Day 28 18th March

It is still called the one bunch in the tank is worth two on the vines philosophy of wine production.

Light rain started at around 2pm today and has persisted. We started picking with a last minute makeshift team at 7am and persisted until they were damply driven from the vineyard at 2pm..

Mark and I began de-stemming the fruit around 7am and we too persisted until the around 6 tonnes of hand picked fruit was securely inside the quite rain resistant stainless steel fermenter tank 1.

In fact, there’s been a lot of persisting here today at Bloodwood, but fortunately we have been so persistent that we have had no real need to describe ourselves as resilient. This is a great relief to me at least.

Still, soggy vine canopies and wet bunches are better off out in the vineyard while the rain persists.

Not that it will do much damage to the unpicked grapes.

The noble Cabernet Sauvignon grape from Bordeaux is the king of red grapes for its tannin, acid and cassis like aromas which make , deep coloured, long-living wines. They are naturally low yielding, love gravelly soils and because they are late to budburst each season, in cool areas like this they usually avoid frost damage.

They are also very resistant to rain at harvest and the associated diseases in other vitis vinifera, so this current dampness should only lead to a delay of a few more days for us. They are a very persistent variety.

Bench analysis Be 13.4Be pH 3.45 T/A 6.2g/l

We have two Cabernet clones here at Bloodwood vis: SA 125 and G9V3.

The above analysis is for the G9V3 all of which we managed to pick today. The SA125 will be brighter in acid and slightly lower in pH if we don’t get too much rain.

We couldn’t get through vintage without the help of friends who step into the breach at the last moment.

We’ve known Filthy for over thirty years since he helped build our cellar door/house here at Bloodwood. That’s right, he was our builder and we still talk to him.

This character rarity aside, he is a joy to have about the place and we are grateful he has given up building and now concentrates on cooking and growing melons.

Cheers,

Stephen and Rhonda