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Angove all in on organics
Angove Family Winemakers is zeroing in on going completely organic as the movement gains ever greater ground in Australia.
Angove’s vineyards
Speaking to the drinks business, John Angove, explained that with 270 acres already certified organic and another 19-20 acres set to follow next year, “ultimately we’re looking at the option of the entire 400 acre vineyard being organic. We need to see what the demand will be but we’re seeing a lot of interest and other big companies doing likewise.”
The winery is currently the biggest organic producer in Australia, Angove reckoned, followed by Yalumba.
He explained that the company had first investigated the possibility of organics 10 years ago and taken on one of Australia’s foremost organic experts, David Brewer, to help with the conversion process.
“He [Brewer] said that in the Riverland you are in the best spot in the world to make organic wines as the disease risk is very low and we have few problems with mildew,” said Angove.
As with other organic producers, it wasn’t all plain sailing to begin with.
‘The vine doesn’t automatically respond to organic processes,” explained Angove, “and we saw a significant drop in yields over the first two years but then we saw it come back.”
Overall, the results have been very much to his liking as he continued. “We have small bunches with smaller berries, they have thicker skins and the vine seems more naturally resistant. We’ve also seen a significant difference in the soil structure, it’s much better knitted together.”
Weed control is also something of an issue and Angove admits that the cost of running an organic vineyard is 20% more expensive than running one ‘conventionally’.
Angove proffered that Australia was currently seeing “significant growth in organics,” and that in fact it was the “most significant new activity of recent years”.
He said that not only were organic, biodynamic and the ‘natural’ wines increasingly widely accepted in Australia but that it was an enormously positive image for the Australian industry in China.