Amalie Robert Climate Update: June Vintage 2021, Why Is It SO FARMING HOT!?

Hello and Welcome, 

This is the Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: June Vintage 2021, Why is it SO FARMING HOT!?

The vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate has experienced a wide range of events this month including, but not limited to: record breaking heat, a full spread assault of frozen ice pellets (what the hail!?), all three sets of catch wires coming up and clipped into position and Ernie out there hedging the vine’s shoot tips off. Growing low alcohol wines means growing a short canopy - especially in a hot vintage.

Precision farming, Ernie hedging a short canopy.

A Willamette Valley Harvest isn’t here yet. We estimate Julian calendar day 257 (September 14th), but it’s starting to come into view. You can check out our harvest video courtesy of VineStories. 
 
Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means. ®
 

A FLOG communication(Farming bLOG) by Dena & Ernie from Amalie Robert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Have a look and see what we see on Instagram @AmalieRobert Estate. We are posting on Facebook and LinkedIn. Check us out if you can. We can use all the likes we can get… June is Dena’s birthday month. She is a Gemini and provides a calming force to the Taurus in her life. The Pommard clone of Pinot Noir is her thing, and Amalie’s Cuvée is her jam. A 300 case production means just 12 lucky barrels find their way into her final blend. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. A wine that is just about as natural as the day is long. 

Do YOU like Pommard? Or Wadenswil? Will you be in our area? Do you want to experience Amalie Robert Pinot Noir? Or maybe Syrah? Amalie Robert Estate is open all summer by appointment for vineyard tours and tastings. Click on the map for driving directions and select your preferred day and time with the Big Red Button.

 

Why is it SO FARMING HOT!?
 

The June month-end heat wave has sent past records into the dust bin of history. At the Amalie Robert Estate vineyard in Dallas, (Oregon not Texas) Monday morning, June 28th saw a blazing 97 degrees - at 9:00 am! And finished the day with a high temperature of 118. That was after a record high on Sunday of 113 (low of 86) and 109 for Saturday. Friday was the lead up with a mere 100 and Thursday started the show with a paltry 98. And there was a strong, recirculating breeze acting like a convection oven for any living creature exposed to the elements. The average wind speed during this event was 3.7 miles per hour, with gusts reaching 11.8 miles per hour. With a relative humidity of 25%, our 118-degree temperature had a heat index of over 130 degrees. It is OFF the chart! 

Why, you may ask. Why is it SO FARMING HOT!? Well, we will tell you why. In a word, or two, it is the Jet Stream. A high-pressure dome set itself up over the Seattle area. This allowed an ABUNDANCE OF HOT AIR from the states to our south to come into the northwest. That airflow established a circular flow all around the Pacific Northwest including Canada. And it’s not even an ELECTION YEAR…

The Jet Stream circulating HOT AIR into the Willamette Valley.

This breeze kept recirculating the hot air coming north, thus preventing any cool air to come south from the Gulf of Alaska. The middle of the country was subject to the cooling effect of cold Canadian air. The result was unprecedented, prolonged and excessive heat throughout the wine growing area of the Willamette Valley.

Forget Climate Change. Somebody has got to straighten out the Jet Stream!

And aren’t you just a little bit curious how your region stacks up to the Willamette Valley? This graphic shows the real-time temperatures for the entire United States. Alaska and Hawaii seem to have gone missing. That’s where we would be, if we were to be somewhere other than here.

That is Portland registering 111 degrees, as of Monday, June 28th.

Where there is FIRE, there is SMOKE.

FIRE – it’s a four-letter word, and one that is generally unwelcome in the vineyard environment. And then we move onto the 5 letter words like SMOKE and TAINT. These are completely unacceptable. The excessive heat in the areas around the Willamette Valley is of concern. There are wildfires burning nowand we are monitoring that situation. You can read our position on the ill-fated Vintage 2020 here. A post-preview of coming attractions? We hope not.

The closest fire to us is designated S-503. It is burning south of Mount Hood and due east of the aptly named town of Woodburn. This is northeast of us by about 100 miles. Apparently, there are still some trees left there that were not burned last year. They say lightning never strikes twice; we say don’t bet on it and NOAA agrees. The Empire State building is hit by lightning about 25 times each year. Those folks at the Boston Fire Department (BFD) know how to handle this type of situation. Maybe give them a call…

So, what are we doing about it?

We are taking it as it comes, as that is really your only option as a winegrower. That and a couple of hotel nights with air conditioning. Field labor stops when the temperatures become unsafe. Ernie can run the tractors, hedging early in the morning, but excessive heat is not good for the equipment, or the equipment operator. The excessive heat does provide a good opportunity to finish up the annual equipment maintenance down in the cool, below ground level shop. The flail mower took out a bearing this month, and what a helluva bearing it is!

Replaced the flail mower bearing, it was all farmed out.

The vines, however, are making the most of their unsupervised time. Typically, vines do not get much done when the temperature drops below 50 degrees at night. That is why the evening cooldowns are such an important climatic attribute of winegrowing in the Willamette Valley. Cool evening temperatures prevent the vines from quickly building excess sugars before aroma and flavor can develop.

The BIG picture at Amalie Robert Estate.

Not this week. Like a kid set loose in a candy store, those vines are growing at a record pace. Over 2.5 inches of rain early in the month, during bloom, is enabling their growth. The evening temperatures in the mid-70’s and above allow for a 24 hour growth cycle. There is no evening cooldown to apply the brakes. The other side of the coin is that at temperatures above 100 degrees the vines call it quits. The leaves turn away from the sun and the vines go into their form of a lockdown. The end of June brought with it over 38 continuously unbearable hours of temperatures maintaining 70 to 115+ degrees.  
What Does This Mean and Why Should I Care?

Leaves in the fruit zone shading the newly formed wine berries.

What we did not do. We did NOT pull leaves out of the fruit zone that shade the newly formed wine berries. Pulling leaves out of the fruit zone is a standard viticultural practice intended to reduce the incidence of powdery mildew and our old friend botrytis. Thanks to botrytis we were able to produce a once in a lifetime wine, Pakuk’s Gift Late Harvest Chardonnay. But botrytis is not the intent. The case for removing leaves is to allow early morning sun exposure on the wine berries to evaporate the moisture from the morning dew that may foster powdery mildew and botrytis development. All well and good, in moderation. The case against removing leaves is that excessive sun exposure can form aggressive tannins in the skins or in the most extreme case - sunburn. This leads to a very harsh finish in the wine. Not attractive in a silky-smooth Amalie Robert Pinot Noir. Timing is key. Often times leaves are removed from the fruit zone right after flowering. This is done for one of two reasons: one is dogmatic as in “we have always done it that way.” The other is because the vineyard is situated in an area with high humidity, or restricted cold air drainage. Actually a third reason for early leaf removal can be because that is when a field crew was available. The world may run on Dunkin, but vineyards run on field labor. And diesel.

A view from the Chief Farming Officer's seat, moving ahead and looking behind.

Extended periods of high humidity foster powdery mildew and botrytis infections – both of these pathogens need moisture to grow. What’s done is done. Woe betide you if those leaves were removed before this excessive heat and sun exposure event. The decision to remove leaves early in the growing season may become evident in wine marked by excessively harsh tannins. Leaves are your friends, leave them be. They have a job to do. Thank them.  
Numbers: The Dichotomy of Farming.
 
As we look back at the month, we find the view from the Independence Hotel to be similar to the view we had here during the ice storm in March. What a messed up year we have in 2021. 

The vineyard encased in ice after Ice Storm 2021.

As we see from this monthly graphic, we began June on a high note of 97, then cooled where our high temperatures just hit the mid-60’s. (what a time that was) and dipped into the 40’s at night. And then the sweltering set upon us. Bear in mind these temperatures are recorded at a nearby weather station. What we see on a nice south facing slope at 485 to 640 feet elevation is another matter. Vineyards are typically planted on elevated south, southeast or southwest facing slopes for two reasons. The first is so that cold air does not pool overnight and frost out your efforts. The second reason is that south facing aspects have a greater “angel of incidence” to the sun. The angel of incidence is the angle at which the slope receives the sun’s rays, with 90% being the maximum. The greater the slope, the more solar radiation is received. The vast majority of the vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate faces due south with a 10-15 percent slope. As the Earth tilts toward the sun, our angle of incidence is very high during June. This maximizes our solar radiation potential. 

And let us not forget the longest day of the year was just last week! Actually, the length of the day remains constant, it is the hours of sunshine that change. On Monday, June 28th we received 15 hours and 33 minutes of sunshine. Our high of the day was 118 and our low was 86 degrees. By contrast the shortest period of daylight hours in 2021 will be December 20th, 8 hours and 46 minutes. We recorded 532 Degree Days for the month of June, Vintage 2021. The first half of the month accounted for 177 Degree Days and the second half exactly doubled the first with 355 Degree Days. That in of itself is an anomaly. The high temperature for the month was 118.0 degrees recorded on Monday, June 28that 1:18 pm. Again, an odd semblance of numbers. The low temperature was 39.2 degrees recorded on June 9th at 5:36 am. The June high and low temperatures span a 79 degree difference. Vintage 2021 growing season to-date Degree Days stand at 1,040 through June. And that is a number most everyone is familiar with.

 
We had both forms of moisture during the month of June - Rain AND Hail. As June began to reveal itself, we were treated to a pleasant first week. Then the honeymoon was over and we were abruptly pelted by a full spread of high velocity ice pellets. It was a hail of a lot of fun… Good times in the month of JUNE! But these were pea sized hail, not the Texas kind. Texas recently recorded a hailstonethat weighed in at 1.25 POUNDS. Now that can do a hail of a lot of damage! Rainfall recorded in June is 2.55 inches bring the growing season April through June total to 3.56 inches. Based on the heat and resulting rapid vine growth, we can say with confidence that the June rainfall is now long gone. Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie