Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: Flowers 2022
Hello and Welcome,
Pinot Noir flowers have sprung forth! After a blistering hot weekend, the vines relented and we have bloom. The nice thing about vintage 2022 bloom, is that it is happening all at once. In theory this means that each flower will pollinate about the same time and the resulting wine berries will ripen as a uniform collective. Nice weather is one of the advantages of a late bloom.
The other implication is that we will set a heavy crop load. This may offset potential losses of those vineyards that suffered frost damage. We were not one of them. That means we will be carrying a full crop load to term. Assuming we don’t run out of growing season.
The one thing we can now pencil into the calendar is a potential harvest window. Flowering yesterday, June 27, 2022, is Julian calendar day 178. We typically need 105 days to ripen Pinot Noir. That puts us at Julian calendar day 283. And that corresponds to October 10th. And if Mother Nature lets us be, we can hold out for some hang time and that feels more like vintage 2008. Not so bad, all things considered.
The Numbers
We can provide a graphic (and listing) of the flowering dates from the last 16 vintages, because we wrote it all down. Only vintage 2010 and 2011 had later flowering dates than vintage 2022. Having successfully navigated those vintages, and made elegant wines, we are mentally preparing for another test of our mettle. Not dissimilar from encountering the “Knights who say NI!” in a Monty Python sketch. You don’t happen to know where we could find a shrubbery?
2022: June 27 (Julian calendar day 178)
2021: June 3 (Julian calendar day 154)
2020: June 8 (Julian calendar day 160)
2019: June 12 (Julian calendar day 153)
2018: June 6 (Julian calendar day 157)
2017: June 20 (Julian calendar day 171)
2016: May 27 (Julian calendar day 148)
2015: June 7 (Julian calendar day 158)
2014: June 6 (Julian calendar day 157)
2013: June 7 (Julian calendar day 158)
2012: June 18 (Julian calendar day 170)
2011: July 3 (Julian calendar day 184)
2010: June 30 (Julian calendar day 181)
2009: June 9 (Julian calendar day 160)
2008: June 21 (Julian calendar day 173)
2007: June 6 (Julian calendar day 157)
Note that the time between bud break and flowering is highly variable. But once those flowers open up, we are on a flat trajectory leading us directly into - THE GREAT CLUSTER PLUCK!
Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means.® by Dena & Ernie is the repository of our farming history at Amalie Robert Estate. A FLOG communication (Farming bLOG).
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Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie