"Bob, I think I got here too late. You have your cherry orchard sitting on top of my vineyard!" Ernie was pretty sure he saw his vineyard beneath that orchard and struck a deal to find out.
Amalie Robert Estate was founded by Dena Drews and Ernie Pink at the turn of the century. Our 35 acre vineyard and estate winery are located in the North Willamette Valley about 15 miles west of Salem, Oregon.
“The last best place to grow Pinot Noir.”
“…what’s possible from this site in these hands revealed itself to be extraordinary!... And what a Syrah!"
- David Schildknecht, The Wine Advocate - October 2013
We predominately grow Pinot Noir, but also produce intriguing amounts of Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Meunier, Syrah and Viognier. We plant cover crops to reduce soil erosion and feed the soil. The soil feeds our vines. We are stewards of the land, and Mother Nature provides the irrigation program. “Wines true to the soil, Wines true to the vintage ®”
We live on our property and tend our own vines. This gives us a unique perspective as winegrowers first and winemakers second. Enter the Vintage Vestibule to read up on the growing conditions for each vintage at Amalie Robert Estate.
We grow, ferment, blend and estate bottle the following wines from our vineyard. Planted at the turn of the century, our vines are densely spaced at 1,452 vines per acre.
Book Club series wines are about taking the time to be you. Kick off your shoes and escape to other worldly pleasures, or just enjoy watching the world go by. This is your time. Relax, recharge, rinse and repeat.
We produce about 200 cases of Chardonnay each year. Dijon Clones is a Chablis style wine fermented in stainless steel and does go through full malo-lactic conversion. The Heirloom Cameo is fermented in a single 500 liter (new) puncheon each year and is our answer to Chassagne Montrachet.
Pabuk’s Gift is our Late Harvest Botrytized Chardonnay, a Gift from Typhoon Pabuk which gifted us 9 inches of rain in 4 days just before harvest, vintage 2013.
Our Muse is Viognier. We produce a highly aromatic, stainless steel fermented wine yielding about 15 - 25 cases per year. Viognier is an exceeding difficult grape to grow well, and we are inspired when everything comes together.
The G’wzr is small production, passion project. Fermented to dryness with delicate aromatics and a light touch.
Pinot in Pink is a dry Rosé of Pinot Noir that spends a little time in neutral oak barrels before making its way to the bottling line.
Pinot Meunier, where raspberries meet rose petals in this light bodied, exotically perfumed, still red wine. Production ranges from 50 to 100 cases per year, depending on Mother Nature’s mood.
We are traditional producers of Pinot Noir. We ferment small, individual vineyard blocks in 1.5 ton fermenters using indigenous yeast and whole clusters. All of our Pinot Noirs spend at least 12 months in barrel and the reserve wines age a minimum of 18 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
iPinot® is reserve quality barrels of wine selected for our “Hers and His Reserves” Amalie’s Cuvée and Estate Selection. Once the final “Hers and His Reserve” wines are blended, we have a few reserve level barrels of wine to blend. We blend these barrels of wine together to create iPinot - a reserve level wine without the reserve level price.
The Uncarved Block is an introduction to Amalie Robert style of whole cluster and indigenous yeast fermentation.
The Dijon Clones is a blend of 7 Dijon clones of Pinot Noir grown throughout the vineyard taking advantage of the unique microclimates of our site.
Amalie’s Cuvée is a limited production barrel selection made by co-founder and co-owner Dena Drews. This is referred to as the “Hers” of the “Hers and His” Reserves.
Estate Selection is a limited production barrel selection made by co-founder and co-owner Ernie Pink. This is referred to as the “His” of the “Hers and His” Reserves.
Mistletoe Ridge is a commemorative bottling recognizing the formation of the Mt. Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon AVA.
Pommard Clone is a 2 barrel blend of the most intriguing Pommard in our cellar.
Wadenswil Clone is a 2 barrel blend of the most intriguing Wadenswil in our cellar.
The Reserve Pinot Noir is simply our best barrel or two of Pinot Noir from the vintage.
Ernie was confident that he wanted to grow cool climate Syrah and Viognier. Dena said OK, but you can only have 1 acre – no more. Establishing an acre of vines is not the most difficult thing Ernie has ever done, by far.
But establishing the right clones of Syrah in that 1,485 vine planting took some research. With the help of Marcel Guigal, he did just that. All of the local growers thought Ernie was daft. “Yeah, sure, go ahead. Let us know how that works out for you! Ha!” If you have met Ernie, you know he doesn’t really run with the traffic. He was simply more “encouraged.”
Satisfaction is four clones of Estate grown, Northern Rhône clones co-fermented with Viognier. Barrel aged for over 24 months, bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The Top Barrel is quite simply the single best barrel of Syrah from the vintage.
Waft The Fruit Syrah. Every once in a while we come across a barrel of wine that gives us a moment of pause, WTF!
Email: Cuvee@amalierobert.com
I strongly encourage readers to benefit from the delightfully scripted insights into viticulture and winemaking that form the "climate update" blog on Amalie Robert's website, charting the entire winery year.
- David Schildknecht, The Wine Advocate
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