Riesling Rides Again

Hop to it..the lush and bouncy 2023 Bloodwood Roosling is here

Yes folks, a wall of Riesling flavour from our pristine, hand-tended environment is all yours when you open a bottle of the 2023 Bloodwood Riesling. A Macropodidae Macropodiform attractor of the highest order, it will make you stand up as it bounces out of the glass displaying the typical talc and gentle citrus so attractive to discerning wine-writers and wild-life alike. And if you look at it closely enough, it will reveal itself as twice the presence it initially appears to be and at a price half what it is actually worth. An iconic Australian wine worth an honoured place in your cellar.

A case of the New Release amazingly lush 2023 Riesling normally $444/dozen delivered unto your door for a very reasonable Riesling price of $400

The Thank You and Please of Viticulture

In many ways, the post-harvest period in our vineyard is an important time to give back and say thank you to our vines. They've held up their part of the bargain producing the best fruit they can across the growing season so it is now time for us to give back. Grape vines are usually under stress as the ripening cycle completes because of the fruit load they are trying to mature and the usual drying autumnal environment here at Bloodwood. The harvest itself can be particularly physically stressful if machine harvesters are used, (we don't) and even hand picking is not the leisurely Tuscan adventure we romantically want it to be. This year has followed this pattern with the typical droughty conditions setting in after early February. This is why we generally generously irrigate immediately after harvest and consider a final sulfur spray programme to encourage new root development keep the vine leaves photosynthesising after vintage.  So we are saying "thank you" for the fabulous fruit they have given up and "please" asking for kindness to us for the next growing season.

Riesling Logically

Well this is a turn-up for the bookies..our Gallic friends have admitted they are unable to grow and make a decent Riesling except in those interwar years when Alsace is temporally restored to Germany and therefore they have hinted at Bloodwood as an exemplar to overcome their weary, crouching masses of sub-standard Rizzers yearning to breathe free.

Since our American friends no longer believe in Liberte, Egalite or Fraternite (although they still endorse a fair bit of Mort about the Globe) this grand news means that our Riesling vineyard is well and truly in the running as the new site for the Statue of Liberty.

We’ll have to do away with the a fair wack of the 47meter high plinth and shave a few feet off the feet to avoid the afternoon Link Airways flight path into Spring Hill airport and it will necessitate a bit of tricky tractor driving between rows six and seven of the Riesling vineyard, but it’s all doable. And given that the grand sheila is clad in copper, it will work wonders on any downy mildew outbreaks in a wet summer.

You’ll get the general idea from the illustration above, however we are open to suggestions..should we do away with the hat..is the beard really necessary..and why does every salute these days remind me of Francis Bellamy?

So it’s over to you.. at this stage, donations to the Bloodwood Wines Statue of Liberty relocation fund are very, very welcome. You know the drill..Visa La France.

What is happening at Bloodwood?

Vintage 2025 was the second earliest on record here at Bloodwood. Traditionally we used to begin harvest with Chardonnay around the 20th of March and that would continue for about six weeks until the Shiraz ripened into early May.

This year we had everything in the winery by the 8th of March. Admittedly our hands were a little forced because of the torrential rain off the back of Cyclone Alfred forecast for the 9th and 10th of March, (not a drop eventuated) however, like the rest of the globe that is not Orange, it was the warmest year on record. This now seems the pattern we have to adapt to. The normal six week harvest period is concertinaed into a fortnight or so from mid-February to early March.

It is now more a very broad brush rush into the fermentation vats than a detailed consideration of the nuances of fermentation techniques over a chilled glass of Riesling.

Smoked Trout Soba Noodles

Something pretty quick for noodle and Riesling lovers.

Before testing this out, I thought that udon noodles would have been a better match than the buckwheat. My guess was wrong. Just goes to show that now matter how experienced you are, you can always be surprised in food and wine matching.