Vineyard

The Bloodwood Schubert vineyard is to the east of the cellar door on a gentle undulating north-east slope of volcanoclastic loam, interspersed with mass-flow rounded cobbles of crystalline andesitic lava scattered through a quite a friable red clay base. The vines are of the FVI10V5 clone, planted in rows running north/south and trellised to a Scott-Henry trellis system opened to the protected west. The vines are mostly spur pruned to around 50,000 buds per hectare and with each vine occupying 4.5 square meters of the vineyard, yields are no more than moderate in most years.

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 hand-picked fruit was immediately whole-bunch pressed through our air-bag press to 1.1 atmospheres with the super low phenolic juice transferred to an insulated tank for overnight settling and subsequent racking. Some fine settlings were allowed to pass into the racking tank where, under gentle warmth, the juice commenced fermentation. After a Brix or so was converted by natural yeasts, the freshly moving juice was transferred to a mixture of 100% new Saury 3 year Immersion Bent French oak and ANA Selection Venus ML hogsheads and held in a warming room throughout primary fermentation. This is critical at Bloodwood as the autumn nights can be quite chilly and our indigenous yeasts, like us, seem to need some cosseting. Usually, ferment is conducted around 17 C to natural dryness over 23 days or so.

Immediately all activity ceases, the wine is sulfured, lees-stirred, topped up and relocated to our cool (13C) maturation cellar for aging. The fine lees are kept in contact with the wine through weekly topping and stirring, and after up to fourteen months, the wine is bench trialled, cold-stabilized to -5C for 7 days, protein stabilized and sterile filtered into bottle. Schubert is all about fruit and place and as long term devotees would appreciate, Bloodwood can be quite a deliciously fruity place..

Wine Analysis

pH 3.25

Acidity 8.1g/l

Alc/Vol 13.5% Al/Vol

Tasting Notes

Bright white-gold in colour with an enticing bouquet of white peach flowers and creamy hazelnut, this wines mealy texture has been enhanced through gentle fermentation and maturation in fine quality 100% new French oak hogsheads. The satisfyingly fresh mouth-feel remains an emblematic element of the delicate power of this unique Bloodwood style. Quiet cellaring through the medium term will only add to your enjoyment of this fine wine.

Al/Vol

13.5%