Vineyard

This vineyard is the original Chardonnay vineyard at Bloodwood, and as such is responsible for much of the perception of quality that today surrounds Orange Chardonnay as a style. This vineyards low vigour friable soils are derived from a mixture of laminated siltstones and massive volcaniclastic sandstone, over a deep, free-draining pale substrate on a northerly slope of 15 degrees or so. Rows are arranged East/West on a pretty close planting of 1.2 by 2.2 metres. The vines are from the traditionally reserved P58

Chardonnay clone, and are trellised to a moderately formal VSP trellis system. Because of the low vigour in both the clone and the site, a mixture of cane and spur pruning is used in this vineyard to better balance the vines according to expected seasonal conditions.

Vintage Conditions

The Weather At Bloodwood is always the same; It's Different!

Vintage 2024 is looking better as the months go by. The winter rainfall leading up to the growing season was well below average and along with warmer temperatures, the early growing season was a challenge which we managed with pre-budburst irrigation and good weed control. The growing season itself was a warm one with weather up to and including harvest best described as warm and dry with some useful bursts of almost tropical rain in thunderstorms. Warmer than normal nights brought vintage forward to

equal the earliest start recorded in vintage 2016. White and red yields were moderate across most varieties although the dry meant Cabernet juice yields were about 30 % down on historical averages. All the whites show remarkable pH/acid balance and fruit for such a warm year and the reds picked at moderate alcohols are also full of promise. Outstanding Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz are early highlights in what is likely the best vintage since the outstanding 2019.

Wine making

The initial approach for the Chardonnay is much the same as the Schubert, although the grapes are usually picked slightly earlier. The hand‐picked fruit is whole‐bunch pressed in an air‐bag press to 1.1 atmospheres with the low phenolic juice transferred to an insulated tank for overnight settling and subsequent racking. Some fines are allowed to pass into the racking tank where, under gentle warmth, the juice commences fermentation. After a Brix or so conversion, the newly moving juice is split into 20% well seasoned old oak with the balance fermented to dryness over 14 days in stainless steel. After primary fermentation is completed, both parcels of the wine are sulphured to inhibit malo‐lactic fermentation, stirred and transferred to our cool maturation cellar where the blend spends six months on fine lees. Stirring only occurs if too many reductive notes are seen. The wine is then bench trialled, cold stabilised, protein fined and sterile bottled in October following vintage. Pretty simple approach really with the wine mostly making itself. All I've got to do is avoid stuffing things up.

pH 3.18

Acidity 8.5g/l

Alc/Vol 13.3%

Tasting Notes

Straw white gold in colour, this Chardonnay, through its bouquet of ripe chalkiness, displays a typical

rainwater-soft palate of spicy white peach and honey dew notes. And after enjoying all the flinty

minerality and purity of varietal expression so typical of our old Chardonnay vineyard, there remains a

fruit-dense and lively presence at the absence of this wine.