Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: June 2024
Hello and Welcome,
The big news in the Willamette Valley is that we are training the Pinot Noir vines up into the trellis catch wires at Amalie Robert Estate! And the odd thing is, they never seem to learn. Year after farming year, it is the same thing. The only variation is when you do it, not how.
And that depends on the weather, which we can not control, but we do accept. Something to watch this election year. And it’s a leap year. While elections occur every 4 years, leap years are not so encumbered. For those voting in the 2100 presidential election, it will not be a leap year. Read more here. Just another thing we can’t control, but must accept.
In This Communication:
The Big Picture
Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means.®
Let's Check the Schedule
Mechanization in the Agrarian Endeavor
The Numbers
Other Resources
The Big Picture
Do you hear that?! Just look at them grow! They have a schedule to keep and they are on it! Our job is to tuck these shoots into the trellis wires, so that Ernie can come back through and hedge them down to size. And as much fun as that is, there is a very good reason we do it.
Hedging helps redirect the vines energy from growing even more shoots and leaves to ripening their seeds. The idea is that the vine is trying to reproduce by producing viable seeds that will survive a trip through some animal or bird and be deposited far from the mother vine. That’s how the way it works for the Kopi Luwak coffee.
Except we are not making wine out of the seeds. To lure an unsuspecting creature to ingest the seeds, the vine puts out a very aromatic package of acid, sugar and water around those seeds. We call it the wine berry, and that is what we make the wine out of. While both Kopi Luwak coffee and Amalie Robert Pinot Noir are hand harvested, it is not quite the same process.
Do you see those little flowers? That’s buckwheat providing nutritious pollen for our beneficial insects while they seek out and destroy insects that would do damage to our vines. And along with the co-planted common vetch that is busy fixing nitrogen out of the air and onto their roots, these little summertime cover crops will become fertilizer for Vintage 2025. Those are our silent partners, doing the right thing the right way.
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Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means.®
We are living the dream so you don’t have to. Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means.® is a repository of our farming history at Amalie Robert Estate.
We have over 200 posts going back some 20 years. It’s all out there on Substack. You can visit the archive for FREE! If you want to see what we see on a more regular basis, follow us on Instagram @AmalieRobert.
Planning to enjoy traveling again and exploring the Willamette Valley? There are two primary gateways to the Willamette Valley. Most people are familiar with Portland International airport (PDX) at the top of the Willamette Valley. However, there is a second gateway in Eugene (EUG) at the south end of the Willamette Valley. Both of these airports service the major carriers.
Insider Tip: Alaska Airlines offers a Wine Flies Free program from both PDX and EUG. You will need to acquire a wine shipper box as you tour the valley. When you check in for your flight, indicate you have a case of wine, and it will be checked for FREE on Alaska Airlines. BONUS: Many wineries will provide you a FREE wine shipper box with a 6 bottle purchase.
Interested in learning about the newest AVA? Download our FREE guide to the Willamette Valley AVA’s!
Amalie Robert Estate is open year round by appointment for vineyard tours and tastings. Request a tasting appointment with your preferred day and time.
If your plans have you somewhere other than the Willamette Valley, the Big Blue Button can co-locate your wines with YOU to enjoy National Wine & Cheese Day on July 25th!
We suggest a UPS or FedEx drop point to allow you to pick up your wine at your leisure. It's better on the A-List. A-List members receive a 10% discount on any 1-11 bottle purchase, a 20% discount on a 12-bottle case purchase, and domestic ground shipping is always included with a case. Please email Dena for shipping options to Alaska and Hawaii.
Let’s Check the Schedule
June 21st was the summer solstice where the daytime and nighttime hours are the same. And as a special occurrence, it was also the first full moon of summer. Colloquially known as the Pink or Strawberry Full moon to note the ripening of strawberries.
The turn to fewer daylight hours means less photosynthesis for the vines. While they still have not figured out the trellis wires, they do understand the need to ripen their seeds. July and August usually provide the high temperatures of the growing season, but not always.
Nighttime temperatures take on importance as we move through summer. Cooler temperatures at night slows the sugar accumulation in the wine berry. This is a counter to high daytime temperatures and allows for hangtime in September and October to build aroma and flavor. The least desirable conditions are high daytime temperatures without an evening cooldown. The wine berries continue to develop sugar concentration, but without sunlight developing the aroma and flavor compounds in the skins.
We spied the first Pinot Noir flowers on June 11th. We add 105 days to flowering and pencil in the Great Cluster Pluck. So simple arithmetic tells us that we will be in full harvest mode in late September, probably. And continuing through October.
Preview of coming attractions: Oregon Governor declares State of Emergency through October 1, due to the concerning pace of wildfire activity. Here is a sneak peek at the current wildfires ravaging Oregon and Washington.
Mechanization in the Agrarian Endeavor
Despite the best maintenance regime, farm equipment (as a category) is never going to be fully reliable, but it is predictable. Hence Ernie’s catch all agrarian phrase, “That is unfortunate, but not uncommon.”
"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time." is commonly known as Murphy’s law. People say Murphy was an optimist, and that may be true. But we believe first and foremost, Murphy was a farmer.
So, 2024 was the year that the Great Landini DeltaShift tractor suffered a weeping diesel injector pump at just shy of 4,000 hours. The injector pump is a gear driven pump that injects a precise amount of diesel fuel at just the exact moment into the combustion chamber. A weeping injector pump means that the main shaft is worn, and diesel is escaping out of a factory weep hole designed just for this purpose. And as Ernie found out, when your injector pump weeps, you cry.
At first blush, it’s just a pump, right? Not really. The pump is attached to a piece of farm equipment. It is a Delphi pump manufactured in the UK at around the turn of the century (the most recent one). The choice was to replace the existing pump or take it to a specialized repair shop to have it rebuilt.
The local shop that could do the rebuild advised Ernie to replace the pump. “Parts are wicked expensive and have to come from the UK. Best to replace it.” The two parts houses Ernie uses that still offer Landini parts are located on the east and west coasts. They advised Ernie to have the pump rebuilt. From California: “That sumbich new gonna cost you $5,000.” From New York: “It would be cheaper to replace the tractor.”
Ernie explained this all to Dena (after a glass of wine), and in her calm demeanor replied “Well That’s Fantastic!” Which has become her new favorite reply when Ernie sends her text messages: WTF!
So, with an underlying goal of being able to successfully harvest Vintage 2024, Ernie was motivated to get the machine back in service as soon as practicable. As luck would have it, the east coast parts house had the exact match, remanufactured pump in stock. This was akin to divine intervention as this particular pump was only used for one year on this model of tractor. And as an Italian model (with a UK pump), they did not import a lot of them to the US.
I’ll take it! $2,700 and 4 days later, Ernie had it. And when it showed up, it came with 42 pages of instructions on how to remove the front of the tractor to get to the timing cover that holds the injector pump gear. Starting with the outside cowling and clamshell hood, to the battery, to the oil coolers, radiator, fan, water pump (you need new radiator hoses, by the way), air conditioning compressor and associated plumbing, and finally to the front of the engine where the timing cover is. At least it was translated to English.
Years ago we learned that just because YOU are ready to harvest, does NOT mean that a crew is available to help you. Similarly, just because you have the replacement pump, (and pages of instructions) does not mean that a repair shop has nothing better to do than come get your machine and fix it. Summer is everyone’s busy season for a reason. And that reason is because farm equipment lies in wait all winter long and only fails when you want, or need, to use it.
So now we are in the “Queue.” As in “QUEUE (BRITISH), a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.”
The Numbers
June was a cool transition month from spring to summer. We were somewhat giddy in thinking we just might have a return to a cool vintage akin to 2010 or 2011. We experienced cold nighttime temperatures into the 30’s and brief high daytime temperatures in the 90’s with a spot of rain. Some vines are quick to get started and fill out the trellis, others take some time to respond but will get there eventually. This makes scheduling the field labor a bit challenging, but what can you do?
We recorded 382.8 Degree Days for the month of June 2024. The high temperature was 91.2 degrees on June 21st at 3:00 pm, and the low temperature was 39.0 degrees recorded on June 17th. We recorded 1.18 inches of precipitation, mostly during the first few days of the month. This brings the growing season to date Degree Day accumulation from April 1st through June 30th to 749.0 Degree Days and precipitation to 5.78 inches.
It looks like the month to watch is going to be July! From hurricanes to heat domes and flash flooding, there is something for everyone. But by the time you are reading this, you already know that. But what you may not know is that someone posted a recipe on social media for baking lasagna in the mailbox. You know, street food, climate change edition!
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
Other Resources
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