Climate Update: July 2023
Hello and Welcome,
This is the July Climate Update Vintage 2023 from Amalie Robert Estate. July is the first full month of summer, and what a beautiful month it has been! In the Willamette Valley, July also means a full month devoted to Pinot Noir canopy management. All of our vines' growth is painstakingly captured in three sets of catch wires and then clipped into place, all by hand. It is then, and only then that Ernie can hedge the vines by machine, redirecting their focus from the vegetative cycle of growing more leaves to the fruit maturation cycle of building aroma, flavor and sugar.
The Big Picture
July is also the International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) held at Linfield College in the middle of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir country. The extended weekend event brings Pinot Noir fans from everywhere to celebrate all things Pinot Noir. We learned several years ago, that the best way for us to satisfy our winery requirements was to stay on campus.
There are a limited number of student housing apartments available, and Ernie booked one just as soon as we received our IPNC invitation. It was set-up for 4 students with 2 bathrooms and a kitchen - perfect!
The weather plays an important role in IPNC because most of the events are held outside. We can recall many a year of sweltering heat, but not this year. Moderate daytime temperatures and cool evening breezes kept the Pinot Noir flowing - lucky!
And it just so happens that our student housing apartment was on the middle floor facing northeast. The morning sun was blocked by a row of fully leafed out trees, and the evening sun was blocked by the apartments facing southwest. And what a view! We had a prime spot overlooking the Dog Viewing Area - Bonus!
Summertime reminder: Rhubarb tastes different if you own a dog. Check out our Instagram reel HERE for more IPNC images.
The Main Story
Canopy management is typically not the first thing most people think about when experiencing wine. However, a wine’s aroma, flavor, texture and tannin are all influenced by canopy management. Let’s break this down.
Wine berries are grown on vines. Vines being what they are, are preprogrammed each year to grow out shoots to climb up whatever they can get their tendrils on. The reason they do this is to grow up into the sunlight so that their flowers will pollinate. Pollinated flowers result in wine berries with seeds. While we as winegrowers are not overly concerned with the seeds, the vine is. And the vine is not really all that bothered by the quality of the fruit. It is here to ripen its seeds and reproduce. Now we are speaking a common language.
Canopy management really breaks down into how much sun exposure we are allowing on the wine berries. By positioning all of the shoots in a vertical, or upright manner, we can also allow the breeze to circulate among the clusters to reduce the incidence of rot. This is important to us because rot will significantly impact the sensory experience and ultimate pleasure derived from wine. It’s not like we can clean up the clusters with a quick shower and a shave. They come as they are. And if we did not give them a proper upbringing, well they bring all of that baggage with them.
Hedging is one of the first steps in crafting a wine’s sensory profile. The first hedge removes the shoot tips and leaves from the apically dominant shoots. This means that the shoots at the end of the vine grow out faster than the shoots behind it. This is the vine sending out its first, best alternative to climb to an elevated position.
Note: Pumpkins and other squash are fruits that grow on vines trying to ripen their seeds, but they don't have tendrils to help them climb. That is why the 965 species of the cucurbit family of crops grow along the ground and canopy management is not really a thing for them. But with cucumbers, you can train them to grow up on a section of chain link fence to keep the fruit off the ground. You just have to learn to speak their language.
Back to the GRAPE vines. But once the lead shoot tip is mechanically removed by the hedger, the rest of the shoots begin to grow at a much faster rate. Thus filling out the trellis with more leaves to ripen their seeds.
Fast forward about 2 weeks, and Ernie is back with a second hedge pass. Now we are removing a serious amount of leaf material. Nearly every shoot has grown up into the hedge zone now. Some of the more clever shoots have seen the hedger before and are growing out the side, laterally.
Ernie is having none of it. The hedger is an over the row design. It cuts both sides and the top in a single pass. And since he has the mower hooked up on the back, he tidies up after himself. You see, they can be domesticated. The vines that is...
If you are skipping ahead, STOP HERE.
Now this is really important. Once the second hedge pass is completed it is time to pull a few leaves out of the morning-sun side of the fruit zone near the clusters.
The timing and amount of sun exposure on our wine berries has a significant impact on their aroma and tannin development. As for timing, it is best to remove the leaves about a week to 10 days after the vines have finished flowering. Those first few days are used for cell division, and the clusters can use all the energy they can get for this task.
The decision regarding the amount of leaves to remove is of critical importance. By stripping nearly all of the leaves from the fruit zone, the clusters will feel the full force from the sun. And we do this in our Chardonnay and Syrah. We are looking for full aroma and flavor development in those wines. Also, the fewer the leaves, the lower the alcohol potential. More on that later.
For Pinot Noir, we are much gentler. We only remove the larger leaves and that maintains some shade in the fruit zone. Aroma, flavor and tannin development happens in the skin of the wine berry. A close analogy is how our skin reacts to the sun. We can get a great tan with a little sun exposure over the course of the summer and be radiant throughout the fall and winter. Or we can go full commando and look like a boiled lobster for a week and then peel, returning to a pasty white fluorescent vibe for the remainder of the year.
Our goal with moderate sun exposure is to create a silky mid-palate expression of Pinot Noir. The aroma from shaded skins along with our indigenous wild yeast will be less intense, but more sublime and perfumed. The mid-palate experience is all about elegance. The softer tannins from the shaded skins are present in the back palate and are joined by the tannins from the stems in our whole cluster fermentation. These combined tannins provide the "iron fist in the velvet glove" finish.
Success leaves clues. As you experience wine, and Pinot Noir in particular, look for these markers in the aroma and on your palate. You can begin to hone in on how the wines you prefer are grown and fermented. It helps to know your winegrower or winemaker. With social media at everyone’s fingertips these days, wineries are more approachable than ever.
BONUS: Canopy management can affect the alcohol potential in wine. As we continue to adapt to our ever changing world, we have discovered how to influence the alcohol potential in our wine berries. The short answer is the less leaf surface you have, the lower the sugar concentrations in the wine berries, all other things being equal.
Ernie learned this years ago with our Viognier. This variety is all about sugar accumulation first and then aroma development later. Once Ernie figured this out, he started to hedge the canopy a little shorter. Prior to this, he would cut a 90 inch tall canopy because the rows were 90 inches apart. That ratio provided 100% solar efficiency - Gotta have that... Lately, Mother Nature has been giving us all the solar we need and then some. So Ernie now cuts another 12 inches of leaves off the top for a 78 inch tall canopy. All they were doing up there was growing alcohol, and we don’t need any more of that.
And now a word from our sponsor...
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Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means. ® is our story. An unfinished set of autobiographical stories reflecting our agrarian endeavor, marked by “unfortunate, but not uncommon” experiences and easily referenced by vintage. Irreverently referred to as the FLOG (Farming bLOG), it captures our 20+ year journey of making a winegrowing life in Willamette Valley wine country. The FLOG is available to read on Substack for FREE.
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Are you planning to enjoy traveling again, and exploring the Willamette Valley? We know you want to! Go ahead, be the smartest person in the room by downloading our FREE guide to the Willamette Valley sub-AVA's! Here are the 11 Willamette Valley sub-AVA’s listed by acreage, as of May 2023 (The Pig in the Polk, that's us):
Willamette Valley sub-AVA’s. Image Credit: Willamette Valley Wineries Association
We are open by appointment for the entire month of August and part of September. You can request a tasting appointment with your preferred day and time. Dena will confirm your appointment and create a tasting event specific to your party – that’s the way we do it.
Keep in mind, wine flies FREE from 32 west coast cities on Alaska Airlines. This includes our two closest airports Eugene (EUG) and Portland (PDX). Amalie Robert Estate is open year-round by appointment for vineyard tours and tastings.
Note: Your appointment may collide with a soaring red-tailed hawk. Raptors are in the air patrolling the vineyard for those pesky gophers and other rodents. We are a dog friendly site, but it's a best practice to keep small dogs close by. You can learn more about who we are and what we believe by taking our Virtual Tour!
What Does This Mean and Why Should I Care?
Our goal in this FLOG is to improve YOUR chances of finding wines that you like. How wine is grown, harvested, fermented and matured has a significant impact on the pleasure it provides. By asking a few of these questions you can narrow your search in the wide, wide world of wine to only those wines that meet the most demanding standard of all, YOURS!
Waft The Fruit - So many wines, so little time. Restaurant by the glass programs and wine shop in-store tasting events afford you the opportunity to experience a very wide variety of wines and styles. If a knowledgeable sommelier, sales associate or best of all winery owner/operator is on hand to answer your questions, then you are well on your way. Wine festivals such as the recent International Pinot Noir Celebration is another pathway to self-edification.
Some questions that might be revealing include: Where is the vineyard, who owns it and how is it farmed? Some of the very best fertilizer you can put in a vineyard is the owner's footprints. Drilling down to the next level, you may find out if the winery owns the vineyard and who is responsible for the farming – either the winery/vineyard owner or a vineyard management company. This is important because when the growing season throws you a curve ball, you want to know the motivation for the response. Better wine or cost savings are two possible scenarios. Hand harvesting versus machine harvesting exemplifies this point.
Once the grapes are in, how is the wine made? With indigenous yeast and whole clusters or maybe fully destemmed with a commercial yeast inoculum and oak chips? Does the wine go to barrel or tank? What additives are made before bottling? Is it filtered, and if so why? Sealed with a natural cork, screw off or bladder in a box? There are valid reasons for each closure. The question is who made the decision - Accounting, Marketing or Production - and why.
After a while, you may find that you gravitate toward particular characteristics in wine. Often times a variety such as Pinot Noir has a certain allure when grown in certain areas, but not so much for you when grown elsewhere. Fermenting with whole clusters in Syrah may be to your liking, or not. Ask around, see who does and who doesn’t. Barrel aging for 6, 12, 18 months or more are all valid styles. Gran Reserva Rioja’s require 2+ YEARS of barrel maturation. But does the wine speak to you, or would you prefer a fresher expression of Rioja?
Do you make a meal to pair with a certain wine, or select a wine to pair with the meal you have made? Remember, knowledge is being able to identify a tomato as a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. The proof is an exercise left to the reader. August 18th is National Pinot Noir Day - Choose wisely!
The Numbers
We have closed out July and are entering the most unpredictable month of the growing season. August is typically dry with no measurable precipitation. Temperatures can range down to the 40’s at night and well into the 100’s during the day. Depending on when and how much leaf removal you chose to do, August can have a significant impact on your wine quality. Said another way, Mother Nature can only make you look bad if you gave her permission.
Our soil moisture appears to be holding just fine. We know that because the canopy is still green and lush. A little early September rainfall would be a welcome gift. Ok, enough of the subjective, let’s get on to the objective material.
We recorded 586.4 Degree Days for the month of July. The high temperature for the month was 99.5 degrees recorded on July 15th at 3:36 pm. The low temperature for the month was 45.6 recorded on July 8th at 5:24 am. There was no measurable precipitation. The 2023 vintage to date heat accumulation stands at 1,427.9 Degree Days.
So far, so good.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie