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Sensational quality wine from the Orange, NSW wine growing region.
2021 Riesling (12 bottle case) NEW RELEASE
2021 Riesling (12 bottle case) NEW RELEASE
Luminous green gold in colour, our Riesling vineyard’s typical honeysuckle, spicy citrus and talc underpins the gloriously floral bouquet and line of this finely balanced wine. Finishing satisfyingly dry and savoury, the typical juicy minerality and compelling fruit of this wine will supply enormous enjoyment with careful cellaring well into the medium term.
Al/Vol 13.5%
Vineyard
The grapes for the 2021 Riesling are sourced from the top 12 rows of the Riesling vineyard. This vineyard faces due north on an approximately18 degree slope with the rows approximately South East/North West in orientation on a Scott-Henry trellis system. The trellis is opened towards the top of the slope in a southerly direction allowing important late season sunlight to linger on the maturing fruit. The laminated silt-stones and shale of this vineyard slope allow for very reliable drainage in wetter growing seasons and a generally warmer start to each growing season. This is a very important quality vineyard for us at Bloodwood and we are blessed to have it.
Vintage Conditions
The Weather At Bloodwood is always the same; It's Different!
Winter and Spring Rainfall for the growing season leading up to vintage 2021 was well above the median with 424 mm for the months of June, July and August and an even more damp 452 mm for the calendar Spring months. The long drought had finally broken with the vineyard at field capacity more often than any growing season since 1984.2021 yields are way down on usual with reds suffering the most. Because of the carry-over of the drought in not providing enough fertile buds to which to prune, the volume was only 20% of normal. Although our vineyards had physically pretty much recovered over the last twelve months, here simply wasn't enough fecundity in the buds produced during the smoky summer of 2019/2020 to provide a decent crop this harvest. The cooler growing season also meant that maturity lingered into the deluge of mid-March. The bright point for 2021 is that if any fruit ripe enough before the rains was of exceptional cool climate quality and reminds us strongly of the excellent 1992 and 2002 vintages. What little Riesling and Chardonnay we produced is excellent while we also managed a co-ferment of Cabernet Franc and Merlot Noir which is delicious.
Winemaking
The main consideration here was a clean, efficient ferment minimising volatile acidity and extended ferment characters. At 22.3 Brix , a pH of 3.10 and a T/A of 7.0g/l there was not much that was needed in the way of wine making. Whole-bunch pressing as the grapes came off the vines, cool settling overnight, racking and warming to help ferment get under way was our straightforward approach. Generally fermented between 14 and 18c over 23 days to natural dryness, the wine looked finely delicious from the start. Over recent vintages, I've been trying to work a little more on the mid-palate through extended lees
contact, and this technique was necessary for vintage 2021. Following bench trials, protein and cold stabilisation, the wine was sterile filtered and bottled in early October 2022.
Wine Analysis
pH 3.16
Acidity 7.7g/l
Alc/Vol 13.5%
Tasting Notes
Luminous green gold in colour, our Riesling vineyard’s typical honeysuckle, spicy citrus and talc underpins the gloriously floral bouquet and line of this finely balanced wine. Finishing satisfyingly dry
and savoury, the typical juicy minerality and compelling fruit of this wine will supply enormous enjoyment with careful cellaring well into the medium term.
Al/Vol 13.5%