Vineyard

The Pinot Noir from Bloodwood is grown on the top 12 rows of the Maurice Vineyard.. Yes we know that’s a bit confusing given that the Maurice is a style of wine which isn’t necessarily tied to a particular plot of ground..but..bear with me. The original few rows planted in 1984 were, and are to be found in the middle of our original Cabernet Sauvignon planting. We were anxious to see how the fruit performed without any special Pinophiliac attention. It did very well, so the next five rows were planted at the very top of the Maurice vineyard block. Both plantings were to MV6 clone, however we now have, in addition a hundred or so each of clones 777; 114 and 115.adjoining the Maurice vineyard. These vines are all close planted on an easterly slope of 20 degrees in a north/south orientation and Scott‑Henry trellised to open to the western side of the vine. This gives a bit of added light and warmth to the ripening grapes in cooler years.

Vintage Conditions

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

I suppose the best way to characterize vintage 2014 is that a brown disaster turned into a green disaster. You had to turn from a second row forward with your head a bit too far up one too many scrums into a ballerina capable of doing a pirouette off the end of an adage while anticipating a grand allegro to survive. Basically we had to cope with hotter and drier than usual conditions until around the middle of February followed by persistent rains over the ripening months. Briefly, the recorded facts are as follows:

Winter/spring rainfall: Winter rainfall (Jun Jul Aug) was marginally down on the long term medium however Spring (Sept Oct Nov) was 32% below the long term medium. We began irrigating here at Bloodwood on 29/10/2014 when early January is typical for us.

Weather up to and including harvest. Hot and bothered would be the shorthand here. Actually 0.4C warmer than 2013 up to harvest and 0.2C warmer than 2013 from first fruit harvested to the end of vintage in mid-April. We were managing for the creeping brown disaster of the growing season when it completely flipped from around mid-Febuary. Comparative rainfall from 15th Feb to 31st March 2013/2014 was 139.2mm verses 225mm this year. In summary, a potential brown disaster changed overnight to a potential green disaster so vintage success this year depended on how ripe your fruit was before the break and how light on your feet you were as a viticulturist and wine maker as the rains began to test your skills. A complicating factor was that crop loads (as a consequence of the dry and sunny bud initiation period of January 2013) were generally higher than vintage 2013 so pressure from Botrytis Cinera was high in late ripening varieties. In vintage 2014, 13%al/vol is the new 14% al/vol and this is no bad thing.

As far as the Pinot Noir is concerned, it was more or less ripe before the rains set in and because of our excellently drained soils, it was unaffected by these late rains. It came into the winery in good shape about two weeks early on 25th February.

Winemaking

For details of this wine you need look no further than the last entry in the “Styles” section of this site. http://www.bloodwood.biz/styles/63-red.html Because of the very small quantity (normally no more than 600 litres) produced from the vineyard, we consider ourselves lucky to make two or three barrels of Pinot Noir each vintage. 2014 provided four 300 litre hogsheads and 50 litres of topping material. As a consequence, there is little room to engage in any fancy wine making or blending with Bloodwood Pinot Noir. The grapes were de‑stemmed cold soaked and open fermented under natural yeasts with regular gentle hand plunging. The pressed wine was transferred warm to barrel where it finished malo‑lactic conversion, and after 6 months in barrel, (literally) it was bench trialled and transferred unfiltered into bottle in September 2014.

Wine Analysis

pH 3.61

Acidity 5.44

Al/Vol 13.0 %

Tasting Notes

Bright mid-cerise in colour, this gently complex Pinot Noir’s bouquet of fresh dark berry fruits and subtlr barrel ferment char lead into a long, fruit-dense and quietly savoury palate. Rarely have ladies old handbags been this mysterious and, yes, strangely inviting.

Al/Vol 13.0%