Nude Pruning
Stephen Doyle
Healthy grapes
As many of you are aware,we have a very direct and uncompromising approach when it comes to the production of healthy grapes on our vineyard. Since we first planted vines on Boodwood in the spring of 1983, many things have changed in Australian viticulture. In those dim, dark days when Stephen was still a brunette, the use of insecticides like DDT and Kelthane to remove insects and mites from the vineyards of Australia was commonplace. It was usual for chemically-enhanced grape growers to be invited to barbecues and outdoor nocturnal functions to act as mobile human insect repellents for the remainder of the guests while the overtime your common vineyard spray cart driver earned as casual assistant sheep dip handler was often much more than the income derived through his full viticultural pursuits. At Bloodwood we have never used insecticides on the vineyard and have an unbending policy of using only non-synthetic elemental sprays to ward off the various fungal blights which are sent to annoy us. This means we spend a good part of the growing year spraying soft chemicals like copper and sulfur about, and we have never glowed in the dark. That's why it is SO annoying to have the young people of today turn up at Bloodwood and expect to get a job pruning in our precious vineyard dressed in SYNTHETIC blend apparel. With all the hard work we've done in maintaining the ecological health of the place, there's no way we will let anything artificial get within cooeee of our beautiful and vulnerable grapes...and we don't care a jot how difficult it is to find the stone when you need to sharpen your secateurs.