Amalie Robert Estate Vintage Update: Bud Break 2025
Hello and Welcome,
It’s springtime in Willamette Valley Pinot Noir wine country! The Montmorency cherries are in full, fragrant bloom, and Ernie is on it! The tractor that is. You can see him right there on his manly man’s robin’s egg blue tractor beyond the cherry blossoms.
And following right behind is Pinot Noir Bud Break, Vintage 2025! While the vines endured a miserably cold winter, they have emerged unscathed, so far. The first, most intrepid buds to break were from that sneaky little block 14 Pommard Clone Pinot Noir on 101-14 rootstock. The date was April 16th, the Vintage 2025. The risk is now a late spring visit from Mr. Frost, Jack Frost. The early bird may get the worm, but it is the second mouse that gets the cheese.
In This Communication:
The Big MOVING Picture
Traveling to the Willamette Valley?
While You Were Sleeping
What Does That Mean, and Why Should I Care?
The Equipment Corner
Did You Know We Have a Book Club?
Winemaking: The Continuation of Terroir by Other Means.®
Other Resources
iPinot® Pinot Noir 6-Pack Digital Offer
iPinot® Pinot Noir - a reserve level wine without the reserve level price. iPinot® Pinot Noir is created from reserve quality barrels of wine selected for our “Hers and His Reserves” - Amalie’s Cuvée and Estate Selection Pinot Noirs. Once the final “Hers and His Reserve” wines are blended, we have a few reserve level barrels of wine left to blend. We blend these cellar worthy barrels of wine together to create iPinot® Pinot Noir - a reserve level wine without the reserve level price.
Experience cellar worthy, Willamette Valley iPinot® Pinot Noir by Amalie Robert Estate. We are offering select vintages of iPinot® Pinot Noir for our 6-Pack Digital Offer!
The Big MOVING Picture
Here is the view from our Chief Farming Officer’s office, aka the tractor seat. His job is to mow up all of last year’s brown canes and mix them in with the freshly cut green grass. The vines are blissfully unaware, awaiting a few more warm days before opening their buds to the new vintage.
Click the image to put yourself in the drivers seat!
The soil compost crew (including our buddy the earthworm), is on the scene to compost that material into nutrients our vines can use. We think of it as nutrient recycling. To the vines, it’s like breakfast in bed! Cover crops do their part too, but we don’t till those in until next month. Stay tuned!
Traveling to the Willamette Valley?
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.
While You Were Sleeping
Mother Nature provides quite the early season show of color to introduce her new vintage. From the crocus in brilliant white to the multicolor daffodils and ever alluring grape hyacinth and wild iris. We even celebrate the dandelions, we just don’t tell them they are weeds. (They are on a need to know basis). But no bud break with this first splash of color… What a tease!
But despite the brutally cold start to the year, the vines are not far behind. Typically, we see the Pinot Noir buds open when the lavender lilacs bloom. Typically, about the time Uncle Sam is getting our results from the national Mathematics Exam form 1040 - due on April 15th. Once the vines start to reveal their first leaves, the only real danger is a late season frost. Or Ernie not staying in his lane…
You may have heard about old cherry orchards making for great vineyard sites. That is very true, especially when growing Pinot Noir. But it is not because the wines have a cherry component to them left over from the orchard. It is because cherries bloom relatively early in Mother Nature’s grand schema. And if cherries are growing on a site that does not get frosted out, that bodes well for vines avoiding a late season frost. And that in turn bodes well for winegrowers becoming winemakers.
What Does That Mean, and Why Should I Care?
Bud break is the official start to the vintage. But it does not tell us a whole helluvalot about harvest. When is The Great Cluster Pluck? As winegrowers and winemakers, that’s what we really want to know.
The answer to that question is really quite simple. We take 105 days and add it to the date the vines flower. In the computer world, this is known as relative addressing. The result you seek is relative to an unrelated event. If you have ever called a software company for technical support, you know what we are talking about.
Practically speaking, we don’t know when the vines will flower. There is no definitive correlation between bud break and flowering. If it continues to be cold this spring, the vines will take longer to flower. But once they do flower, it is 105 days until Pinot Noir ripeness.
On a related note, there is DST (daylight savings time). According to Dena, this annual ritual robs her of an hour of sleep each spring. Time, much like rust on the farm equipment, waits for no man, or woman. Get up, get your coffee and get on it! But, this may be the last year if Congress can get their act together.
And just so you are not caught out unawares, 45 squared is 2025 this year (and every year). So, you got that going for you this year, which is nice. Ask your AI powered digital assistant the result of 45 squared, it is kind of funny.
The Equipment Corner
And it just wouldn’t be spring if Ernie wasn’t lamenting about some aspect of the unique machinery category called Farm Equipment. Well, nothing much to report so far this year, except the battery in the crawler (aka Land Weenie), is failing.
Ernie is currently looking for a transplant donor, but this unique piece of compact Italian farm equipment has a very peculiar, if not specific, (metric) battery size. And said metric battery fits under the front pivot point of a clamshell hood in a very inaccessible spot. It is sequestered in front of the radiator and sits just under the transmission oil cooler (whose hydraulic lines have it encircled like a Burmese python).
While this is unfortunate, it is not uncommon. Ernie has had to replace this battery before. And the last time he did it, he wanted it to be the last time he would have to do it. So, he found the biggest, most powerful battery that he could shoehorn into that compact repository. Just imagine putting a Hemi in a VW Bug, yeah it was kinda like that. But now, it has to come out. And most likely not the same way it went in.
For those of you contemplating the farming endeavor, including farm equipment husbandry, we have a few words to share. You can get pretty far with WD 40. But you can get a whole lot farther with WD 40 and a big farmin’ hammer. Percussive maintenance: It’s not for everyone. Expletives deleted.
Did You Know We Have a Book Club?
Oh yes, it’s very nice! Our first edition, Book Club White, is our proprietary blend of Gewürztraminer and Viognier. Both of these are highly aromatic varieties. Much like the scintillating aromas of spring flowers, these two grapes come together to create a very compelling bouquet. Pheromones are your Super Hero’s, always working their magic in the background.
Our second edition, Book Club Rosé is also a very attractive wine in its own right. Blushing rose petal pink with heady aromas lead you to other worldly pursuits that you can indulge in without leaving the privacy of your own home. Or in a group setting.
It’s all about the six. Six bottles that is, mix or match six bottles and you have a Book Club shipment! Six Book Club bottles of your choice, includes Book Club rate shipping for $135. The shipping discount will be manually applied when your order is confirmed. Note: All shipments arrive in a plain brown carboard box, no further discounts. Click on the Book Club 6-Pack button to order.
If you would like to make your own custom selection, we are introducing a NEW shipping credit to replace flat rate shipping. Any order of 6 bottles or more will receive a $15 shipping credit. An order of 12 bottles or more will receive a $40 shipping credit.
All shipping options are available to you. You can apply your credit to ground shipping, or next day air. The credit also applies to Alaska and Hawaii shipments. While we transition to the new shipping credit, the credit will be manually applied by Dena (a human) and confirmed with your order before shipping. Try it out!
It's better on the A-List. A-List members receive a 10% discount on any 1-11 bottle purchase and a 20% discount on a 12-bottle case purchase. We suggest a UPS or FedEx drop point to allow you to pick up your wine at your leisure. Please email Dena for shipping options to Alaska and Hawaii.
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 25 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.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
Other Resources
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Alaska Airlines Wines Fly Free