Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2013 May

Hello and Welcome,

This is the climate update for the month of May 2013.

If anything describes the trials and tribulations of growing Pinot Noir it was the month of May. We enjoyed the most amazingly stunning April where we were burnin’ diesel overtime to harness explosive vine growth and condition the vineyard floor for our Spring Cover crop. Ernie got the seeds drilled in and set about the arduous task of waiting for rain, and wait he did. In case you have not met Ernie, this is something he is not very good at.

He just needed a tenth to a quarter inch of precipitation to achieve that magical event called germination. But instead it was wall to wall sunshine and dry for the first half of the month. For everyone who was visiting from somewhere other than here, don’t be fooled. You were simply caught up in a cruel hoax perpetrated on the farming community at large.

To wit: We just burned through our harvest weather. You see, every year we get about the same amount of wind, sun and rain. We like to see rain early in the season, not during harvest, but the thing is we never know just when we are going to get what. It kinda throws a spanner in the works, but hey that’s farmin’.

That is until the evening of the 12^th. Ernie had been waiting for nearly 3 weeks for a spot of rain. He had just spent “several” quality hours of his life getting the vineyard floor ready to accept 1,500 pounds of cover crop seeds. You may be interested to learn that it takes about 1,500 seeds of buckwheat to weigh a pound, and we like about 50 pounds to the seeded acre. So that would be 1,500 seeds x 50 pounds per acre x 15 seeded acres gives us a whole lotta buckwheat!

The evening of the 12^th provided the proverbial shot across the bow with a brief drizzle. Slug and fungus weather is what that’s called. The remainder of the month delivered the goods, and we had germination! Those last 2 weeks also tallied up the second wettest month of the year at a whopping 2.78 inches. The full month of March was only 2.87 inches.

Looking at the growing season to date, this was a pretty fortuitous event. We have had a very dry spring and that does not bode well for the dry farmed vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate. The warm stretch in April and early May invigorated the grass as well as the vines. Grass, while it doesn’t seem to be doing much, is a voracious consumer of water. The taller it grows, the more rapidly it depletes the available soil moisture. In some parts of the vineyard, grass is a tool we use to eliminate excess soil moisture. In some parts of the country, grass is grown for other purposes.

But here is the thing, available soil moisture leading up to harvest has a very significant impact on wine quality. In the final analysis, a berry is composed of seeds, skin, pulp and water. The most significant contributor to berry weight, and yield expressed as tons per acre, is water. In a perfect year, there is just enough available soil moisture to satisfy the demand from the leaves and allow the vine to partition carbohydrates (send reserves to the roots) as it prepares for the dormant season. This is commonly referred to as “making the vine struggle” to ripen the fruit. But be aware, the leaves can exert a very strong hydraulic pull from the roots to extract the water they need from the soil.

However, you cannot get a refund from a used equipment dealer, so if there is too little available soil moisture the vine dips into the berries for the water it needs. This condition results in a desiccated berry (raisin) with the potential for overdeveloped skin phenolics (bitterness) and aggressive and unresolved tannins. Combined with concentrated sugars, this could lead to the unfortunate crescendo of over extracted and high alcohol port style wines whose best meal pairing may well be with leftovers in the kitchen sink. Or perhaps, the latest wine flash site d’jour.

Fortunately, we had a bit of rain in May.

Along with the cover crop drama, which germinated into a fine stand of young succulent plants, the first set of catch wires are up and clipped into place. The only exception is the rule of block 12. The Viognier shoot growth is once again lagging behind. Ernie set a trap, or is doing an experiment – yeah that’s it, for block 12 this year. Watch this space in the coming months, and the Harvest AAR (After Action Report) for how things work out.

Alas, the part you have all been waiting for, the numbers. And here they are: 8675309

However, if you were a Pinot Noir vine grafted onto, let’s say 44-53M rootstock, May would have seemed more like this:

The month of May accumulated 229.7 degree days, had a high of 84.6 and a low of 35.8 with 2.78 inches of rain. This brings the 2013 growing season up to 281.4 degree days from April 1 through May 31. Rainfall for the growing season is now up to 5.00 inches.

As we head into what appears to be a vey nice summer, please remember olive oil, sea salt and fresh cracked (fracked?) pepper is not a substitute for sunscreen. Be sure to “get some onya!”

Here is what we had to say last year:

The month of May accumulated 196.32 degree days, had a high of 88.0 and a low of 31.7 with 2.92 inches of rain. This brings the 2012 growing season up to a very respectable 236.08 degree days from April 1 through May 31. We are significantly warmer than 2011’s heat accumulation of 37.61 degree days by nearly a factor of 10! Rainfall for the growing season is 6.04 inches, which is less than the 2011 ark building rains of 7.71 inches.

Clearly, we are seeing warmer and drier growing conditions than we have experienced in the last couple of vintages. But are the differences really farmin’ significant?

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2013 April

Hello and Welcome,

This is the Climate Update for the month of April 2013.

April has turned out to be a fine month indeed. While the numbers are clearly subject to interpretation, we can report with great confidence that everything felt just about right as we entered the 2013 growing season.

April is the time when all of the previous growing season’s wear and tear becomes evident. Our summer clothes have shrunk, again. Those nice new “Georgio Farmani” boots from last year are looking more like the “Claude Hoppers” of our misspent youth. And for some reason these glasses seem to drift in and out of focus.

The equipment is also looking for a little preventive maintenance, or percussive as the case may be. The flail mower is a piece of equipment that has a very hard life. The flail mower, while not an independent agency, is responsible for mowing all of the vineyard rows, headland spaces at the end of the rows, all roadways, open ground, small and sometimes large tree branches, and the front yard. This implement is also responsible for the majority of Ernie’s repairs and maintenance budget. It eats grease, bearings, flail blades, nuts and bolts, diesel and time, lots and lots of time. But when the flail is dialed in, it can really put down a nice trim.

After a recent gearbox seal replacement Ernie had to refill the gearbox with gear oil. Of course the fill plug is on the side, not the top of the gearbox. Apparently, this is the preferred design of Bondioli & Pavesi. At the same time, the “3 Point” mounting brackets were being reattached and reinforced by a really great friend (people who know how to weld are, by definition, great friends.)

Ernie is now scouring the shop for a funnel with a 90 degree bend and 3/8” outlet. But much like the Grinch searching for Reindeer, there were none to be found. However, after 14 years of farming, Ernie has seen this movie before. As if standing at the top of Mt. Crumpet (where wine critics said to take the 2007 vintage and dump it) he quite proudly announced to his welding buddy:

“Hey, I just made a funnel out of an old business card!” The reply was delivered dry and in perfect cadence: “Yeah, we’re really farmin’ now.”

Which leads us to this inescapable axiom: Farmin’ is what you are doing when you are not growing great wine.

Another curious thing happened this Spring, the vineyard grew! In size that is. Yep, after wishing and waiting and farmin’ all of these years, Ernie finally pulled the trigger and planted a wee little bit of the very fine Gewürztraminer. While this is all very exciting, it will be another 2 years (or more if the deer discover it) before we have wine to enjoy.

As is par for the course, the grassed vineyard rows have received the brown canes and shoots from last year where the flail mower found them and promptly returned them to the soil along with some nice green grass clippings. The “Alternate” rows are where we plant cover crops to feed our vines.

That process is a bit more involved and includes not only the obligatory flail mowing but a pass with the chisel plow as well to open things up. We then hook up the roto-tiller to turn last years cover crop back into the soil and prepare a nice fluffed-up seed bed. The last step is to fill up the seed drill with a summer blend of Buckwheat and Vetch and drill it in. Then there is a bit of tried and true farmin’ – we wait for rain.

                                                 

These are Buckwheat and Vetch cover crop seeds before and after being drilled into the “Alternate” rows. We consider the soil to be the plants’ stomach. By planting cover crops that add nitrogen to the soil and promote overall soil health, we can avoid the use of chemical fertilizers. These cover crops also provide a nice habitat for beneficial insects (think carnivores) that can help manage the populations of non-beneficial insects (think dinner.)

However interesting these acts of farmin’ may be, the vines are dedicated to a singular purpose: Making us work for it! And that is what’s up next. Each of these precious little “wine makers” are in for a little shoot thinning and trunk suckering. Then we start bringing up the catch wires and clipping their fruit bearing shoots into place. This is followed by more farmin’ as we hope for nice weather while the vines are flowering and hopefully setting a nice crop of wineberries. Wouldn’t that be somethin’?

Well, here are the farmin’ numbers so far this year.

We entered the growing season on April 19 (day 109 of the Julian Calendar) with Budbreak. This is the first marker from the season that lets us know that harvest is happening in the southern Hemisphere and we are a scant 6 months away here.

We look at April in two halves because the first half is usually pretty cold and we have the technology to separate the data. The first half of the month gave us 0.0 degree days, a high of 68.8 (told you it was nice) and a low of 34.9 degrees F.

The second half of the month gave us 51.7 degree days, a high of 80.6 (How’s that for April showing off?) and a low of 32.4 degrees F. Rainfall for the month was 2.22 inches.

Here’s what we had to say last year: “We have recorded about 52.9 degree days from April 1st through April 30th. All of this heat accumulation occurred in the second half of the month. We checked at April 15th, but we had nothing. We reached a high of 81.5 and a low of 31.9 with 3.12 inches of rain directed mostly at Ernie as he drove his crawler through the vineyard.”

Hmm, seems like we may have seen this farmin’ movie before.

If you missed the 2013 Spring Cellar report, you can find that right here: Amalie Robert 2013 Spring Cellar Report

Kindest Regards,

Dena and Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate: 2013 Spring Cellar Report

Hello and Welcome,

This is the 2013 Spring Cellar Report aka “Vit Lit.”

Introduction:
This fall and winter have been a tough slog here at Rancho Deluge. Why just the other day the sun came out and everyone thought it was just another exploding meteorite. Alas, when we finally did locate the sunscreen it was all for not, not even a rainbow to mark the occasion. We were, however, thankful when our eyesight returned.

......

Springtime is when the vines wake up and we get back to work in the cellar. The Pinot Noirs and Syrah from that great 2012 vintage are just completing their Malo-lactic conversion, and the stainless steel fermented Chardonnay and Viognier are queued up for bottling. Meanwhile, the 2011 vintage Pinot Noirs are ready for blending trials. This really is the most rewarding part of winemaking for us, blending our single vineyard wines for complexity.

Marketing:
Throughout the growing season we are doing our best to grow our wines on the vine. We think of those grape skins as tannin packed flavor and aroma packets. Our job as winegrowers is to understand the style of wines we want to produce and take specific actions in the vineyard to shape the development of those flavors, aromas and tannins. “Human Terroir” if you will.

This means we pay attention to how much sun exposure the grapes receive by removing just a few leaves for air circulation, but leave enough that provide partial shade. We also thin off the wings that ripen later than the main cluster and can impart green or unripe flavors. The last, most important decision is always harvest. Once the sugars and acids are within acceptable ranges, we start to taste the berries. Specifically, we are tasting for skin development and monitoring the ripeness of the seeds.

The Back Story:
Once in the winery, we ferment some of the grapes on the stems. We also use the yeast they brought with them from the vineyard. This is known as whole cluster fermentation with indigenous yeast. We know that this fermentation style protects the character of the vineyard and will add stem tannin to the finished wine. This tannin is “alive” and will continue to develop character with bottle age. In the cellar we fill the wine into a combination of new and previously filled French oak barrels. We are also experimenting with Hungarian and Russian oak, but don’t tell anybody – it’s a secret!

Think of the barrels as our spice rack. Each cooper has a style, and in fact each individual barrel will impart a unique aroma, flavor and texture profile to the wine. Add the variable of time, and the wines will mature from the aggressive tannins of freshly fermented juice into nuanced and interleaved aroma, flavors, textures and a lengthy finish. That is how we put the “F” in fermentation - it is in the finish.

So, do we engineer our wines? Maybe. But our point is we actually thought about the styles of wine we want to enjoy, and learned the farming and winery practices to create them. Of course, this winegrowing structure is superimposed over Mother Nature’s prerogatives. We know she is never going to be reliable, but she is predicable. Our job is to be ready in a moments notice to snatch our grapes from the jaws of defeat, or 3 inches of rain in week, ceteris paribus.

As we taste the wine in barrel, we review not only the vintage, but how we grew, fermented and barrel aged our wines. We evaluate the aroma, texture and weight on the palate. When we make our blends we seek to present our entire vineyard terroir as well as the human terroir that we have contributed to the wine. A point of clarification here: Don’t ever agree to go barrel tasting in anyone’s cellar. Barrels do not taste good. You want to taste the wine in the barrel. That’s where the action is.

What does this mean and why should I care?

What this means, is we thought about creating our Amalie Robert Estate wines in our own particular idiom – yes, it is the year of the snake, a Python if you will. You should care because in the world of wine, very few wines are offered that represent this level of care, stewardship and dedication by the founders and owners who still are able to do the work.

It was our first piece of intellectual property in the wine business, and we stand by it today: “Wines true to the soil, Wines true to the vintage.” We invite you to experience Amalie Robert Estate wines with friends, food and in moderation.

Current Events:

While we try very hard to be politically tone deaf, it is really difficult to ignore the shenanigans in our great nation’s capital. These “self inflicted wounds” remind us that the fewer facts you have, the more general your knowledge, until you reach the pinnacle of politics whereby you know nothing about everything. This is, in fact, a late life bi-polar response to adolescence where you know everything about nothing.

It was Benjamin Disraeli who said “It is much easier to be critical than correct.” Perhaps true, however it would leave us all significantly less entertained, wine writing included. So in this year of the snake, we take to heart some of the more interesting, and potentially irreverent, concepts of the British comedy troupe Monty Python. To wit: “Message for you sir!” - “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!”

For those unfamiliar with this artform, you may view the unofficial script of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” at this link. You will, of course, have to improvise the audio and video. Note: A fine glass of Pinot Noir may help you in your quest.

Today’s Feature Presentation: Fluid Transfer

While laughter may be the best medicine, wine it is said, is the essence of life. And that brings us to the concept of “Fluid Transfer” which in fact is the essence of life. And as we all know, life is a sexually transmitted condition which may be the result, in certain cases, of consuming wine – perhaps in excess. We will now set about to prove wine is the essence of fluid transfer.

The grail of wine you savor most likely came from a 4,200 degree F. heat formed molten silica sand package - aka a glass bottle. The fluid contents of which were sequestered in said package by a curious piece of tree bark known as a cork, or natural stopper for those into the “natural wine” movement. Clearly there is no fluid here and not the point of today’s commentary. The wine however is fluid, and that is where we begin our journey. (Note: Until man learned how to heat sand to 4,200 F., goat skins were used to package wine – perhaps this is the origin of the natural wine movement. Even today in your local wine purveyor, some wines are sold in a box containing an unnatural plastic bladder that holds “wine.”)

Our 30 acre vineyard is a southern leaning coalition of wine grape vines that strive to transfer water, and with it the essence of the soil, into roughly 750,000 clusters of wine grapes. This is no small task that they are preprogrammed to achieve, however they have from April through October to get the job done. Mother Nature does her part by providing roughly 45 inches of rainfall per year. This fluid transfer from the Heavens to the earth is really the seminal event of the growing season. And there is more than enough to go around.

At an average rainfall of 45 inches per year, we receive about 45 inches x 27,154 gallons/inch per acre = 1,221,930 gallons of water per acre of land. Now on that typical acre of land, we plant about 1,452 vines. That means each vine, in theory, has access to about 845 gallons of water per year. Our typical crop yield results in about a single 750 ml bottle of wine per vine, or about 0.198 gallons. The remainder of the 845 gallons is either leached through the soil, taking our hard earned Nitrogen with it, or transpired through the canopy to cool the leaves during the growing season. However, during the winter months we are slogging through the soil and depend on high quality footwear, aka “work boot style rubber overshoes” or “Wellies”

As the growing season progresses, the vines are ripening up the year’s vintage without too much drama, however we all know “closing time” is on the way. Late September is when all manner of things can happen. We could get a little sprinkle on the fruit that may cause wine reviewers to panic. We could get warm dry days with a little breeze that will desiccate our fruit, aka reverse fluid transfer. Or, things could be just hunky dory – a condition not seen in our lifetime.

We could get a bad “pre-harvest review” from an otherwise intelligent person on the periphery of the wine “business.” This seems to happen more often than not and can clearly point to a very lucrative political career (see above.) Not so much fluid transfer there, but we would recommend keeping your wallet in your front pocket. Please see the harvest review from 1957.

Then before you can say Waft The Fruit, there you are in the biggest cluster pluck you can imagine! Plant by plant is harvested by hand into 5 gallon buckets weighing about 20 pounds – more if the soil is wet and the buckets get muddy. This hand job goes on from sunrise until just after midday. When it is all said and done we will have transferred about 15 tons of skins, seeds, pulp, stems, bugs, mud and grape juice from the vineyard to the winery. It is, in a word, rapture.

What started as an innocent, if not carefree, shower in the spring has produced a beautiful bounty of fruit. While we are basking in the afterglow of a fine performance, there is much work to be done. We begin at the beginning with our first step: “Get the fermentation out of the way!”

Once our grapes have made it to the winery, we believe our job is stewardship. If you have seen our stained hands and bleary eyes in November and December, you can easily understand this is not a hands-off affair. We are to take the fluid from the grapes, ferment the sugars into alcohol, infuse tannins, textures and aromas from the skins, stems and barrels over a period of 18-24 months and then transfer the essence of our vineyard into 750 milliliter bottles, each individually sealed with a cork and capsule (SWACC.)

If wine is the essence of fluid transfer, then variety is the spice. Not only do we grow our own Pinot Noir, we also dabble in Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Viognier. If these wines seem to leave you unfulfilled, we encourage you to seek a glass of Satisfaction, Syrah that is.

We are almost there. All that is left now is to put the stem on the apple, or more accurately, pull the cork from the bottle. Here is where you can get hands-on with wine. If you have read this far, you understand they are all a little bit different. It is not only the shape and size of the bottle but whether or not it has been fitted with a natural cork or a synthetic closure. Some bottles are fitted with a “roll on tamper evident” closure known affectionately as a screwcap or, again for the natural wine movement, a screwoff. Call it what you will, but it costs the winery about 15 cents.

And then there is the capsule. It used to be the case that corks were protected with lead foils or “capsules” during ocean going transport. The idea was to keep shipboard pests from nibbling out the corks and releasing the wine prematurely. Well (a hole in the ground with water in it,) lead is no longer used for this purpose because wine is shipped in sealed, temperature controlled ocean going containers and, more importantly, seamen are afforded shore leave on a more regular basis.

But still to this day, not everyone uses a protective capsule. If you are sure of the brand, and have been enjoying it for some time, the capsule may not be all that important to you. However, if you are trying a new brand for the first time, we encourage you to select a package that has a nice looking, form fitting and functionally protective capsule. Note: Some capsules have little holes in the end that facilitate automated, high throughput installation via electrical appliance. Choose wisely.

Perhaps you are new to the joys of wine, and are not all that familiar with the equipment. With the excitement of trying a new brand, you may well pull the cork right through the capsule. Over time, and with more practice, you will be able to master control. Also, you can avoid significant embarrassment and social stigma by not using a corkscrew on a “roll on tamper evident” screwoff closure before your guests arrive. It will be obvious to everyone right away.

While it has never happened at Amalie Robert Estate, we have heard of wineries sometimes forgetting to put the cork in and just applying the capsule over the top of the bottle - faking it. While there is no way to know this at the time of sale, it is an unfortunate and hopefully uncommon occurrence that can significantly change your perception of that brand.

Fetchez la Vache! This is supposed to mean “Bring me a wine glass.” Instead, it means “Fetch me the cow.” Occasionally Pinot Noir grown in the Burgundy region of France has what is know as “the cows arse” in the aroma, so maybe that is how this got lost in translation.

Much like the differing shapes and sizes of wine bottles, there is virtually an endless array of elegant, sophisticated shapes and styles of glasses designed specifically to receive wine. Most of these glasses are referred to as stemware due to the elongated stem that separates the foot of the glass from the voluptuous bowl. While we often evaluate the complete package, we pay keen attention to length of the stem and specifically the shape of the bowl.

It is a widely accepted fact that sophisticated wine “stems” are high maintenance. To compensate for the extra effort of maintaining the integrity of these delicate stems, a new style of wineglass has been introduced. It is called a “stemless” glass and has all of the virtues of a voluptuous bowl. It is however, lacking the elongated stem and herein lies the issue – there is no place to touch this glass that will preserve its inherent beauty. By the end of the evening, the glass has clearly been well groped and only a forensic lab may be able to determine the interloper.

We are rounding third base and heading for home. While it has been a subliminal exercise for the reader, you should by now have in front of you the following items: a fine bottle of wine from a brand you respect and trust, the proper tool (or in the case of a vintage port, tools,) that can be used to release the wine in a controlled manner (especially important for the disgorgement of sparkling wine,) clean stemware commensurate for the anticipated experience, soothing background music and the swoon worthy embers of a warm fire.

After the potentially awkward moment of pulling the cork, or disgorging as the case may be, the wine gently flows into the elegant and voluptuous stemware. A quick twist of the wrist and the wine swirls and rises to its zenith and gently recedes. The heady aroma fills the air, nostrils flare.

The sophisticated stemware directs the wine to the most sensitive part of your aroused palate. The rush of the aromas, flavors and textures triggers a pulse quickening, primal reaction. You swallow, then slowly a tingling sensation begins to come to the fore of your consciousness. It is your brain reminding you it is time to breathe!

The svelte tannins and lingering acidity continue the full frontal lobe assault. It is at this moment your heightened senses are alerted to the first drops of rain from a spring shower gently pattering against your window. Significant meteorological phenomena are about to be released.

This simply cannot be just any wine; it is the essential wine - Pinot Noir. Ergo, our work here is complete: There can be no doubt that Pinot Noir is the essence of “Fluid Transfer.” Join us next time as we cleverly explain why Chardonnay is the catalyst to “Spontaneous Combustion.” Think Blanc de Blanc.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: 2013 Bud Break

    

Amalie Robert Estate declares Bud Break on day 109 of the 2013 growing season! You may better know this as Friday, April 19, 2013.

This is the earliest we have seen the new growth in the last 3 years. For reference, we declared Bud Break on day 114 in 2012 and 125 in 2011. Note the lavender Lilac bloom is on the same event horizon as Pinot Noir Bud Break. Yeah, there are buds breaking all over the northern hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, they are just wrapping up harvest.

This was a welcome surprise as we began our 14^th vineyard anniversary and Earth Day celebration at the Joel Palmer House. In case you could not join us, here is what was on offer.

- First: Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns with Beet Puree paired with 2011 "Our Muse" Viognier

- Second: Carrot and Celery Root Soup with Dungeness Crab paired with 2009 "Heirloom Cameo" Chardonnay

- Third: Morel Risotto paired with 2010 Pinot Meunier

- Fourth: Heidi’s Three Mushroom Tart paired with 2007 “The Reserve” Pinot Noir and 2009 “Wadenswil Clone” Pinot Noir

- Fifth: Rack of Lamb with Pinot Pepper Sauce over Lentils paired with 2010 “Satisfaction” Syrah

- Dessert: Assortment of Candy Cap Mushroom Desserts and Local Cheeses

Growing wine in the Willamette Valley is always an adventure. We are excited about the prospects of a wonderfully expressive vintage punctuated with the vagaries of an agrarian endeavor. With 3 Italian tractors, there is never a dull moment.

Again this year, we will be providing growing season updates beginning with the full April Climate Update in just a week or so. In the meantime, the sun is shinning and the vines are coming out of their winter’s slumber. They look so innocent now, but we know this is only a ruse.

To get an idea of what lies ahead, you can check out the 2012 Julian calendar and photo journal at this link:
http://www.amalierobert.com/2012_julian_calendar.htm

Kindest Regards,

Dena and Ernie

 

Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: 2012 Harvest After Action Report (AAR)

Hello and Welcome to the “Yearly Show”,
 

We like to take a few megabytes of cloud storage this time of year to recap the growing season’s significant events, trials and tribulations, and other site specific specificities you may not learn about anywhere else. Ernie is on the road sitting in a “Starbucks by day” and “Hotel bar by night” writing this. It is an exercise for the reader to determine the beverage contents. So refresh your beverage, grab a Twinkie while you still can or other kibble of your choice, and read on!

Meanwhile just up the street at our Nation’s Capitol, our elected representatives are discussing our looming Fiscal Cliff. We only know one Cliff and his name is not Fiscal, nor is he looming. Hold on for a Thelma and Louise moment if these knuckleheads agree to disagree. Perhaps you have seen this movie before: “Not always right, but always the boss.”

The 2012 growing season was a return to some semblance of sanity for the winegrower. The growing season did not pose any extraordinary challenges, fruit set was a little light depending on site location, the degree days are similar to some of our favorite vintages including 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009, and harvest arrived either before or after the rains. The 2012 growing season reflects the typicity that propelled Oregon Pinot Noir to critical acclaim.

The devil is in the details, as those fine men and women are discovering at, and around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Of course, they may choose to take a broader perspective and view the situation from the Hubble telescope (to the extent that is possible.) Based on a couple hundred years of history, whatever solution is proposed will most likely have the following attributes: “Overly burdensome, yet lacks focus and attention to detail.” While it is not a common occurrence in Oregon, we have seen someone put a corkscrew through a screwcap closure. (Part of the upcoming, non-fiction documentary titled “How can this be?”)

On a more positive note, this year’s ¡Salud! Pinot Noir auction was a tremendous success. What we have here is several interested constituencies coming together to find common ground. The result is the finest 6 cases of 2011 vintage Pinot Noir from each of the 42 Vintners Circle wineries being sold to the highest bidders. Note: This is significantly less than the top 1% of Oregon’s Pinot Noir production. We have participated as a Vintners Circle winery for 7 years, and this year was our best effort yet with our top ask bid of $1,063 per 12 bottle case – that felt good, for all the right reasons.

Now, if you “follow the money” from the weekend event, you will discover ¡Salud! is able to leverage this into a substantial medical outreach program. To wit: Isaac Asimov - "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.” You can read all about the auction from “The Northwest Wine Anthem.”

Back to the issue at hand. We will spare you the tractor repair issues, shoot positioning logistics, hedging and more hedging, degree day calculations ad nauseam and get right to the heart of the 2012 growing season conversation: When did you harvest and why? Note: If you are into the ad nauseam, you can read the 2012 Julian calendar here, or simply tune into C-Span where you can always catch “Drone v Drone.”

We began harvest after the rains on October 15, 2012, day 288 of the Julian calendar. June brought the last of the spring rains and the first of the fall rains to arrive at Amalie Robert Estate began the evening of October 12^th. Mother Nature blessed our vines with 0.86 inches of rain in 24 hours. It seems she was in the neighborhood and couldn’t sleep. Take home message: The first shot of rains was mostly absorbed by the grassed rows, existing cover crops and any roots that were advantageously located in the top 6 inches of soil.

Up until October 12^th, Ernie (Chief Farming Officer) was running down the numbers, and they were presenting a pretty clear picture. Sugars were building and pH was dropping. Sure they were. Now the most important thing in any picture is to know who the players are and what they stand for. This is why you will pet a friendly dog, but not an alligator. Clearly, the folks on Capitol Hill have this figured out by now, mostly.

When sugars rise, we see the Brix level increase. Brix is a term used to describe a measurement of fermentable sugars. In wine grapes, we like to harvest when Brix are at least 20 but less than 24. The reason for this is that sugars measured as Brix convert to alcohol at about 60%. So, 20-24 Brix gives us a range of final alcohol in the 12 to 14% range. As the wine berries stay on the vine, the natural tendency is to build sugars, so an increase in Brix is to be expected as we wait for the harvest window to open. OK, that was easy.

One seemingly inconsequential detail of the growing season is relevant here. Fruit set in the Willamette Valley was not all that it could be for Pinot Noir. Fruit set can be described as the conversion of pollinated flowers into wine berries. Sometimes a pollinated flower will set a wine berry that “shatters” and does not mature into a harvestable wine berry. This, in fact, is quite similar to a Borg being separated from the collective.

Case in point, our Pinot Meunier yield was down by about 50%. The fact that some vines were handling the dry spell and a nice warm summer with less than a full crop load exacerbated the harvest decision. (Note that “exacerbated” is not a term we would use as farmers, but we seem to have picked up a few looky-loo’s who like these terms.) From the vine’s point of view, all of that photosynthesis has to go somewhere. And it expediently went into building sugars in the fruit that was hanging.

The more challenging analysis is pH. This is a measure of acidity in the pre-fermented juice. The more acid in any given solution results in a lower pH reading. Less acid in the same given solution results in a higher pH. As the wine berries stay on the vine and ripen, we expect the acids to go down and therefore the pH to rise. However, we were seeing just the opposite effect with pH. The pH was not rising, it was dropping until we received our first fall rains. Note to Quants: Think about the relationship between bond yields v price and this should all make sense.

A lower pH means there was more acid in the solution. It can also mean there is the same amount of acid as before, just less solution. As we witnessed the parched September, the vines were covertly translocating water out of the berries for their own purposes, such as photosynthesis. This resulted in less water per berry to dilute the acids and produce a drop in pH. Ergo, this is counter to the ripening process and more inclined to simply indicate dehydration of the fruit. As Neo discovered, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

That’s all well and good. We now know not to pet alligators we come across, but what do we do to make the best wine the vintage has to offer? The 2012 Oregon Pinot Noir vintage presented us with a very clear, binary choice: Pick before the rains or wait until we get some rain. If you are a procrastinator by nature, this choice was made for you. If it was a group decision, you may have waited because some guy named Cliff was late to the meeting. But if you were like Ernie, who was predisposed to running the numbers and actually went out and tasted the fruit, you would have waited for a little rain.

A simple cost benefit analysis will help us explain the 2012 harvest.

What is the cost of waiting to harvest?

Since we had entered Okto-vember, the cost of not harvesting was about 2 or 3 biers per person per day. Clearly, a cost we were willing to pay.

We risked the potential combination of birds and rot due to excessive rains. While this can be unfortunate, it is not uncommon. This was a risk we were prepared to take.

The needs of the many berries becoming fully ripe outweigh our desire for an easy harvest. We only get one chance a year to make some really great wine.


What is the benefit of waiting to harvest?

We had a few extra days to catch up on our sleep.

We did not have to add water to our fermenters to dilute the sugars below 24 Brix.

We had extra money to buy bier, because we did not have to buy water.

We did not have to compete with a majority of vineyards for harvest crews.

We enjoyed a few more weeks of hang time that allowed for more interesting flavor and aroma development in the wine berry skins and riper stems for whole cluster fermentation.
These are the decisions of the winegrowers of Amalie Robert Estate. We chose to harvest after a bit of natural irrigation from Mother Nature to rehydrate the wine berries and reap the rewards of increased flavor and aroma development from extended hang time. And then, there was the Syrah and Viognier harvest on November 7^th.

Our indigenous fermentations smelled wonderful again this year. The addition of whole clusters adds the youthful backbone tannin that will integrate with firm acidity to prolong the wines’ bottle maturation. After fermentation, the Pinot Noir that came out of the press this year was the most deeply hued we have ever seen. While this observation supports no conclusions at present, it is certainly worth noting as we segue into a slow barrel maturation regime.

After separating the wine from the skins, seeds and stems with the press, our wines gravity flow down to barrel for a soothing malolactic conversion. We taste the wines after the conversion is complete, and sometimes before, to get a sense of where the vintage is headed. Our Pinot Noirs spend 18 moths in barrel before we begin blending and bottling. You can think of that as “term limits” for aging wine.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2012 Mid-October

Hello and Welcome to Octo-Vember!

This is the climate update for the first 15 days of Octo-Vember 2012.

It seems that 2012 is winding down to be a very, very good year. The rains we so desperately needed arrived just in time, on Friday, Octo-Vember 12^th. It was a fairly thorough soaking of about 0.86 inches in 24 hours. We commenced harvest that Sunday with our first 15 tons of Pinot Noir, and it was good. In fact it was so good, we went back for another 15 tons that Wednesday. Listen to what the great Inspector Jacques Clouseau has to say. Make that Chief Inspector.

Now, some folks may believe that rain at harvest is the worst possible thing. We can assure you that is not the case. Having the fuel filter fall off of the tractor, in the rain, during harvest, is much worse (photo and expletives are deleted.) We will try and present the features and benefits of rain just before the harvest window.

This reminds Ernie of his Microsoft days when the “product group” (PG) that writes the application software is ready to release a new version. They first have to give the code to “product support services” (PSS) for final sign off. PSS is the interface with the end user, aka the customer.

Before PSS signs off, there is a fair bit of back and forth with the PG. They say they will fix that bug in the next release. PSS knows how much time and energy it will take to support the end users, er ah customers, and wants it fixed before they will sign off.

When the software features do not work as documented, the phone rings at PSS. When the software does things it is not supposed to do, that is called an “undocumented feature.” The folks from the PG are, by this time, in Hawaii or Corfu and are most certainly incommunicado. For anyone who has enjoyed the benefits of Microsoft software, perhaps you can understand how some of these folks may never get to see the sun.

Feature and Benefits of Rain Just Before the Harvest Window

• Feature: Recording nearly an inch of rain from Mother Nature 2 days before harvest is set to begin. Listen to what she has say about that. How convenient.

• Benefit 1: Lower alcohol wine. This separates the early pickers from the rest of us. You will recognize these folks immediately. They are walking around with suntans and ear to ear grins as they have harvested in sunny and dry conditions. They are also in total shock as the sugar levels of these grapes will yield alcohol percentages often reserved for Port style wines.

Even with a parched summer and no measurable rainfall since June, the vines’ need for water will not be denied. The primary use of water is to cool the undersides of the leaves so that photosynthesis can continue. Once the efforts to extract moisture from the soil become too severe, the vines turn to the berries. The result is desiccation and the berries are robbed of their precious water. Queue the Chief Inspector.

• Benefit 2: Mature flavor development. There is a reason Pinot Noir thrives in cool climates, and that reason is the time needed to achieve great flavors and aromas in the berries’ skin. Here in the Willamette Valley we are looking for 105 days for this to occur. That puts us right about the 12^th day of Octo-Vember.

As long as the fruit is free of rot and the sugars are being held in check by the rains, we prefer to take the additional hang time. Each additional day of ripening puts us farther along the exponential curve of flavor and aroma development. Of course, the valley is very diverse in its microclimates and it is always a ticking time bomb trying to time harvest. What kind of bomb?

In summary, the right decision for Amalie Robert Estate was to let Mother Nature catch up on her sleep another time and give us a very nice shower to start things off. This concludes the Feature and Benefits section. Comments, Chief Inspector?

Some of you may be asking about dilution. Dilution refers to the situation where there is too much juice to balance the flavors and aromas from the skins. This can happen over the dinner table when some chronologically disadvantaged person is given a glass of wine cut with water. It can also happen in a fermenter when someone is trying to “fix” a high alcohol wine by adding back water. The result is lower alcohol, but a dilution of the flavors and aromas.

By now, you have most likely copped onto our plan. We wanted to dilute the sugars of our grapes with a little rain water. However, we also wanted to allow the skins to mature and continue developing intense flavors and aromas. The obvious choice was to hold tight through a little bit of rain and take advantage of more hang time. Of course, if you don’t farm your fruit to take a little rain, then Botrytis will eliminate this option for you and you must harvest before the rains.

Did we make the right call? We will know for sure in about 5 years. Today we can say that our sugar levels, measured in Brix, are running mid-23 on average. This will result in final alcohol levels around 13.5%. That is pretty typical for the vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate. The aromas coming off the wild yeast fermentations are wonderful. The colors are a deeply hued ruby red, not that there is anything wrong with that.

This late in the season, the numbers show what kind of finishing touches Mother Nature added to the vintage.

The first half of Octo-Vember gave us 144 Degree Days. Our high temperature was a blistering 92.5 degrees and our low temperature was just above the frost level at 37.60. Rainfall for this 15 day period was 2.13 inches. Total 2012 growing season Degree Days represent a perfect cool climate vintage at 2,068 and rainfall checks in at 11.09 inches. Say What?

If you have not had a chance to experience harvest, please take a moment to watch harvest at Amalie Robert Estate. The video was filmed and produced by VineStories.

It’s not too late to purchase tickets to attend the ¡Salud! Pinot Noir auction this year. If you can not attend, but would like to enter a sealed bid, there is still time. For more information, please follow this link for the Amalie Robert Estate ¡Salud! Cuvee: 2011 Amalie Robert ¡Salud! Cuvee, and this link for more information about placing a sealed bid: http://www.saludauction.org/auction/the-oregon-pinot-noir-auction/auction-items/. You may also contact Lindsay Coon at ¡Salud! by phone at 503-681-1850 or by e-mail at lindsay.coon@tuality.org.

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie

Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2012 September

Hello and Welcome,

This is the climate update for the month of September 2012.

We seem to be hurtling quite uncontrollably through the most incredible growing season - EVER! The tail end of September has been a continuation of warm sunny days and cool nights with virtually no threat of rain. In fact, we are not worried about the birds and the deer, we are looking for cold bier! And that brings us to the thirstiest of months – Okto-Vember.

The last few nights have brought out a beautiful harvest moon. It is a wondrous ending to a perfect day, which fosters yet another stunning sunrise. Our 45,144 little winemakers are basking in this luxurious pre-harvest lull. They have ripened their seeds some time ago, so the pressure is off. Now, they enjoy the gentle breeze caressing their leaves in the afternoon sun, quite oblivious to all of the work they have created for us.

We seem to be about 1 week away from the controlled chaos of harvest. That is plenty of time to wash all of the bins and buckets and get the tractors and harvest trailers ready to go. Ernie went cruising the vineyard this weekend to sample a few clusters and get a read on how we are progressing. It is just a little “test fire” before we get going.

We grow 5 varieties of wine and each of them has a different program. In fact, our Chardonnay “swings both ways” with a barrel and stainless steel fermentation. Woody Allen said something about how to double your chances for a date on Saturday night, but it is not quite the same thing.

At this time of year we are looking at a few factors to help determine where we are on the harvest timeline. These factors include:

Sugars and Acids – This is very analytical and the easiest to measure, but usually the least important. The fermentable sugar content in grapes is measured in a scale called Brix – it is both singular and plural (note the Woody Allen reference above.)

We like to harvest our wine within the range of 21 to 24 Brix because we know that each Brix converts to about 0.6 percent alcohol. This harvest range will give us final alcohol in the 12.5 to 14.4 percent range. Our hope is that the flavors in the skins develop before we reach 24 Brix. Viognier is the one to watch here, as it likes to build sugars much earlier than developing flavors.

Our acids are measured by a pH meter and this gives us a rough guide to the maturity of the fruit. A low pH such as 3.0 tells us there is plenty of acid in the juice and we are looking for more hang time. A high pH such as 3.7 is of concern due to over ripeness and potential for spoilage organisms in the fermenters.

However, this is the one area where we can influence the fruit’s development. If needed in a moderate to warm vintage, we can add back the grapes’ natural acid, Tartaric acid. Note, this was not much of a concern in the past 2 vintages. But there is a catch, as the acids we are measuring now include both Malic and Tartaric. As part of the winemaking process, Malic acid (think green apples) is usually converted by a few industrious little bacteria into Lactic acid (think milk.) This is a “softer” acid and will lessen the perception of acidity. The only wine we produce where we block this conversion is our stainless steel fermented Chardonnay. We like it a little tart, and we know you do too.

Seeds – You can learn a lot from a seed. The first thing we look for is how much “jelly” or pulp is left around the seeds. A few weeks before harvest, the pulp has the perception of jelly that encapsulates the seeds. As the berries mature, the pulp around the seeds begins to break down. As we approach ripeness in the skins, this perception of jelly is all but gone.

The seeds themselves also tell a tale. Early in the year the seeds start off white and very soft. Then comes lag phase where the seeds begin to develop a “woody” exterior and start to turn bright green. As the season progresses, the bright green turns to Martini olive green and eventually to brown. A very mature seed will look like grape nuts cereal and be very crunchy.

Seed ripeness is important as the exterior coating of the seed protects it from the intestinal tract of the animal that is helping to propagate the vine in a remote location. This seed coating also helps to prevent the bitter tannin of the seed from being extracted into the hot alcohol of fermentation. Excessive seed tannin in your wine will not get you a second date.

Juice color – That’s right. We worry about color before we harvest, but not in the final wine and here is why. Hidden deep in the skins are color pigments that are held in vacuoles. As the berries mature, they are actually breaking down cell walls and making it easier for the pigment to escape into the juice. If the berries are not very mature, you get less color in the juice. As the season progresses, more cell walls break down and the color is more easily extracted from the skins.

Skin flavor, texture and aroma – This is the most telling of all the factors we employ. Once we see the numbers align and the seeds ripen, we rely on flavors and textures in the skins to make the final call. That call results in about 20 people equipped with 5 gallon buckets and clippers to descend upon the vineyard at first light. It is a beautiful thing, and you can see for yourself by watching our own harvest video right here! You can also have a look at these harvest criteria through the eyes and blog of Pam Spettel of Sticks Forks and Fingers.

While all of the factors listed above are indicators of ripeness, being able resist the temptation to pick too early is the ultimate sign of maturity in growing your own wine. It’s gonna rain eventually, it just has to. But we can be confident in our farming techniques and prowess to hold firm when we need to, and get on it when the time is right.

Speaking of the right time, let’s look back upon September from Okto-vember’s vantage point. It almost seems like too much of a good thing. 2012 is the first vintage we can remember with such a beautiful summer. It has been warm, but not too hot with a nice breeze and no rain. If anything, we could be running up against conditions that give us too much sugar, but not enough flavors. So, we look for Mother Nature to back off the throttles a little bit and take inspiration from Yosemite Sam.

When I say whoa, I mean WHOA!

 The last half of September gave us 206 Degree Days that, when added to the 244 from the first half of the month, yield 450 Degree Days for the entire month and 1,924 Degree Days for the growing season to date. That puts us on par with 2008, and about 100 Degree Days shy of 2009 and almost right where 2005 ended up.

Our highest high for the first half of the month was 97.1 and 91.7 was the high for the second half. Yes, we verified the numbers, but have a second look if you need to. The low for the first half of the month was 41.0 and 44.7 for the latter half. Maybe a little less on offense, but the defense picked up the slack. And no rain, which leaves us with a growing season total of 8.96 inches.

As we look forward and “lean into it,” we see a couple more really nice ripening weeks with temps ranging from the 70’s to the 30’s and then it will be all hands on deck. There will be the occasional shower, or downpour. Hopefully, the peanut gallery will be a little pre-occupied with the quadru-annual circus that has descended upon most of the country and we will get this harvest in with minimal fanfare. Either way, here is what we will be listening to in a couple of weeks:

Now we're at the seasons' end with winds and rain, you bet

We've got to pick those grapes, but they aint ready yet!

It seems like forever that we wait for this one day

Detailed plans we make, but Mother Nature leads the way

Yipie Meunier, Yipie Pinot

But for the grace of God, this could be you

Sung to the tune of "Ghost Riders in the Sky"

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie