the rollercoaster, but all in all we will log it as a positive in the vineyard journal. Cool and rainy was the beginning and the end of the month. The midsection was pleasant and sunny. This vintage is not quite sure who it wants to be. Not too much to complain about here at the vineyard though – not too much heat, or rain or pestilence upon the land, just yet.

Speaking of pestilence, we have a COVID-19 update. We opened the winery to outside tasting for one day last month. We are not going to name names, but you know who you are. Thank you for joining us. All went well and we learned what worked and what we could improve upon.

For the month of July, the winery will be open by appointment for personalized tastings. We will also have Saturday and Sunday weekend hours of 10 am to 3 pm for wine tasting and call ahead wine order pick up. We ask that you contact Dena at Cuvee@amalierobert.com to reserve your time. If you can’t join us, we can arrange shipping on your behalf. And we have upped our game with insulated shippers to extend our reach.

We have adopted the following outside tasting protocol. Upon arrival you will be offered your choice of barrel station under our new sun shade canopy. Each barrel station is at least 6 feet away from any other barrel station and is equipped with a bottle of sanitizer to be used on your hands. Lip sanitizer, by definition, is part of the tasting program.

Your barrel station will include a new Amalie Robert Riedel tasting glass (they make these just for us) for each person in your party and an unopened bottle of water that you may share among your party to rinse your new stemware. There will also be a double-sided all-in-one tasting program and order form. We may also include some laminated marketing SWAG that is sanitized before and after your tasting appointment. The tasting fee is $20 with $15 refundable on any two bottle purchase per person. The now christened Amalie Robert Riedel tasting glass is yours to keep and may be rinsed again.

Vineyard tours are available based on Ernie’s availability. Lately the tractors have sprung some very interesting leaks in some not so easily accessible places. Nonetheless, the vines are on their trajectory to ripeness and we would like to show them off. They have just been freshly hedged and look quite smart. Our rows are socially distant accessible at 90 inches apart. So, either dress for a walk in the vineyard to see the vines or bring your overalls for an “under the tractor” exposé. Yes, there is a difference between 4 millimeters and 3/16”.

The Amex Shop Small promotion is in effect. Amalie Robert Estate is a Shop Small business. The promotion is good for the entire month of July, August and into September. A qualified purchase of $10 or more will earn you a statement credit of $5. And you can use this offer up to 10 times. Please visit the American Express site for more details and to enroll your card. Do it today, don’t delay or you may miss the boat!

  

Now the fun stuff.

Miles and miles of hi-tensile trellis wires. We run three sets and the goal is to capture the vines’ growth at the most opportune time. Of course, the vines are keen to our plan. Some shoots grow quickly as if to escape our grasp. Others more slowly as if lying in wait to set upon us when we least expect it. Remind you of anyone? Perhaps someone with just three fingers?

Wouldn’t it be nice if Wile E. Coyote were to show up with one of his ACME products that self-installed trellis wires. Wouldn’t that be something? From the Jet-Propelled Pogo Stick to the Dehydrated Boulders, the ACME mail order catalog was his go-to source for new and innovative products. Makes you wonder what shipping costs would be on a box of dehydrated boulders. And hey, can you throw in a couple of supernovas? Kinda like Cracker Jacks. You can view the entire ACME catalog offering here.

Well, that’s not how it works. A crew of 5 highly trained and specialized vineyard workers are responsible for raising our trellis wires in vintage 2020. Oh sure, we have a coyote come through the vineyard from time to time. Not all that wily looking, mostly just trying to sniff out members of the Rodentia class of varmints. However, the bobcat that comes through block 14 always seems to have a purpose, a look of intention. He or She has the face of a Bengal tiger and we enjoy observing this cat from the safety of our kitchen.

The first set of trellis wires comes up when we have about 12 inches of growth, mostly. Just before we finish that set, the next set of wires at about 40 inches are ready to come up. About this time, Ernie is mounting the hedger on his pearl essence, powder blue Landini Rex 100 GT. (It’s Italian, what can we say.) And the third set of wires is where you discover the labor pool you have is about 4 hands short of what you needed to finish on time. At the end, the shoots are out of control and now they have the leverage. It is not a pretty sight. Total time to raise three sets of catch wires is 99,902 minutes, or about 117.178 seconds per vine. Just about the amount of time you need for the 2-minute warning.

But the hedger, aka The Enforcer, comes onto the scene right behind that third set of wires. What was all chaos and confusion is now rigidly enforced discipline. Any shoot caught outside the confines of the trellis wire will be summarily “removed”. And much like the wire regime, there will be a second and third hedging pass that is just as strict. If we have excessive soil moisture that encourages more growth, there is the option of a fourth hedge. It keeps Ernie off the streets, but it would sure be fun to run the Landini Rex 100 GT with hedger blades slashing up and down I-5 during rush hour!

It’s that time of year for the Summertime ¡Salud! Pinot Noir Auction. This year brings the COVID-19 edition where all bidding and virtual tasting for that matter, will occur online. If you want to see what you look like during a ZOOM virtual tasting, just position yourself in front of a mirror. Your backdrop may give away more than you know. We recommend the red SOLO cup for a spit cup. Much better than the glass alternative.

Amalie Robert Estate has been a contributing member of the Vintners Circle since 2006. The top 35 like-minded Oregon wineries produce a special cuvée just for the ¡Salud! mission. There are only 5 cases produced from each winery, and the only way to get one is to be a successful bidder at ¡Salud!

You can preview the auction lots here. Note we are number 3 of 35 wineries on offer this year.

The ¡Salud! mission is a good way to give back into the community that makes world Class Oregon Pinot Noir a reality. To learn more about the ¡Salud! mission and register to bid, please visit their website at  website here: http://saludauction.org/mission/ As noted above, those trellis wires do not raise themselves. But Ernie does have a call into the ACME company. No word back as of yet.

The numbers. While he does have the X and Y axis correctly identified, he is missing the Z axis – Speed. Trajectory, as Wile E. Coyote never seems to recall, is dependent upon thrust, or speed. In the vineyard construct, our Z axis is heat units. The hotter it is the faster the wine berries build sugar. Heat units are not just a reflection of the high temperature of the day. The vines are out there 24 x 7 and experience the cool nights as well as the warm days. And Ernie’s 3,600 data points per 30-day period approximate the curve quite accurately, every 12 minutes. Yeah, he’s got some kinda spreadsheet for that.

 

The month of June accumulated 341.2 Degree Days bringing vintage 2020 to a growing season total of 732.1 Degree Days. The first half of the month provided 122.6 Degree Days and 0.98 inches of rain. The second half of the month added 218.6 Degree Days and 0.59 inches of rain. The grass noticed the rain and Ernie got an unexpected extra mowing pass. The high temperature for the month was 89.6 degrees recorded on June 23^rd at 2:36 pm. The low temperature was 38.1 recorded June 4^th at 12:36 am.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie