Day 31 22nd March

Everything comes to an end: as the first fresh vespers of the autumn break and the wind down to winter appear, this Advent calendar will disappear.

We’ve also pulled the trigger on the last of this year’s Cabernet Sauvignon which will be harvested on Tuesday.

As you can see it looks beautiful and I can report that it tastes, as the Japanese and Jeffrey Chapman would say, oishii. So it is time to bring its beauty into the winery and see what drinking pleasures it will reveal.

It’s been a busy and challenging vintage which we hope you have felt a part of. Thanks for the many messages of support and encouragement over the last 30 days. We enjoy making great wine for you and now, hopefully, you will have more of an idea of what the vintage life of this vintage wine maker is like during vintage.

But wait: there’s more

Hey, farmer, farmer, put away your DDT

I don't care about spots on my apples

Leave me the birds and the bees

Please (Joni Mitchell)

We also have an organically managed mixed orchard at Bloodwood which provides a steady stream of ripening fruits and nuts (mostly for the resident and migratory birds) and occasionally for us. Today’s fruit bowl features Williams pears; Hi Early Harold apples and Queen peaches.

As we tread lightly on the earth of Bloodwood, there are a few spots here and there, but as Jeffrey Chapman would say..they are oishii enough to eat.

But wait: There’s more

Using barrels to mature wine is an expensive business. One of the hidden expenses in, say, our Schubert whole bunch press and 100% new French oak maturation approach is what we call the “angels” portion. Every Sunday we stir the lees of each barrel to lift them up through the fabric of the wine to help provide a creamier palate feel to what is often a fairly high acid young wine.

Because a couple of grams of the Total Acidity of the Schubert is malic, it’s sharp Granny Smith apple acid feel softens a little over the time in barrel.

Using new barrels also means that the wood absorbs more than seasoned barrels and the transpiration of wine through the oak, depending on the humidity of the barrel cellar, can result in around a litre of wine needed to top each barrel each week. So over its time in barrel the angel portion could be up to 50 litres of Schubert.

No wonder angels are so happy.

But wait, there’s more

The press has mostly done it’s job, the Dalek winery tanks that should be are full (rule 1 of Bloodwood ‘s wine making 101 course which you have now completed) and importantly, Rhonda is in her kitchen.

And yes, there’s more:

Dragging 80mm hoses up and down fermentation tanks is not for the faint hearted so I ask you one last time.

Cheers,

Stephen and Rhonda