Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: April 2021, Tilling and Drilling
Hello and Welcome,
The April Pink Super Moon(on National HEMI Day 4/26) was quite a sight to see all up close and personal. Not that it was actually pink in color, but instead it derives its pink moniker from Phlox subulata—commonly called creeping phlox or moss phlox—which also went by the name “moss pink” which blooms in the northern HEMIsphere this time of year. And as you would imagine, the blooms are pink.
A FLOG communication(Farming bLOG) by Dena & Ernie from Amalie Robert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Have a look and see what we see on Instagram @AmalieRobert Estate. We are ramping up on FaceBook! (If you don’t like us, we don’t wanna know…)
In 1964, Chrysler’s new technology took the internal combustion engine world by force. The highly innovative and new design proved worthy on the racetracks, dragstrips and backstreet grudge matches. While several HEMI displacementswere engineered from the early Red Ram 241, to the 331 “Baby HEMI”, the 354 and dual 4 barrel carbureted 392 in your Dad’s Chrysler Imperial, the final factory displacement of 426 cubic inches just made the 7.0 liter cut off for sanctioned racing. And that is why the BIG 3 auto manufacturersof the day each had 426, 427, 428 or 429 cubic inch racing engines. Their goal was to put them into the lightest cars possible in hopes of winning races at racetracks and dragstrips across the country to promotion their brands. The HEMI engine was a mechanical marvel that was so successful it was banned from NASCAR after its first year. And then along came the Pink Elephants.
Not to be outdone, Mother’s Day is THIS weekend. With these series of events occurring so close together, who can doubt it means Rosé Season is in full bloom?! While there is no vintage 2020 Rosé due to the potential for smoke tainted wine, we do have a little bit of the sublime 2019 and a few bottles of the highly perfumed (think Wadenswil) 2018 barrel aged Pinot in Pink vintage Rosé to offer. You can read our FLOG posting on the smoke impacted vintage 2020here. Note: We have been doing some structural updates to our on-line presence, so if our pages are not displaying correctly, you may need to toss your cookies. More specifically, the cookies in your browser settings. Tilling and Drilling – Preparing the Vineyard Floor for Vintage 2021 The vineyard floor is what we refer to as the top foot of soil. This area is where we as winegrowers can impact the nutrients and soil moisture that will be available throughout the growing season. And like everything else in farming, there is a specific and limited window of opportunity available. The vineyard floor is really 2 vineyards in one. Every other row is planted to a permanent cover whose only treatment is mowing. In our case, permanent grass means Tall Fawn Fescue – it’s a bunch grass also known as Festuca. Viticulturally speaking, mowing this permanent cover can significantly impact the amount of soil moisture available to the vines. A short cut means the grass uses less water, leaving more available to the vines. Letting the grass grow takes more water out of the soil profile. This can be useful in areas that have deep moist soils.
Canes before and after mowing.
And we mow up last years canes in the permanent cover crop rows. The browns and greens are what keeps our soil microbes busy digesting and then releasing all of these nutrients for our vines. The permanent cover crop rows also provide our beneficial insects (think lady bugs, ear wigs and all kinds of spiders) a place to call home.
Ernie drilling in cover crop.
The cover crop rows are where we till the soil and incorporate the cover crops to naturally supply nutrients to our vines. Last fall, Ernie drilled in a winter cover crop of Austrian winter Peas and Barley. These two plants help to hold the soil onto the hill during the winter rains and provide nutrients when tilled into the soil the following spring.
Opening up the soil with the chisel plow and the open air crawler.
But first we open up the soil with a chisel plow. This tool has a fairly simple job. It breaks up any tire compaction, trims off shallow vine roots and helps to aerate the soil. And it is hooked up to the open air crawler, so Ernie gets a refreshing springtime ride. It’s kinda like driving around in a top down 911 Porsche. Kinda…
Mixing in the cover crop with the rototiller to feed the vines.
Next up is the rototiller. This tool mixes the green cover crops with the soil and places it right below the surface. We consider the soil to be the plant’s stomach, and dinner is served!
Buckwheat and vetch starting the growing season.
Planning ahead, Ernie then drills in the summer cover crop of Buckwheat and Common Vetch. Just like Pommard and Wadenswil, they were made to go together. Both of these plants are easy on the water budget, but at 20+ years of vine age our roots have gone deep. And it is kinda funny to see the quail lined up in each of the furrows scratching out a few of the Common Vetch seeds for themselves. They are not big fans of Buckwheat, you see. Buckwheat is a fantastic little plant with Superpowers! First off, it can start to bloom about 3 weeks after it germinates. Pollen is protein and a good dietary supplement when our army of carnivorous predatory insects can’t find any mites or other hapless victims to feast upon. It is also a great soil conditioner and enhances the activity of mycorrhiza fungi. Mycorrhiza fungi function as a symbiotic extension of the vines root system. The plant makes organic molecules such as sugars by photosynthesis and supplies them to the fungus, and the fungus in kind supplies the vine water and mineral nutrients, such as phosphorus, taken from the soil. Common Vetch (and Austrian winter Peas) adds to the mix by fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere to its root system. Both the Buckwheat and Common Vetch survive in our dry farmed vineyard from the morning dew of an “on-shore flow”, meaning moisture and humidity riding the jet stream in from the coast. Once these cover crop plants are tilled into the soil, the soil microbes convert the green plant material into nutrients the vine can use. Spring or fall, we till it all!
Spring growth in the Chardonnay block.
The numbers. April 2021 was a bipolar month if ever there was such a thing. Our high temperature blazed 90.9 degrees on April 18th at 3:30 pm, while our cold temperature was a frosty 27.9 degrees on April 5th at 6:30 am.
Our Degree Days reflected the warm temperatures later in April logging a total of 236.8 Degree Days. The first half of April contributing 89.8 and the second half with the remaining 147.0 Degree Days. Quite a respectable start to the vintage and it certainly explains the rate of growth in the vines and the grass. Ill-fated vintage 2020 began the growing season with 133.5 Degree Days.
Rain showers totaled 1.01 inches and came in two tranches, both at the end of the month. The first recording 0.43 inches and the second 0.58 inches. These showers are exactly what our cover crop seeds needed for germination and establishment. So far, so good! Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie