Day 4 - 22nd February

Sunday is a day for rest and recuperation. Woke up to the sound of rain on the winery tin roof which is not what you want to hear in vintage. There wasn’t much in it fortunately and it did have the benefit of drowning out the morning tuck-shop call of the crows so it wasn’t all bad. Only 20 points in the old money so no damage done. After a cleanup of yesterday’s winery leftovers (I am feeding the whole-bunch residue to the cows) and a brace of early, no doubt Sydney-bound cellar door tastings, it was time to remove the nets for tomorrows’ Pinot pick.

Until the heatwave at the end of January, the fruit looked absolutely fabulous but some of the 777 and 114 clones have taken a hit in the heat. We have our long term expert hand picking team which will pick around the damage and although the crop will be down, it still looks pretty good. I won’t be able to tell until I have it in the winery, but this paddock sort through the picking team will iron out any potential problems..another reason for us not to use mechanical harvesting here at Bloodwood.

Mark and Andy helped in the awful task of lifting the nets late this afternoon so the picking team can start in the cool at 7am. Pinot Noir on 23rd of February is very early, but I don’t want to lose what acid the heatwave left behind and at around 13 Be, it is ripe enough for my purposes. Now it’s lamb and bean casserole, a glass or two of our 22 Syrah and off to that vintage vineyard and winery always overactive in my subconscious whether it is Sunday or not.

Cheers,

Stephen and Rhonda