Making  Wine

P.S. Unlike our French cousins, we do not add stalks to our wines except under strict supervision!.

Bloodwood Wine making

are identifiably Bloodwood in style. During the processing and maturation of each wine, every effort is made to ensure that the innate Regional characteristics of the fruit are protected. To this end, sulfur additions are kept to a necessary minimum and great care is taken to protect each wine from unnecessary oxidation and handling. Pinot Noir of course, is still a pain!

Making Bloodwood Cabernet Sauvignon

The fruit is picked as ripe as the season and our modest cropping levels allow, usually around 13.5 Beaume (24 Brix or % sugar) with a pH of 3.5 and a TA of 6.5 g/l. These figures are usually achieved about the second week in April if the weather holds, however the decision to pick is always based upon natural flavour, the seasonal outlook, and bird attack. All grapes are hand harvested and refrigerated to 5 degrees Centigrade in preparation for crushing. As the fruit is normally clean and sound, and the picking swift, we only need to add 15 parts per million of PMS (sulfur) as the crushed and destalked fruit reaches the fermenter. (15 ppm PMS is about 30 grammes per tonne of fruit.) This addition protects the newly crushed fruit from oxidation as the temperature slowly rises and the natural yeasts of the vineyard stir into life.  Samples are again taken from the must to assess  sugar levels, pH, and total acidity and pH/acid adjustments are made if necessary at this stage. The tedious task of hand turning of the rising cap in small batches or gentle pumping over of the juice in larger ferments is carried out up to three times a day early in the ferment. This process has the dual function of improving colour extraction while keeping the cap moist. It also temporarily releases some of the heat of a vigorous (28 degrees Centigrade)  fermentation while oxygenating the whole fermenting mass..

As desirable colour and associated flavour extraction is complete relatively early in the primary fermentation , we are able to press the wine off skins after about 6 days when the remaining sugar level is down to about 1 degrees Beaume, however, more often than not, the Cabernet undergoes some post-ferment maceration. If malic acid levels are high, an inoculation of malo-lactic bacteria is made at the end of primary ferment while the new wine is warm to encourage this secondary bacterial fermentation. Once it is pressed, the wine is once again analysed and adjusted where necessary and transferred into a mixture of new and older oak for the completion of malo lactic fermentation and initial settling. According to quality, we generally add the pressings back to the free-run juice .From the completion of the alcoholic primary fermentation and any malolactic bacterial fermentation to the eventual bottling of the wine, we aim ensure the presence of around 35 ppm of free sulfur to help protect the new wine from spoilage during maturation and handling. Over the course of cellar maturation, which may take up to 30 months, the cellar bright wine goes through a series of gentle rackings which are designed to separate it from its lees, naturally cold stabilize it and gradually improve its condition. Some controlled oxidation takes place during this process which also helps to naturally soften and integrate the wine. The final process is the assemblage of the various barrels into the final blend for the wine. This is perhaps the most challenging part of the process and one which leads to much tasting and discussion as to the consistency of style we are trying to achieve for Bloodwood. Final analysis, adjustment and assemblage is carried out and the wine is sterile filtered, bottled and cellared on site ready for release after around 12 months.  Then it's over to you lot.

Making Bloodwood Chardonnay

The picking and handling of white grapes is more difficult than for red. Although we normally pick our Chardonnay with good fruit and acid balance, (13.0 Beaume; 3.3 pH and 7.5g/l acid) oxidation is an ever present threat, and because whites are usually ripe a couple of weeks ahead of reds, the weather is likely to be a bit warmer. In addition to the process outlined under reds above, we add 25 ppm sulfur to each tonne of grapes during the picking and refrigeration process. At the crusher, sulfur levels are again adjusted to provide around 10 ppm free as the fruit is whole bunch pressed into refrigerated and de-oxygenated settling tanks.  Some short skin contact of around 2 hours while the fruit is in the press also occurs during this process, although this is kept to a minimum.. After analysis, adjustment, and 48 hours of cool settling,  the partially clarified juice is racked away from the remaining lees which are re-settled and the final lees are discarded into the vineyard..The partially clear  juice is then transferred to the refrigerated barrel cellar where each new French oak hogshead is waiting for fermentation.  The juice is now moderately clear and its temperature is gradually raised to about 16 degrees in preparation for a 5% inoculation with a vigorously fermenting neutral yeast. Prisse de Mousse, a Champagne yeast which can operate at moderately cold temperatures is our preferred inoculation although we do let a few barrels rip with natural yeasts. With Chardonnay from a warm vintage, sometimes about 30% is fermented carefully to dryness in stainless steel, and the balance is transferred to new French oak for a traditional treatment “sur-lie.” Even after a gentle malo-lactic fermentation, Bloodwood Chardonnay always reflects the character of the grape before the influence of the maturation process, and we find that this combination of methods allows for greater subtlety in oak treatment and better palate balance in the finished wine. After oak maturation for about 12 months during which the wine is kept in contact with its fine lees without unnecessary stirring, it is once again transferred to stainless steel for final assemblage, adjustment and cold stabilization before sterile filtration and bottling on site. Our Bloodwood Chardonnay is usually ready for release in the second Spring after harvest and can mature happily for quite some time. Currently. July 2008, the 1992 version is simply delicious.

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