Welcome to cool climate wine

As we reverse into forty years here at Bloodwood, it is time to reflect. We selected our land high in the gravels of Griffin Road for many good reasons. The sweeping NE slopes had fabulous air drainage to ward off potential frost damage; the clay along the valley lines ensured any dam we built would hold like a bottle; the elevation (800 to 850 m) ensured we had a reliable cool climate in which to grow and make our wines and, importantly, the fragility of our 470 million Middle Ordovician derived soils offered the possibility of managing the vegetative growth of our vineyard without resort to systemic fungicides, herbicides and insecticides. We understood that it is better to naturally manage the production of vines up to where you want them to be through careful pruning and canopy design than it is to have to force the effects of excessive vegetative growth down through green pruning, hedging, bunch thinning and the use of systemic chemicals. Were we right all those years ago? Well, don’t leave it all to the wine reviewers; taste our wines and you be the judge.

Bloodwood cellar sellers

As per Bloodwood weather (the weather’s always the same at Bloodwood - it’s different!), there are in fact two (2) spring offers!

Red Letter Offer

If Merlot Noir be the wine you love, drink on,

Confirm access to it here. Does Cabernet

Does Sauvignon make you sigh?

Then advise again;-you too can have it all;

O, and Shiraz abounds- fruit sweet and round,

It breathes among its clasp of violets,

Whispering spicy bouquet.- Enough-but want you more?..

Bring Cabernet Franc unto the fore.

White Flag Offer

Surrender to the flavours of the Bloodwood White Flag Offer until the end of October, 2022

As winter's cold old hand begins to slip

It's time to enjoy a refreshing sip

Of all that's good

Here at Bloodwood

And surrender to these wines we proffer

Doing their time…

Occasionally you will see a review for one of our wines which is not yet available on the website or at the cellar door. This is because we never release our wines until we believe they are drinkable. We apologise if this causes you frustration, however, as with all good things in life, our wines are worth waiting for.

Tasting is a sleight of hand

It is my wont, in these balmy days of leisure and lunacy between the late recent terror of winter bottling in Orange and the appalling challenge of another damp (sic) Spring, to take in the odd wine tasting.

Now those of you who have been party to such vinous rituals at the Bloodwood Cellar Door will understand that the use of the word "odd" is a pejorative of the kindest order and any observations here are certainly not directed at you. After all, you do know the difference between a spittoon and a water jug and come the final swig, what really is "normal" about a public wine tasting anyway?

Vale Biff

We are sad here at Bloodwood to report that Biff, our especial old kelpie has gone to the cellar door in the sky. He was a favourite for many of you who visited Bloodwood over the last 18 years and his departure has left an ache in our hearts. Like all Bloodwood wines, he matured with age and continued giving until the end. He was our lovely dog.

Seasonal Report Spring 2022

Our 40th Spring is about to stamp its foot down here at Bloodwood. Russell the bull has run out of cigars, the dams seem to have been overflowing for months, the resident magpies have constructed a nest overlooking the cellar door and the first Chardonnay buds are about to burst.

We have somehow finished pruning the vineyard and the constellation of Orion is ever higher to the east in the wee hours. None of this is entirely new to us after four decades and yet it remains quietly exhilarating after what has been a pretty miserable winter locally.

Whenever rainy fronts from the west and south-west arrive from autumn to spring, they deliver welcome rain which sets the growing season up and fills the soil to field capacity. This season though, the cloud and drizzle has been hanging about between rain events so much that budburst seems to be about 10 days behind last year; itself a tardy beginner. It seems likely that, unless we get a burst of sunshine and warmth (unlikely) or an extended dry run (also unlikely) variable budburst and delayed irregular flowering could result.

We are concerned enough about the moisture in the vineyard that we are currently trying to retrofit a light 100-litre fungicide spray rig to fit our electric ATVs so that we don’t incur the damage a fully loaded spray cart and two-tonne tractor will do to our field capacity soils. Still, it’s another growing year full of promise and it is our challenge as farmers to discover exactly what those promises mean.

The Importance of vine dressing

(aka pruning)

If in doubt, cut it out. That’s about it really. If there is any dubiety in the position of a spur or the extension of a second year cane, give it the chop. That concludes the lesson for today.

The Importance of doubt. (aka incertitude)

That’s the real skill in dressing your vineyard each winter. You need to know enough about the purpose of the prune to minimise any doubt from vine to vine and vintage to vintage. Depending on variety, at Bloodwood, because we believe in flavour, we direct our secateurs towards 60,000 buds (or 120,000 bunches) per hectare. So if your average vine takes up 2.5 sq metres of vineyard floor, you have 4,000 vines across that hectare and need to prune to around 15 fruiting buds per vine. If your vine spacing is 1.5 metres, that means a bud per 10 cms (about a normally vigourous internodal spacing along a cane) or around one two-bud spur per 20 cms. Yes it is that prescriptive in, say Pinot Noir with an average bunch weight of 60 grams.

Thoughtful vine dressing is the beginning of quality each vintage and of that, there is absolutely no doubt.