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Amalie Robert 2006 Review Published March 12, 2007
Dallas, Oregon 97338
Phone/FAX 503.831.4703
Web site Address
Hello and Welcome,
We must apologize for the tardiness of this communication. However, it appears we have achieved equilibrium with the universe. Let us explain. It is said that you don’t burn-out from going too fast, but from going too slow and getting bored. It seems in agriculture you are always waiting for something, like spring or harvest and then spring again. However, there has been much work afoot during this last year, and we have been anything but bored!
The 2006 growing season saw the expansion of our vineyard, stellar wine reviews, increased market development, a polished brand image, our largest harvest to date, the construction of our gravity flow Estate winery (including its first crush of 30 tons) and our first ever ¡Salud! event as volunteers and a participating winery. That just about covers it. Oh, and now Spring is getting ready to bring us bud break in the vineyard.
The North Orchard As mentioned in our last conversation, Ernie completed planting the North Orchard (learn more by viewing our 2006 Spring Review and photo gallery.) That project began in 2001, when our dear friends at Smuckers declined to purchase any more cherries and we “harvested” the trees and gleaned the fruit for the last time that summer.
The next couple of years we continued to pull out roots, looked at the land’s aspect and tried to determine the optimal row orientation. We put out temperature sensors and found out that the east facing portion of the North Orchard is about 200 degree days cooler than the south facing portion. We finally settled on a North to south orientation and began to lay-out the rows in 2004. We used Popsicle sticks to mark the location of each plant.
In 2005 we took cuttings from our own vineyard to ensure we would have the right Pinot noir clones for the North Orchard. We also harvested our own selected rootstock types from the rootstock block we planted a couple of years earlier. We knew our rootstock selections were not popular choices among many Oregon vineyards and they were generally unavailable. The decision of what rootstocks to grow from years before paid dividends and we grafted the vines we wanted, instead of taking what was available.
The nursery had our young vines ready for planting in the Spring of 2006. Of course the Popsicle sticks had been returned to Mother Nature, so we spent the time to remark every row. We covered the better part of 8 ½ acres and used about 12,500 vines to do it. Each vine is planted by hand. The remainder of the year was spent keeping the weeds and grasses at bay, giving the vines a chance to establish themselves.
Now, if we do our part, and Mother Nature takes a liking to these new vines, we should harvest a few grapes in the fall of 2008. Full production, however, must wait until 2010. And who says agriculture is not the embodiment of strategic planning?
Where Can You Find Our Wines? Well, it seems in more places than we thought. We chose Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar for our first submission to a national wine publication. Even though we self distribute on the West coast, we heard tell of bottle shops throughout the US carrying our wine. Out of about 160 Pinot noirs reviewed and published, only 8 wines were scored higher than our 2004 Dijon Clones Pinot Noir (and that was only by a point or two.) Amalie's Cuvee (91 cases produced) - Dark red. Raspberry and strawberry preserves on the nose, with hints of cola and dark chocolate. Sweet, plump cherry and blackberry on the palate, with good breadth and depth but not the purity or vivacity of the Dijon Clones bottling. A lush, weighty wine that picks up some exotic spice notes on the back end, finishing on a sweet, ripe note. (This was the first vintage under the label of this estate, which still sells half of its harvest to top local producers like Beaux Freres and Cristom.) 89 points Dijon Clones (254 cases produced) - Light red. Flat-out gorgeous nose of red berries, yellow rose and five-spice powder, with a chalky mineral element adding energy and lift. Juicy, vibrant and pure, the nicely concentrated flavors running the red fruit gamut (especially wild strawberry), with an earthy note of rhubarb. Wonderfully clean and brisk, but with no shortage of concentration or flavor impact through the finish. Develops a wild, sweet note of underbrush with air. This is strikingly pure, unadorned and pretty pinot. 91 points - Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, May/Jun 06 Dena is hot on the sales trail showing our wines to restaurants and retailers, hopefully in an area near you. Of course, the best place to get our wines is from the winery, but until we get our shipping straight in all the states, here is a list of where our wines can be found in Oregon:
Ashland: Allyson’s of Ashland; Ashland Wine Cellar; Chateaulin Astoria: The Cellar on 10th Bend: Merenda; Vino Mercato; Wild Oats; The Wine Shop & Tasting Bar Cannon Beach: The Wine Shack Corvallis: Avalon Dayton: The Joel Palmer House Dundee: The Dundee Bistro Eugene: The Oregon Wine Warehouse/Oregon Pinot Noir Club; Marché; Sundance Wine Cellars Gleneden Beach: Salishan Lodge Lake Oswego: Wizers (Old Town) Lincoln City: The Bay House McMinnville: Art of the Vine; Roth’s McMinnville Medford: Pacific Wine Club Newberg: Six One Four; The Painted Lady Newport: Blu Cork; Champagne Patio Oregon City: Haggen Portland: E&R Wines; Fred Meyer Raleigh Hills; Fred Meyer Tualatin; Higgins; In Good Taste; Market of Choice; Oregon Wines on Broadway; Portland Wine Merchants; Square Deal Wine Company; Vinopolis Redmond: Mustard Seed Café Salem: Grand Vines; Fitts Seafood; Fred Meyer South Salem; Roth’s Sunnyslope Silverton: Silver Grille Sisters: Cork Cellars Sunriver: Sunriver Country Store Timberline: Timberline Lodge Yachats: The Wine Place
Our Updated Look
We also asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to take a look. We were granted trademark rights to “Amalie’s Cuvée”. We were also granted trademark rights to “Wines true to the soil. Wines true to the vintage.” This second mark is very important to us as it embodies our winegrowing philosophy. We believe wines should reflect where they are grown as well as the conditions of the growing season. In Oregon, this means a different wine every year.
The 2006 Harvest Many things in agriculture are measured in the number of yearly occurrences in 10 years. For example, in the Willamette Valley near Dallas, we typically see 15% of our annual precipitation from April through September. It is about 2 years in 10 where that summer rainfall is less than 6 inches. A really good cherry harvest happens 3 years in 10, and will sustain the grower for the other 7 not so good harvests. A cold vineyard site may get frosted 5 years in 10, and then becomes a Christmas tree farm.
Amalie Robert Estate had the good fortune to experience a 1 year in 10 growing season. It seemed that all of the heavenly bodies were aligned and we were provided with a bountiful fruit set. This is not a guaranteed event, as the previous 3 years attest.
We quickly came to the realization that we would have too much fruit. That was the obvious part. The decisions about what to do and when to do it are not so obvious. This is where our knowledge of viticulture, and the “boots on the ground” experience with our own vineyard, pays big dividends in fruit quality.
The primary goal for Amalie Robert Estate was to reduce the crop load to world class quality levels while maintaining balance in the vineyard. We worked toward this goal by using several viticultural techniques we have adapted to our site. The timing of our actions is the key to our success.
However, one of the most important factors affecting wine quality is the availability of moisture to the vine in the weeks before harvest. This is why the first generation of winegrowers will say that you only need one month to grow great wine in the Willamette Valley, and that month is September.
If we have a hot and dry September, the vines will exhaust the moisture from the root system, followed by the fruit to keep their leaves cool and functioning. A leaf’s primary function is photosynthesis, to produce energy for the vine. Leaves need moisture to keep cool and conduct photosynthesis. They use stomates on the underside of the leaves to release water vapor. This vapor cools the leaf much in the same way that people perspire on a hot day. Dogs, if you prefer, use their tongues. Cats, we are told, are too cool to sweat.
Typically, the vine canopy is cooler than the ambient temperature. However, when the temperature remains high, and we see strong dry winds from the east, there is the potential for compromised fruit quality. The vine will first exhaust the available moisture in the soil. If the canopy requires more water to cool the leaves, it will come from the fruit. Once the fruit has given what moisture it can, the stomates will close, photosynthesis stops and the vine will “shut down”. The result is a less than stellar vintage.
As many of you already know, we believe in Mother Nature’s irrigation schedule. So, instead of depending on irrigation, we planted vines with rootstocks that go deep in the soil looking for moisture. In fact, our most predominately planted rootstock is from a vine originally sourced in Texas. You KNOW they are looking for water!
We also keep the vineyard floor soil “fluffed” so that the moisture in the soil cannot evaporate. Think of the beach where the sand on the surface is dry and hot to the touch, but no more than a few inches down, the sand is cool and moist. It is the same in the vineyard; the water cannot cross the barrier of aerated soil and evaporate. This preserves soil moisture for the vines and helps to keep the leaves functioning, and fruit developing throughout September.
We also ask Mother Nature to smile upon us. This she did between the 14th and 20th of September with an inch and a half of rain – about 40,800 gallons per acre. A gentle off and on shower is exactly what we hope for. This gave the vines a little drink and carried them through to harvest which promptly commenced on October 3rd.
The 2006 growing season produced our largest harvest ever, nearly 60 tons of Chardonnay, Pinot meunier, Pinot noir, Syrah and Viognier. We are still selling about half of this fruit to Beaux Frères, Cristom Vineyards, Elk Cove Vineyards and Dick Erath. Here is the breakdown:
The Winery at Amalie Robert Estate This is the first piece of artwork we have commissioned. We purchased the farm with an existing farmhouse. The vineyard development was of our own design and effort. But, the design and fit of the winery into the existing landscape required the wisdom and skill of a professional architect. That man was Ernie Munch. He came with good references, namely Dick Erath. Ernie’s work on Domaine Drouhin, Domaine Serene and WillaKenzie Estate was also very telling.
Ernie met Ernie during a winery design course offered at Chemeketa Community College. Oh sorry, that is Ernest R. Pink (ERP), and Ernest R. Munch (ERM). That is the way it went for over 18 months. ERM would have a question or idea for ERP. ERP would change his mind about the cellar layout and E-mail ERM. It wasn’t long before ERM had a design that fit with the ERP winemaking plan and soon thereafter we had the AREW (Amalie Robert Estate Winery). And don’t miss Clos de Munch when you come to visit.
Now the hard part of filling in the excavation began. That is when John “JP” Paull took over for ERM. JP is the kind of guy that any owner would love. He is always on-time, comes prepared to discuss the relevant topics that require decisions and the follow-on consequences of those decisions. He thinks a few steps ahead of everyone else and kept the project moving forward. He was perfect in his role. The winery at Amalie Robert Estate bears JP’s “stamp” and we are proud to have it.
The first steps in “building” a winery required a layer of rock, and then more rock followed by “under slab drains” and then, more rock. The concrete walls were all poured in place as were the columns in the barrel cellar. Hollow core plank decking was used to enclose the below grade areas and made the foundation of the fermentation floor. The rest is just like the old days with exposed wood framing, a bit of plumbing and electrical, and with the blessing of the county, we have a winery.
There are now about 70 barrels of Pinot meunier, Pinot noir and Syrah slowly going through the mystery of Malo-lactic fermentation. Right in the middle of the cellar is a couple thousand liters of Chardonnay slowly fermenting away in stainless steel tanks. This is the secret to retaining that fresh fruit aroma and flavor of our Chardonnay – long cool fermentations in stainless steel.
So, if you would like to know what 1,200 tons of concrete looks like, and taste our best estate grown Chardonnay, Pinot meunier and Pinot noir, please join us for our Open House this Memorial Day weekend. Details will be posted in the “Current Events” page of our website.
¡Salud!
The ¡Salud! Pinot
Noir auction is Oregon’s premier wine event. The auction’s mission is to
raise funds
The 2006 auction featured 42 Oregon wineries including Amalie Robert Estate. The mission raised just over $750,000 and was the most successful event in its 15 year history. We are proud to say that our special ¡Salud! cuvée was well received. The limited blend of 5 cases generated bids averaging about $800 per case. The ¡Salud! Cuvée is uniquely created every year exclusively for this event, and is not otherwise available. If you want one of these cases, you need to be there, bid early and bid often!
Looking forward
As we close this epic
review, here are a few things we are working on. It has been 10 years since
we attended our first ¡Salud! Pinot Noir auction and started looking
for Amalie Robert Estate. Over that time we have made fond memories of what
it takes to grow and sell a bottle of wine. Look for upcoming photo essays
about how we transitioned from the hi-tech lifestyle to the winegrowers we
are today.
We will be releasing 4 wines in 2007, and debuting a new varietal, Pinot meunier. In the past, our new releases were offered as “pre-releases” to everyone who subscribes to our newsletter. That will continue in 2007. We will also be developing a cellar club program that will have pre-release access and discounted re-order pricing.
When we are not figuring out better ways to grow the best Pinot noir we can, you will find us hunched over a Pinot noir glass with something Ernie has put together as a so called “food pairing”. Look for the “Dena Approved” seal in the upcoming “Culinary Selections” page of the website.
Please enjoy the festival of colors and extended daylight that is Spring. The blooming crocus and daffodils signal us that it is just about time to order barrels for this fall’s harvest.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
Previous Newsletters
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The
project required a little land clearing and a tremendous amount of
excavation provided by Matt Pihl. It was due to Matt’s ability to “mobilize”
all of his heavy iron in a few short hours, and catch a dry spell in
February, that got the project off on the best footing. Matt had a road cut
and rocked, the site cleared, excavated, and surveyed before anyone thought
possible. He is a mountain of a man that can “make it happen”, and he did.
When he was finished excavating, we had the most incredible view of our soil
profile, down to 15 feet.
When October 3rd
arrived, it brought with it 30 tons of beautiful and intensely flavored
Amalie Robert Estate fruit. Dena and
Ernie got on task and over the course
of the next 6 weeks harvested, destemmed, punched down, fermented, pressed
and barreled the 2006 harvest. Of course the Syrah was the odd man out, with
a harvest that started on October 31. 
to provide healthcare benefits to agricultural workers and their
families who move through the community. Ernie is a member of the steering
committee and is responsible for the technical portion of the Big Board
auction. It is our privilege and honor to serve this mission. To learn more,
follow this link.
