Vintage 2019 Harvest After
Action Report – The Great Cluster Pluck
Hello and Welcome,
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 10th 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 1st
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 1st
and concluded on Octo-vember 15th. 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 37th.
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 15th (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 10th which gifted us
0.68 inches of rainfall. Next up was around the 18th with another
0.97 inches of rainfall, and again on the 20th with 0.42 inches. And
lastly around the 30th 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 5th at 4:36 pm and the low
temperature was 37.2 recorded on September 28th 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 7th at 5:00 pm and the low temperature
was 31.6 recorded on the 9th 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 22nd and the low temperature of 24.6 recorded on the 31st
at 7:00 am. That‘s frickin’ cold!
The Great Cluster Pluck 2019
was officially completed November 6th, 2019 with the Syrah and
Viognier. We accumulated an additional 11.8 Degree Days through the 6th
of November with a high temperature of 66.6 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on the
3rd 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
