Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2015 April

Hello and Welcome,

This is the April Climate Update from Amalie Robert Estate.

The 2015 vintage is “on-line!” The vines are all sporting new shoots and they are growing at an incredible rate. The spring cover crop mix of Buckwheat and Vetch has also taken hold and will become food for our vines in the fall. Between the fits and starts of rain, wind, hail and sun, we have been pounding posts in the new Wadenswil block, by hand. And oddly enough, once Ernie tightened up the alternator belt in the tractor, the battery has been staying charged up. Hmm, success leaves clues…

Generally speaking, it has been a pretty nice April to get some farming done. Farming, we should point out, is what you are doing when you are not growing wine. Farming includes things like mowing the grass - repeatedly, scheduled equipment maintenance like changing the oil, and

unscheduled equipment maintenance like tightening the alternator belt. Pounding posts is considered

farming, as is moving a few new vines into the vine row because the layout cable looked like a left parenthesis. The objective is to get most of the farming done during the slack time, so that we can focus on growing wine the rest of the summer.

WTH?NFW! is a farming lexicon and it means “What The Hail? No Farming Way!” But it’s true, we had hail during April and below freezing temperatures. The worst thing that can happen is that the pea sized hail can hit the new shoot with such force as to remove it from the vine, and there goes this year’s crop of wine berries. And whatever is left behind is fair game for Jack Frost. If those hearty shoots survive the hail, below freezing temperatures can lead to the same result – no wine berries for you! If that happens to your vineyard site, then you have all summer to go “farming.” And that is why vineyard site selection is all about strategy first and monetizing your terroir second. That’s Ernie in the tractor getting a first hand look at April hail.

So, we are in “good shape” to start growing wine. The late April and early May tasks include removing “double” shoots from the cane that will crowd the canopy and make shoot positioning an even more arduous task than it already has to be. We also remove the water sprouts (aka suckers) at the graft union where the rootstock meets the vinifera.

During the grafting process, these two pieces of plant material form new parenchyma tissue (typically composed of living cells that are thin-walled, unspecialized in structure, and therefore adaptable) that will grow together and fuse the vine into a single plant. In farming terms this is called callusing. It is at this graft union, about 5” off the ground that the suckers will grow. Doing about 1,452 deep knee bends per acre can get you in “good shape.”

Then in May we can look forward to the Oregon Strawberries, shoot positioning, and catch wires. Every May the prized little Oregon Strawberries hit the market. They last just a few weeks and then they are gone for another year. If you are local, then you know. If you are visiting, seek them out. Oh yeah, shoot positioning and catch wires, yum.

A vineyard is a physical implementation of a mental construct. Looking at a vineyard affords the opportunity to look into a farmer’s mind. Before we decided on how to layout our vineyard we read, studied, talked to people, and performed the ultimate research with finished wines grown on a variety of trellis designs and vine layouts. Our brains were collecting and processing data constantly. We thought our heads would explode - and here is yet another use for duct tape.

Then we fell into analysis paralysis, but only for a minute or two. We had no time for that, we had to get to farmin’! So we decided to space our vines 4 feet apart and leave 7 ½ feet for Ernie to run the tractor through the rows. The posts are all steel; we are “Heavy Metal” farmers. It was a good decision that has minimized tractor blight to the posts, vines, tractor, implements and operator.

The finest engine in the world is no more than a boat anchor if you can’t tune it for the race you are running. The trellis is where we separate the farmers from the wine growers. A trellis consists of two end assemblies, intermediate line posts, and miles and miles of wire. Each row of our vines is trellised using VSP (Vertical Shoot Positioning) and needs to support about 3 pounds of fruit per vine along with all the vines’ leaves to ripen it. A row of 100 vines yields about 300 pounds of fruit. And it needs to stand up to wind gusts, freezing rain and all of the other vagaries of “farming.”

VSP@ARE means “Vertical Shoot Positioning at Amalie Robert Estate” where each plant has its shoots tucked into 3 sets of catch wires over about a 6 week period of time by a crew of humans. Now, the guy who used to own this piece of dirt grew Montmorency cherries, which required very little hand work, if at all. He patiently listened as Ernie shared his mental construct. At the end he smiled and said, “Well Mr. Pink, you are going to be busy.”

Growing wine keeps you busy. We now have just about 44,000 fruiting vines that include Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Viognier. There are a few Gewürztraminer vines too, but don’t tell anybody. It’s a secret. And each vine has about 16 shoots we need to tuck into those wires. So some simple farming math leads us to about 704,000 shoots to tuck by hand. And we make three passes because we have 3 sets of wires. And we use about 5 clips per vine to hold everything in place. A quick check of the abacus yields 2.1 million “touches.” Spread that out over 6 weeks and it’s not so bad.

Good separation in the canopy helps keep our fruit healthy to hang through the fall weather and develop those signature ARE aromas and flavors in our wines. The result is exemplified in this physical implementation:

That enables this mental construct:

And now it’s time for the numbers! Numbers are what you use when conveying something that is more than “hardly any” but not quite as much as a country mile. Numbers add a sense of comfort in knowing that you have defined something right down to the gnat’s ass. For example, everyone knows the 15^th digit of PI is 9, but 3.14 will most likely get you where you need to be. If the opportunity ever presents itself, ask the folks at Intel about the Pentium chip and “rounding error.”

Q:  How many Pentium designers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A:  1.99904274017, but that's close enough for non-technical people.

We have accumulated 53.6 degree days for the first 30 days of the growing season beginning on day 91 (April 1), 2015. The first half of April did not record any degree days, and therefore, all degree days were recorded in the second half of the month. This is another example of the “mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive” principle.

The high temperature for April was a balmy, if not scorching, 80.1 degrees on April 20, at 4:40 in the afternoon. In farming parlance, this is known as beer’thirty. The morning of April 29 hovered right at 34.2 degrees from 5:40 until 6:40. It was a fine time for a second cup of coffee and a warm slice of 3.14159265358979.

And it rained, and it hailed, and there was morning dew in the grass. We collected, and then returned to the soil, 0.78 inches of rain for the second half of April, bringing the farming total to 2.68 inches for the month. And if you multiply 2.68 inches of rain over the acres we farm, you will see that we received 2,462,628.85 gallons of water, depending on your processor.

To give this some perspective, 2.68 inches of rain here on the farm is the equivalent of about a million cases of wine. See if you can implement your own physical interpretation of that mental construct. We aren’t psychic, but we do see a corkscrew in your future – it is very close by.

Until we FLOG again, for most assuredly we will, winegrowers we remain.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate: 2015 Spring Cellar Report

Hello and Welcome,

This is the 2015 Spring Cellar Report from Amalie Robert Estate in Dallas, Oregon.

We have just been “Advocated.” And as it is the case with most things, this is not inherently good or bad. We have been Advocated before, and it was pretty good. In fact, we liked it so much we would like to share it with you here:

"...Dallas growers Dena Drews and Ernie Pink...showed me this July three of their reserve bottlings and thereby altered my perception of their endeavors. Since these are produced in only one- or two-barrel quantities, they offer an extreme instance of a phenomenon encountered at numerous Willamette addresses, whose really exciting releases are extremely limited. But they also testify, importantly, to what is possible; and what’s possible from this site in these hands revealed itself to be extraordinary!"

That was last time. And it brought with it a 94 point review for our 2007 The Reserve Pinot Noir. It’s worth mentioning that the 2007 vintage is rated as 84T in the eRobertParker Vintage Chart. It is also worth mentioning that 94 was the top score awarded for the vintage.

Here is this time with a different reviewer: “…Amalie's Cuvée Pinot Noir 2010 showed some lovely varietal expression that you might well mistake for a good Pommard. Their Syrah Satisfaction 2011 lived up to its name during my tasting that did not fully convince me that the variety has a home in Oregon, while their Heirloom Cameo Chardonnay 2011 was one of those "minimal" varietals that you have a sneaky suspicion will age with ease. I think there is better to come as those vines increase in age and knowledge deepens, but broadly speaking this was a good show.”

As most of the wine consuming inhabitants of this planet know, The Wine Advocate is an institution. It was founded by a dedicated man with passion and unquestionable morals. For several years, he alone tasted and reviewed wines accepting no advertising revenue whatsoever. There could never be any suggestion that his reviews were anything other than his objective opinion. Whether you agreed with his opinions or not, they were as true to him as the day is long.

Things change. Today the Wine Advocate (under different management/ownership) has more than a single voice and a few of those voices have recently changed. Some of the world’s wine regions have found themselves with different wine reviewers. Oregon is one of them, and now shares a reviewer with Bordeaux. At this juncture it is important to remember the words of Dr. Kaufman, “Wait! I’m just a professional doing a job.”

Tomorrow never dies and this institution will survive. Whether you preferred Connery to Craig, or Kirk to Picard, there will always be a familiar place for “007” and the Captain ofthe Enterprise. And that is why there are all kinds of wine reviewers for all kinds of wine consumers.

Vintages change. In fact the only constant in the wine world seems to be change. Take climate change for example. Is that inherently good or bad? And the ‘tator, same question. And if you are not reading the “Hosemaster of Wine” from time to time, you are taking this wine thing a little too seriously. Honestly, you have to accept the fact that some people have a palate for wine like Van Gogh had an ear for music.

There will eventually come a day when we will no longer personally farm our 38 lineal miles worth of vines. We will then be looking for someone who shares our values and that can carry on the stewardship of our land. As we look toward that eventual change we can, in some respects, see what Mr. Parker had been searching for. Change is hard.

Enough of the glib remarks, let’s get to the cellar!

When the barrels are first filled they hold the promise of the vintage. Those young wines are the vines’ response to the ever changing climate and the actions we took in growing them. They are inherently good.

While it is hard to see, there is a tremendous amount of work happening below grade. Our barrel room is ensconced in about 1,200 tons of concrete. Here our wines will mature in barrel until Dena or Ernie start attributing them to certain blends.

Over time the barrels allow a small amount of air to pass through the staves and reach the wine. This “micro oxidation” will have the effect of slowly maturing our whole cluster fermented stem tannins and integrating the aromas, flavors and textures. New oak barrels will also impart a flavor into the wine. Someone once called new oak barrels “catnip for humans” and we can understand that. New wood is inherently good, and expensive.

However some of our most incredible experiences have been with wines from barrels that have long lost their expression. The barrel becomes a transparent vessel that allows the wine to be the focal point. In that wine, at that moment, you experience the purest expression of the vintage.

Blending is our final act of wine growing. After that, it is just filling bottles and stuffing corks in them. Yeah, put a cork in it… Somebody’s got to do it. And since we do that work in house, Dena ends up with that chore.

As we begin to taste our Pinot Noirs from barrel, we are cognizant of David Lett’s words from so many years ago “…it should be approached like a beautiful woman – with respect, some knowledge, and great hopes.” This year we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of David and Diana Lett’s Pinot Noir planting in the Willamette Valley. Thank you.

It is remarkable how each barrel of wine can be so similar and yet have nuances all its own – no two are ever the same (somewhat like corks, but we will get to that soon enough.) Some aromas and flavors tease at the edge of your perception. They exist only for a moment and then are available to you only as a memory. And they seem to be for you and you alone. Some people, like Dena, can taste in color. Wine is a uniquely personal experience.

Once this discovery phase has been completed, we each locate our individual favorite barrels of wine. Once we find them we mark the barrel head with chalk and exclaim “Mine!” This is also inherently good.

The wonderment ends and the puzzlement begins when we try blending our favorite barrels together. You know instantly when something has gone awry. What happened to the magic? That finish is all wrong! Did you pull the right barrel? It becomes trial and error, barrel by barrel.

But when it is good, it is soooooo really good. And while we are clearly experiencing our own individual nuances, we know how good it is for the other. Yeah, let’s do that again… right now! This is when you experience the transformation of a recreational beverage into a procreational one.

Then the strangest thing happens – Bottle Shock. Right after bottling the wine seems to go dormant. There is no aroma or flavor and it is all a juxtaposed mess. It seems coming out of a 225 liter barrel, being mixed up with a bunch of other wine and then gravity filled into a 750 milliliter bottle and topped off with a bit of tree bark can put a hitch in your get along.

But after a few months time the magic reemerges and the process of bottle maturation can begin. While the experience of blending is committed to memory, bottle maturation is a whole new journey. The micro oxidation that occurred in the barrel is now occurring through the cork, but (hopefully) at a much slower rate. This bottle maturation process lasts years and can transform a brash young wine into a suave and refined experience. This is not unlike the aging of some men.

That is if you are using a bit of tree bark that will let in an undisclosed amount of air to help soften and mature the wine. Cans, synthetics and screw-offs are another matter and are left as an exercise for the reader.

There are plenty of things to know, and if you want to know most of them you can just use Google. In fact you can Google people, like Parker. And you can be Googled, just like you can be Advocated. Been there, had that done to us.

But one thing you cannot know is how much air is going to go through that cork to meet up with the wine. But you can know the reason that you cannot know. The reason you cannot know how much air is going to go through that cork to meet up with the wine is that the cork is a unique, one-off piece of tree bark. Until you test it “in situ” you can never know. And once it is tested, it cannot be used again. This is called DPA or Destructive Physical Analysis. Sadly, and to the detriment of the bottom line, DPA is also used to diagnose farm equipment problems. Google it if you like.

This is one reason why cans, synthetics and screw-offs are so popular (low cost is another.) You can know how much air is going to meet up with the wine. Cans seem like a no brainer, literally. There is no air getting to the wine. Synthetics and screw-offs, however pose a different challenge.

It is like posing a simple arithmetic question to an attorney and instead of getting a number, you get this response instead, “Well, what number would you like it to be?” Since we are humans, we have developed these closures in such a manner that allows some air to pass through them and interact with the wine. The question is, “How much should that be?”

How much air do you want to pass through to the wine and over what amount of time? Clearly the right answer is, “Just the right amount until I open it.” That is not one of the available options when you are considering these closures. And as a consumer who was not privy to that decision, we are back to the same quandary, “How can you know?”

So, in response to the timeless question of “When is the perfect time to open this wine?” the correct answer is “Just before you want to drink it.” It’s a crap shoot. You can never really know for sure. But you can make a reasonably educated guess.

The primary purpose of bottle maturation for Amalie Robert Estate Pinot Noir and Syrah is the refinement of stem tannins, integration of textures, and the development of bottle bouquet. It’s those whole clusters we use during fermentation that impart astringent tannin in our young wines. After 18 to 24 mounts of micro oxidation in barrel, the tannins have softened enough to go to bottle without the use of fining agents*. Then over the next 3 to 5 years the micro oxidation through the cork slowly (or not so much) allows the maturation process to continue in the bottle softening the tannins and building bouquet.

*Fining agents are “things” added to a wine to modify its aroma, flavor or texture. Fining agents can, and have included egg whites, fish bladders, and ox blood. You can read moreabout that here.

Young wines have what is considered “primary fruit” characters, aka cherry/berry. These are inherently good. Most wine consumers are familiar with these flavors as we are human and are prone to consume wine just about as soon as we acquire it. This is yet another reason we do not use cans or screw-offs, nor do we include straws with your purchase.

But sometimes things do not go according to plan. Sometimes we find a bottle that has been “squired away” in a cool space under the stairs for a few years. Hmmm, what’s this? Could it also be inherently good? Before that bottle makes it into the recycling bin, try this.

Set it upright on the kitchen counter, out of the sun, for a couple of days to let any sediment find its way to the bottom of the bottle. Select the appropriate stemware and a decanter and wash them with non-chlorinated water. You can use bottled water if you wish. Carefully remove the cork and in one gentle but deliberate motion pour the wine slowly down the side of the decanter. Do not splash the wine. Stop pouring when you see sediment enter the neck of the decanter. Now pour the wine gently into the stemware, give it a little swirl and bring it up to your nose. This is best done along with an approved taster. Call it a “replicated trial” if you will.

If things go according to plan, you are about to experience the 3 halves of Pinot Noir. The first half is when you smell the bouquet. It should be intriguing with “secondary aromas” that scintillate and are not easy to describe, yet are wonderfully expressive. As the wine explores your palate, you are experiencing the second half of Pinot Noir. The wine should be lithe and elegant yet restrained by refined tannins and firm acidity. It should give you pleasure. When you finally swallow the wine, the third half of Pinot Noir emerges. The remnant flavors and textures linger to give the wine staying power.

The third half of Pinot Noir, that lingering finish, is what bottle matured stem tannins contribute to the Amalie Robert Estate Pinot Noir experience. And with that precious little bit of deepened knowledge, we hope you have enjoyed this FLOG. 

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2015 Mid-April

Hello and Welcome,

This is the Mid-April Climate Update from Amalie Robert Estate in Dallas, Oregon.

The 2015 vintage is off to an early start. The weather here in the Willamette Valley has been unseasonably warm and dry. We experienced bud break early this year - March 24^th, Julian calendar day 83. But now that the buds are showing along the cane, it has turned seasonably cool and wet – Dog Nose weather. And there was a spot of hail, thrice.

No matter, as farmers we opportunistically take advantage of whatever weather breaks we can get, especially around harvest. This year that means Ernie was able to start opening up the vineyard floor with the chisel plow a little early. This task is part of our vine nutrition program where we plant cover crops to feed our vines, not chemical fertilizers. Note: this is Ernie’s view from the tractor seat for the remainder of the growing season…

The next pass is with the rototiller to incorporate all the cover crop that was drilled in last fall. Ernie is not great at forecasting the weather, but he has forecasted the chance of rototiller repairs this year at about 85%. The rototiller also makes a nice seed bed for the new cover crop.

Then he calls up Leonard for a truckload of Buckwheat and Common Vetch, mounts the drill and plants the spring cover crop blend. Add a shower or two in the last half of April; yeah that’s a sure thing, and Voila!, we have fertilizer for the fall feeding of our vines.

Meanwhile all of last years’ canes have been pulled out of the trellis, placed in the permanent grassed rows and flail mowed. This mixing of “greens and browns” will also return nutrients to the soil, which is the plants’ stomach. The annual “Rites of Spring” trellis repairs have also been completed.

If you like Pinot, and you want to go on a picnic, why not join us at the IPNiC? The International Pinot Noir Celebration is turning 29 this year, just for the first time though, and we were invited! And 29 was a fun year (what we can remember,) we have seen the pictures. Then just like that, BAM, 39! We knew better, but still didn’t care.

The IPNC brings together “70 of the worlds top Pinot Noir wineries” for a 3 day celebration of the heartbreak grape – Pinot Noir. You can view the list of this year’s wineries here: Featured Wineries. And they expect you to pay attention and learn something.

As you can see, this truly is an international event. Pinot Noir, more so than any other grape, uniquely expresses where it was grown. This year’s crop of wineries are from as close by as Dallas, Oregon, from as far away as Beaune in the heart of Burgundy, and Sam Neill will be joining us from NewZealand.

If people from New Zealand are called New Zealanders, would you call someone from Beaune a Beauner? Attend IPNC this year and you can find out!

You know what happens next, it’s numbers time!

We start tracking the growing season, officially, on April Fools Day every year. That should tell you something about farming and numbers. It is also Julian calendar day 91, unless it is a leap year and then the first day of the growing season is 92. Those farming numbers…

However, that is the agreed upon parameter in the northern hemisphere, so we go with it. Unofficially, we keep any eye on the number of “nice days” during February and March. And this year is was really nice in February and March, technically speaking.

But now that everything (literally) is being recorded and on the record (except some unnamed E-mails,) April has shown us a bit of a cold shoulder. What a tease… We have managed to see a high of 66.8 degrees on April 9^th at just about 4 pm. Then on April 15^th, if not a frosty enough day in its own right, we plunged down to 29.9 degrees. We were below freezing for about 6 hours beginning at 1:00 am. We will be on the lookout for some frost damage. Alas, we will not record any degree days for the first half of April.

But we will log the rainfall! We have received 16.68 inches of rain for the pre-measurement period of January – March. This is good in that Amalie Robert Estate is dry farmed and we like to see the soil fully charged as we move into the growing season. The first half of April has brought us 1.90 inches of rain.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: 2015 Bud Break

Hello and Welcome,

In response to the wonderful spring like weather during February and March, the vines have decided it is time to get started. Bud Break at Amalie Robert Estate occurred on March 24, 2015. This is day 83 of the Julian calendar. And while it is too soon to say for sure, we could be harvesting around day 273 (September 30th.) That gives us 190 days to get from bud break...

... to harvest.

Bud Break is always a welcome sight. The vines lost their leaves last October and have been dormant all winter. Now, we see the first signs of what undoubtedly will be the vintage of the year! And the vines are in good company. Here are a few other plants that are contributing to Mother Nature’s spring color palette…

   

… and the odd fungus. 

 Bud Break also serves as the reminder to feed the vines. For the next month or so, Ernie will make the yearly spring passes to till in last fall’s cover crop and drill in the spring cover crop. Till & Drill.

Just so you know, “cover crop” is farmer speak for plants that contribute nutrients to the soil. And the soil is the vine’s stomach. By planting cover crops twice a year, we can provide nutrients to our vines organically without the use of chemical fertilizers. Or, to put it more in human terms: “No Coffee – No Workee!”

The next major event will be when the vines flower and (hopefully) set fruit. This is a very important event as it gives us a pretty good idea of when we will be hand harvesting our 2015 vintage. For Pinot Noir in particular, we can add 105 days from flowering to harvest. Then the vines go dormant again, and we get busy in the winery.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate: Culinary Inclinations from the Kitchen at Amalie Robert Estate

Culinary Inclinations from the Kitchen

at Amalie Robert Estate

Pre-Spring 2015

Aka “How to Eat Like a Winemaker”

Welcome to “Pre-Spring” from the Kitchen at Amalie Robert Estate!

Waiting for Spring in the Pacific Northwest is a time for contemplation and planning. The sun is seen from time to time punctuating the rain and on very special occasions lighting up the Willamette Valley with the most impressive of rainbows. The vineyard is sleeping now while it is being meticulously groomed for the upcoming growing season - sure to be the vintage of the year, how can it not? Blending and bottling continue apace in the winery, always more to do, and hoping the white wines complete their persnickety fermentations.

In December we noticed the evening hours approach earlier and more boldly in the late afternoons. The primal urges of hunger and thirst awaken from their midday slumber. Foragers and hunters unite in their common struggle to satiate a never ending desire adjoined with a glass of poetry to nourish their body and soul.

The theme for these first few months of the budding New Year is comfort food. Aromas that fill the kitchen with memories of meals long past that seemed to take all day to prepare. Braised meats, cassoulet, lasagna and poultry on a spit are the makings of legendary culinary experiences. There were no microwaves. There was a wood burning cook stove and wood from a fallen cherry tree.

First Course: The lack of planning is the key to flexibility

We like to begin with a properly chilled glass of 2012 Her Silhouette Chardonnay or Our Muse Viognier. If we have been in the winery all day, this makes our fingers match the sensation in our toes – that of being cold and wet. However, not too cold, a stainless steel fermented wine still needs to be warm enough to lure you to her seductive charms while being cold enough to send a shiver of cleansing acidity up your backside. You expend a lot more than a little effort keeping this contained to your right brain; all the while your left brain is trying to figure out the next course…

Oysters are a great place to start and we like the firmness of the bivalves this time of year. Depending on how your domestic relationship has evolved, you may find that opening oysters together is a very relaxing way to share the day’s triumphs, despite their level of completion. Or, you may find that you are the submissive in the relationship. Green Tabasco can help.

Another seasonally delectable gift from the Pacific Ocean this time of year is Dungeness crab. We like to call cracking and eating Dungeness crab more of a conversational course than a real food course. We always seem to spend a good deal of time on the cracking and very little time on the eating. The wine consumption adjusts accordingly.

Trading up to the BFC. The BFC is our colloquial term for the Heirloom Cameo - Barrel Fermented Chardonnay. As you can plainly see, the BFC does not stand for Big Farming Chardonnay, thank you very much. The Heirloom Cameo offers more intrigue and texture to the Chardonnay experience, surpassing the binary reptilian brain and permeating the limbic system. The pinnacle of this style has often been the white wines of Burgundy based upon the same Chardonnay grape.

Perhaps it is the weekend, as defined by your attitude and not some silly manmade construct of a calendar, and you have the luxury of time to burn. Then a preparation of Dungeness crab cakes sautéed in clarified butter served atop a bed of winter greens or a warm brioche may satiate. The richness of this dish pairs beautifully with the layered texture and cleansing acidity of the 2012 Heirloom Cameo Chardonnay.

For those more adventurous, and living somewhere other than vinetopia, we would also recommend Burgundy snails sautéed in garlic, parsley and butter. Once you have experienced this dish properly prepared and served with a glass of slightly chilled Heirloom Cameo, it is hard to believe that snails were not invented singularly for this purpose.

Second Course: Putting the duck confit into your green leafiness

Weeds. The green leafy plants that help everything go ‘round and come out properly. While they can also be served toward the end of the meal, we find that they lose the battle to the cheese course and are sadly left wanting.

So buck up and get out the duck confit and 2013 Pinot Meunier! Duck confit is widely available at better meat purveyors and online. If you are interested in making your own you certainly can. But just remember that you don’t need to go build your own solar array just because you want some light in your home, but you could. And while we are all about growing your own, please be aware that it takes a while to go from hatching your own duckling to…

If this is a “dress to impress” affair, we highly recommend slowly warming the duck confit for at least an hour so that the entire room has the rich aroma hanging heavy as your guests arrive. You will have them at “Can I take your coat?”

Start with a bowl of fresh green leafiness. Consider adding a little fresh dill frond or pea tendrils (Ernie planted winter peas for cover crop last fall, and we have about 20 acres worth of pea tendrils to source from.) Toss around some toasted hazelnuts and dried cherries, adorn with crumbles of blue cheese or goat cheese, drizzle with your favorite balsamic vinaigrette and top with warm shredded duck confit. Keep in mind people eat with their eyes, another contribution from the reptilian brain, so a few extra minutes on plating can really pay dividends.

It is entirely permissible, and often part of a strict quality control program to sample the Pinot Meunier with the duck confit prior to plating. It is important to factor this into your planning, as you do not want to under serve the duck confit due to excessive quality control sampling. Ditto the Pinot Meunier.

Variations on a theme here include smoked or poached salmon, braised rabbit or thinly sliced venison loin. Be prepared to have your guests compliment you on the lovely green garnish at the bottom of their bowls. Don’t take it personally; it’s the reptilian brain talking.

Third Course: “Pinot Noir is the most exciting wine to pair with food.” – Ernie Pink

While we don’t often quote ourselves, we do find that it adds complexity to the conversation. The reason Pinot Noir can excel at so many culinary challenges is its natural proclivity for acid. Acidity is that cleansing experience that enlivens and invigorates the palate. Acidity cuts through the bravado of rich dishes to reveal balanced flavors and an exponential culmination of the food and wine experience. It stimulates and we salivate, and who couldn’t use more of that, Pavlov?

As our theme this time is comfort food, we are going to go with a cassoulet of braised rabbit. To be sure there is no confusion as to where our journey is headed, let’s define cassoulet as a slow cooked dish of braised, often fatty or tough cuts of meat, or poultry with white beans and sausages steeped in wine.

Our choice of naturally lean rabbit can easily be replaced by lamb shanks, duck legs, or pork shoulder. All are very good choices and pair well with Pinot Noir. However, Ernie’s annual physical is in January, so he likes to clean up the pipes before he sees the doc.

Contact your purveyor of fine meats well in advance to secure a rabbit. You can raise your own, but before doing so please see the reference to ducklings above. Rabbit is a very lean meat that has virtually no fat. If you have ever flown into Charles de Gaulle airport during the daylight hours, those little brown fur balls on the tarmac are rabbits. While most rabbits have a very keen sense of hearing, those do not.

The first task will be to braise the rabbit in a large, well oiled skillet. To do this we recommend separating the rabbit into the following pieces: 2 front quarters (what little fat that is on a rabbit is located here); the saddle; 2 hind quarters. This can easily be accomplished by a competent butcher. If you plan to handle this task in the future, you may want to ask the butcher to wait until you arrive before the dismemberment begins.

If this is to be a DIY, you will most likely need a large, sturdy cutting board, a sharp meat cleaver, towels and a hammer. A first aid kit and an assistant with a driver’s license and car would also be prudent.

Preheat your horno (Spanish for oven) to about 350 and set a large baking dish inside to come up to temperature. Open the Pinot Noir and apply the obligatory quality control procedures. Add the rabbit carefully to your preheated and oiled skillet. Season with fracked (fresh cracked) pepper, thyme and a little powdered ginger. These pieces will not take long to develop a nice patina. Your mission is to seal the meat to retain its juices for the next phase of cooking. Turn repeatedly to sear without deep heat penetration, which will come later.

Carefully remove the preheated baking dish, add the rabbit pieces and return it to the horno. Take a moment to compliment yourself on the beautiful patina with a sip of Pinot Noir.  In the still warm skillet, add equal parts chopped orange bell pepper, sweet yellow onion, julienned carrots (rabbits just love carrots,) a couple minced cloves of garlic, a few small foraged morels and a very little bit of finely chopped Anaheim pepper. Thank your submissive sous chef for the hard work with a glass of Amalie’s Cuvée Pinot Noir, vintage of your choice, but to really make a statement pour the 2008. Note: if you are not intending to see your physician you may consider adding some sausage to the dish at this juncture.

Stir these vegetables occasionally until softened and beginning to brown. Add one to two cups of your favorite white beans. Stir occasionally over medium heat and add about a cup of that left over white wine that is still in the refrigerator from last year. Testing for quality is a must do.

At this point you will have about ten minutes to either a) clean up the kitchen or b) enjoy a glass of that wildly delicious 2008 Amalie’s Cuvée Pinot Noir with your submissive sous chef who has been cleaning up the kitchen as you have been plowing straight through. Clearly, the 2008 was the right call.

When the ten minute timer escorts you back to reality, remove the braised rabbit from your horno and add the skillet mixture. Cover with a glass lid or wrap loosely with foil and return to your horno. Spend about 30 to 45 quality minutes with your submissive sous chef. At the time of your choosing, secure a bottle of 2009 Estate Selection Pinot Noir for the main event and apply the obligatory quality control procedures.

Before plating, you may add any of the following to the bottom of the service dishes: creamed polenta with garlic, smashed skin on red potatoes with thyme and rosemary, parsnip and turnip hash with a wee little bit of rabbit sausage. Garnish with shaved Manchego cheese and chopped cilantro or Italian parsley.

Fourth Course: Something for Her

Sometimes you just know when it’s right. Sometimes you are not sure, but never let on. Other times you haven’t a clue, but you want to find out what will happen. While this may describe a lot of things, like nuclear physics, it also describes the Syrah program at Amalie Robert Estate.

Long story short is that Ernie wanted to satiate his desire for cool climate Côte Rôtie style Syrah on his vineyard site that had never before grown Syrah. “It’s a doddle,” he would say, knowingly. Well, 2006 brought with it our gravity flow winery and the first ever harvest of Ernie’s Syrah. We were about to find out, knowingly.

That first year turned out a fine barrel of wine. Next up was that horrible, nasty 2007 vintage that earned us the title of “Best Domestic Syrah of the Year” from Wine & Spirits Magazine. Some doddle indeed. As the vines age and respond to the vagaries of each passing vintage, Dena sometimes wonders how much was really at risk, how much was known and just how much was “a doddle.” She also knows that in farming, it is often better to be lucky than good.

What she doesn’t wonder about is what pairs well with our 2011 Satisfaction Syrah. The hands down dish of the winter months is roast rack of lamb with creamy Brussels sprouts and julienned parsnips. While the preparation is fairly straightforward there are variations on a theme, as you might expect…

The most functional preparation involves a Frenched rack of lamb with all the excess fat removed. Season with fracked pepper, cumin, thyme, rosemary, smoked paprika, then convection roast at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, turning twice. Let stand for at least 5 minutes, slice between each bone and serve “bones up.”

The next preparation is mustard encrusted and a bit more involved, but allows for some creative dissidence. Begin with a Frenched lamb rack as alluded to above. Mix up a medium consistency paste based on Dijon mustard by adding fracked black pepper, sesame oil, dried thyme, ginger and cumin. Whip this into a frenzy and spread lengthwise on the loin using a small fork leaving the ridges in place. Season with black sesame seeds and sprinkle with smoked paprika.

Convection roast at 350 degrees for about 30 to 35 minutes without turning. Allow to stand for at least 10 minutes to cool. The crust will retain much more of the meat’s natural juices and prevent it from cooling quickly.

Note: You may use any combination of ingredients in the mustard preparation, including none at all. You are only limited in the ingredients you use by the natural conflict that occurs between the left brain, right brain and the time allotted by our timeless companion, the reptilian brain.

For all you daredevils out there we conclude with a Beef Wellington preparation substituting lamb loin, or what we call “Lamb Wellies.” You will need two lamb loins removed from the bones and tied together. This will closely resemble a beef loin to which Beef Wellington is based. Do not over cook. You will want to be sure the music is turned way down low when you slice these open diagonally so that you may fully appreciate the “ooh’s and aah’s.” I say, “Well done old man, well done!”

Note: If lamb is not readily available, beef, buffalo, elk or venison will due in a pinch. White Pekin duck breast is an equally challenging and appreciated preparation “à la Wellies.”

Fifth Course: The Cheese Board and Pabuk’s Gift

This is the part of the program where you are craving a little something sweet or sticky or both. The wonderful world of cheese is one where you can find all manor of flavors, textures and more to the point, very unique and pungent aromas. “Époisses de Bourgogne” or Époisses is rumored to be Napolean’s favorite cheese. It is also rumored to be banned from being carried on all forms of public transportation in France.  It’s that “wonderful.”

Your selection may include local or imported cheeses. We recommend your tour of the cheese world include cow, goat and sheep’s milk cheeses in textures from creamy to firm concluding with an exciting streak of blue. If in doubt, ask the “fromagier” to recommend and then try a sample.

Often times our cheese board will also include exciting little accoutrements such as toasted Willamette Valley hazelnuts, local organic honey, quince paste and thanks to some creative bakers, gluten free breads.

Red wines typically can pair with a wide variety of cheeses, white wines seem a bit more specific, and sweet wines seem to have a strong desire for blue cheeses in particular. But with the exception of Cool Whip and pineapple, few of these pairings can be applied topically and removed orally. It is in this realm of wine that Pabuk’s Gift reigns supreme.

Pabuk’s Gift is our naturally botritized Chardonnay. A gift left behind from Typhoon Pabuk that rained on Oregon’s harvest parade in 2013. Made in the Trockenbeerenauslese style, this wine is extremely concentrated and unctuous. In addition to some wonderful blue cheeses, Crème Brûlée and New York style cheesecake are great pairings - and easily applied.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate: Happy Holidays!

As the season turns to friends and family, we would like to extend to you our warmest wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a fruitful New Year. We also welcome new friends to the Amalie Robert Estate community and the "A-List."

The 5th of the month and the repeal of Prohibition! 

The 5th of the month has more significance than Ernie was previously aware. A thirst for knowledge and a little research has greatly expanded his appreciation for the 5^th of the month.

January through March is a write-off. We are just too busy working to be bothered. However for some, the 5^th of the month is payday.
 

April 5^th is a day we wake up and realize the government is about to get more of our money than ever before. However, we owe ourselves about $18.0 trillion (up from about 17.2 trillion last year), that's just about $56,266 (up from about $54,250 last year) per person living in the United States, and $153,455 per taxpayer. Hmmm, back to work. You can check our progress from time to time right here. 

As you well know, the holiday Cinco De Mayo is a celebration on the 5th day of the 5th month. The purpose of which is to celebrate the victory by the Mexican Army over the French Army in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Of course, and as always, there is more to the story. Here is a link with more details.

We transition right to June 5^th. This date is very significant to Ernie, as it is Dena’s birthday! As many of you know, Dena’s middle name is Amalie and is the palate defining Amalie’s Cuvée.

July 5^th is the day we would have declared our Independence, however as Americans, we just couldn’t wait. Somewhat like opening a gift, or maybe two, on Christmas Eve.

August 4^th, 2011, again we couldn’t wait, is the first time the US debt exceeded 100% of our Gross Domestic Product - GDP (Gosh Darn Politicians.)

However, August 5^th brings little pink berries to our Pinot Noir vines. Ernie likes this, a lot!

September 5^th is significant to all children and parents. It usually is about the time the children are going back to school.

October 5^th usually finds us in the middle of harvest. Due to the protracted nature of harvesting and fermenting Pinot Noir, Ernie has dubbed the 10^th and 11^th months “Octo-vember.”

On December 5^th we find ourselves at the end of the calendar. 2014 marks the 81st year of the repeal of the social experiment known as Prohibition.

On January 16th, 1919, the United States Congress passed the Volstead Act. The Volstead Act led to the 18^th amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This marked the beginning of Prohibition. We wonder what Congress’s approval rating was that year.

This is an excerpt of section 1 of the 18^th amendment:

“…the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.”

During the following 13 years, the people of the United States bore witness to the effects of Prohibition. Further, they were able to compare the politicians’ promises and pontifications to the experiences in their daily lives - aka reality.

It was in 1929 that a curious little product was invented and granted trademark protection. Ernie may be deviating from his factual discourse here, but perhaps this product was used in reference to the politicians of the day who could not tell the difference between a good idea and Prohibition. Sometimes it is hard to tell fact from fiction, sometimes not. The product was a shoe wax called Shinola.

Winegrowers of the time were a hearty breed, they had to be. The manufacture, distribution and sale (including export offshore) of alcohol was illegal. If your livelihood depended on growing some 65 tons of grapes and selling the fermented juice, you were out of business (and so was your labor force), or so the politicians thought.

Now, let us introduce the law of Supply and Demand (Note: Much like gravity this is a law not subject to political pressure.) Despite a small minority trying to legislate morality on the entire citizenry, the American public sought to exercise their rights as citizens living in a free country. After all, that’s why they were here.

It turns out that many people had unexplained illnesses during those 13 years. In visiting their family physicians, it seemed the most cost effective treatment was the prescription of alcohol, wine in most cases, for medicinal purposes. Thankfully, there was not a government run healthcare system at the time to prevent such a low cost and effective treatment. It would have been illegal!

Even today, the debate continues over the health benefits of alcohol, red wine in particular and Pinot Noir specifically, for the high content of Resveratrol. If only the ongoing healthcare debates and litigation were this simple. And thanks to Mr. Gruber, we have a little more information to reflect upon. You can learn more about Resveratrol here.

We now come to the presidential election of 1932. FDR, as he was known, achieved many things. The most wide sweeping change affected nearly everyone in the United States and for generations to come, including several of our foreign trading partners. Recall, the importation of Canadian, Irish and Scotch whisky was also illegal. As an aside, Ernie’s time in Ireland taught him that the Scot’s never acknowledged Prohibition and kept the pipeline open.

On December 5^th, 1933, the 21^st amendment was ratified by the United States Congress. In what may be the most effective and efficient legislation known to this great country, here is Section 1 in its entirety:

“Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”

As you enjoy the holiday season, please take a moment to reflect on your constitutional right to keep and bear spirits, especially Pinot Noir!

Please enjoy our wines with friends, food and in moderation.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie