Celebrate Organic Month with Baileys
September is all about raising awareness of certified organic products and brands. As a certified organic winery, the team at Baileys of Glenrowan are champions of the organic way of life. They continue to educate consumers and winery visitors on why choosing certified organic wine is a good decision.
Although wine is naturally sourced, producing organic wine to the highest possible standards, in practice, requires a significant amount of time and effort to meet the necessary certification requirements. Certification requires that the whole winemaking process, from growing vines to bottling the wine, is organic. Getting certified takes years and involves hard work, ongoing best practices, and annual audits.
There are many terms out there when it comes to winemaking, so to help you navigate this complexity, we have included a brief guide below:
Organic - In Australia, organic wines are made from grapes grown organically, without synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides or fungicides. It’s an environmentally friendly way of producing grapes that keeps a natural balance in the vineyard and the surrounding land.
Low intervention - The key difference from conventional winemaking is no chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, added yeast, sugar or machinery used. Winemaking takes a hands-off approach so the wines are the ultimate expression of the land from which the grapes are sourced.
Biodynamic - It is based on the ideas of scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner and follows the lunar cycle, which guides the timing of things like pruning and harvesting. Biodynamics goes a step further than organics, and is all about nurturing the soil and treating the vineyard as one big living organism.
Natural wine - Wine made with minimal intervention. Grapes are hand-picked from sustainable, organic, or biodynamic vineyards. Wine is fermented with no added yeast, no additives are included in the fermentation, and little or no sulphites are added. Often natural wine doesn’t look or taste like a typical wine. Natural wines are known for their funkier, gamier, yeastier characteristics and often have a cloudy appearance.
Organic winemaking at Baileys
The original Baileys vineyards planted in the Glenrowan wine region in 1870 began life without the aid of synthetic sprays and chemicals, and so this remained for decades. In 2009 we decided to adopt organic farming practices across the Baileys vineyards. This involved a three-year conversion process, culminating in certification in 2011. Simply put, it means our viticulturists manage our vineyards without synthetic chemicals, sprays, fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, or products that are not naturally occurring.
In 2012 we took the next logical step of carrying the organic management practices from the vineyard to the winery, producing a single organic shiraz. Our winemaking philosophy mirrors the vineyard based on the minimal intervention ethos that lets the fruit shine, and from vintage 2019, all Baileys of Glenrowan table wines are organically grown and produced.
Why choose organic?
Australian consumers are increasingly becoming increasingly mindful and genuinely care about the process and provenance of goods they consume. They are looking at how the environment, sustainability, health, and wellness all fit into their lifestyle choices.
Chief Winemaker Paul Dahlenberg explains some of the benefits of choosing organic wine:
- Organic wines are produced with the support of natural and biological products only.
- A commitment to organic viticulture means growing the healthiest possible grapevines. This results in wines that express a true sense of place
- Our organic winemaking philosophy is based on minimal intervention, which lets the fruit shine. This allows the wine to possess the Baileys of Glenrowan unique fingerprint.
- Organic practices have many ecological benefits, including improved soil health, healthy waterways, and biodiversity for flora and fauna.
- Improved soil health means storing more carbon in soils, helping counteract climate change.
Baileys organic wines to try
2021 Rose - Rosé is a wine for all seasons. Our Organic Rosé has developed exceptional flavour characteristics from time spent growing with warm sun-filled days and crisp cool nights for natural acidity and to preserve a sense of delicacy.
2019 Varley Shiraz - Varley Bailey, our founding winemaker, was a man of vision and ingenuity who selected a rugged parcel of North-East Victorian bush and developed a thriving wine business. The Varley Shiraz brings together the very best parcels of fruit grown at Baileys each year; effectively it is the finest Shiraz we can produce.
2019 1920s Block Shiraz - Hand tended from vine to bottle, and traditionally made including open fermentation, pressing in our century old basket press, and extended maturation in new and seasoned French oak. Rich and packed with spice, dark fruits, plums and liquorice with a firm dry finish.
2019 Durif - This wine is made in the best tradition of the northeast, being full-bodied, opulent, well-textured and rippling with tannin. Enjoy now – or pop it in the cellar as the depth of fruit and structure means the wine will improve in the bottle over many years.
Visit Baileys of Glenrowan
The Glenrowan region is a small but significant wine region known for robust reds, rich fortified wines, and intimate cellar doors. Baileys has a beautiful cellar door to enjoy a tasting. You can explore the history and well-preserved links to our past, including the original 1870 winery, Clydesdale stables, blacksmith's forge and more.
The Bundarra Farm kitchen extends the organic experience. We now produce our own seasonal produce and farm free-range eggs to use in our kitchen, and we press our estate-grown olives to bottle our Organic Olive Oil. Our kitchen staples and suppliers have been converted to certified organic, including meat, dry goods, and dairy. The kitchen surrounds the much-loved brick woodfired Pizza oven.
Join us and immerse yourself in the holistic, organic farming, food, and wine experience at Baileys of Glenrowan.