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Blue Bluff Farms is located 2km south of Bayfield, On and another 2km off the shores of Lake Huron. The Armstrong Family has called the property home since the 1950s and in 2015 began planting a 5 Acre Vineyard. In that year, 500 Vines of Cabernet Franc were planted by hand in sand to loam to clay soils which sit on the incline of what is dubbed : “The Huron Ridge. ( See the cross-section below ... and yes you CAN see the Lake from atop this feature). The vineyard is no till, all natural ground cover crops and allowed to flourish as nature intended.
Leading up to October 20th, Brix levels peaked at 20 and the weather was ideal for Hand Harvest; Sunny and 19'. However, an impending change in weather (snow and sleet) was only days after which made the Harvest Date even more crucial. Meanwhile, at Schatz Vineyard, the 24 Plants in Row 1 that Yielded 5 Bottles worth of wine in 2022, were decimated by black mould that settled in during the wet September. The Cellar Team was able to Harvest 10kg only. Once each Harvest was crushed and destemmed (by hand) and on skins to begin fermentation, the Punchdown schedule (twice a day) was implemented. A total of 11 Days on skins allowed maximum colour and tannin extraction. In poetic fashion, Blue Bluff Farms supplied the Ratch Press for the Schatz Cellar Team to press out the fruit on site! 130L of Juice was pressed out, racked twice more for clarification and then allowed to proceed through Malo Fermentation.
During this time, The Schatz Cellar Team secured Huron County grown Oak Chips and ... from ...
(you guessed it!) Blue Bluff Farm! The tree was right from the Farm and was felled over 10 yrs ago.
Small 4" blocks were cut and then toasted in the Hessenland Kitchen Oven. Coupled with some
Medium Toasted French Chips, the wine was aged on the wood for 36 Days.
In a true testament of maintaining the Huron County-ness in the wine, it is truly remarkable to say that the wine is: Made from grapes grown in Huron County and then aged on Oak chips ... from the very same Farm the grapes came from.
We had a wonderful experience bringing this wine to life and we hope you enjoy it.
