Day 17 7th March

It’s raining at Bloodwood today.

Only 3mm as I write but enough for the umpire to up stumps and leave the field. It was forecast and is not an issue so far if we dodge any thunderstorms later today.

So it is into the winery for the day.

One of the daily tasks which is a prerequisite for quality wine is fermentation management. And as we enter the home straight for Vintage 26, it is vital to monitor each ferment to see how it is developing.

I like a decline in Beaume to be less than 1.5Be per day for our whites. This sometimes means controlling the temperature of the ferment around the 17C mark. This protects the delicacy and freshness of the aromatics we have been aiming for in our whites here at Bloodwood.

Chardonnay is not considered to be an aromatic variety generally, however, if you are very careful in your approach in the vineyard and winery, the characteristic fragrance of our cool climate Chardonnay shines through.

In combination with a rainwater soft palate, this leads to a delicious and moreish classic Bloodwood Chardonnay.ice.

We also racked the BMIT juice across for ferment.

As a fair proportion of the fruit for this juicy number is from our newly re-worked and minimal canopy Malbec vines, it suffered in the January heatwave.

Although we picked around the damage, some of the berries must have made it to the must.

And because damage to the skin of ripening berries (be it from mildew, bird strike or sunburn) lets sometimes less than ideal fermentation organisms into the bunch, we took the decision to use an organic cultivated yeast to dominate any wayward strains.

This involves activating the dried yeast in a few litres of warm water and then adding juice from the proposed ferment in stages until the juice and the ferment temperatures are close enough that the introduced yeast enjoys its new home amongst the fabulous BMIT juice.

Racking juice for fermentation in order for Mark to sort out the mark is an essential quality step both prior and post fermentation. At this stage of this vintage we can do it blind.

Cheers,

Stephen and Rhonda