Day 13 3rd March

What is it about the number 13?

Overnight we received close to an inch (in the old money) of rain. Now this isn’t ideal at this part of the vintage cycle but, to use common parlance these days, it is what it is. And what it is is annoying.

Fortunately we had half of the rainfall reported from the official Orange BOM site and because Bloodwood is mostly a gravelly collection of shale, laminated siltstones, limestone lenses and greywackes, if push comes to shove, it could do a passable impersonation of a quarry.

And gravel quarries drain pretty efficiently. It is unusual that we experience any berry splitting here and given the warm weather forecast for the end of the week, I look on the rainfall as an unscheduled minor irrigation.

There is the chance that the moisture will delay the ripening of the rest of the crop a little and could affect the pH/T/A balance of the fruit a little but I can manage around that if this tropical interruption is just a single event this autumn.

As the rest of the day was misty and damp, inside work was the order of things.

The Pinot Noir is progressing well and I will probably press it to barrel for malo-lactic fermentation tomorrow. The Chardonnay we picked on Friday last is beginning to ferment and the Schubert barrels are moving along nicely.

I have a general practice of allowing ferments to warm as they grind towards dryness and a quick barrel stir incorporating a bit of oxygen helps the new Schubert to go through to completion.

We have also taken the decision to pick the Malbec and some Cabernet Franc for a whole bunch pressing of our famous Big Men In Tights on Thursday, so fingers crossed this weather will move through overnight.

Everyone needs a Big Man In Tights to live up to its name in these dark days.

Cheers,

Stephen and Rhonda