Australia is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world. Australian wine has earned respect as a leader in combining tradition with new ideas and technology. Biodynamic and organic vineyards are gaining popularity in Australia, due in part to the organic movement and Australians commitment to the holistic, healthful properties of the earth.

Australian wine-makers travel the wine world as highly skilled seasonal workers, relocating to the northern hemisphere during the off-season at home. "They are an important resource in the globalization of wine” and wine critic Matt Kramer notes that "the most powerful influence in wine today comes from Australia”.

Australia has about 60 wine regions located across the country with 103 defined geographic wine growing districts.

The largest volume of wine is produced from grapes grown in the warm climate Murray-Darling Basin zones of Lower Murray, North Western Victoria and Big Rivers. In general, the higher-value premium wines are made from smaller and cooler-climate regions.

Among the most popular regions include the Hunter Valley, outside of Sydney, the Barossa Valley, in South Australia near Adelaide, and Yarra Valley, in Victoria outside of Melbourne.

In recent years, the Tasmanian wine industry has emerged as a producer of high quality wines. In particular, the Tamar Valley has developed a reputation for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which are well suited to the cooler Tasmanian climate.

The major grape varieties in Australia are Shiraz (also called Syrah), Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sermillion, Sauvignon Blanc and Reisling.

The biggest, most well-known wineries in Australia inlcude Penfolds, Hardy Wine Company, Rosemount, Lindemans, and Wyndham Estates.  But when looking for exclusively organic and biodynamic wines you’ll need to look to Robinvale, Captains Creek, and Kalleske Wines.

Robinvale

Robinvale Wines have been operating since 1976, and for many years when people thought organic wine, they were the first brand, and sometimes the only brand, that spilled out of people's mouths. Now there are so many new organic wine producers in Australia, it's good to see that Robinvale aren't resting on their laurels, but continue to be innovative, leading the way with interesting new varieties

As a Certified Demeter Biodynamic wine, it's been produced using environmentally friendly, ecologically safe biological methods to activate and nurture the life of the soil, without the use of artificial or synthetic chemical pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers and other unnecessary additives.

Captains Creek Organic Wines

This family-owned and operated vineyard in Daylesford, Victoria produces hand-crafted premium quality certified organic wines from the Burgundian grape varieties Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. No chemical additives are used throughout the wine-making and the essential preservative sulphur dioxide has been kept to a minimum.

Kalleske Wines

In South Australia’s celebrated Barossa Valley, the Kalleske family have been farming and growing grapes since the 1800s. All wines are estate grown and vinified with minimalistic winemaking techniques used to fully capture the essence of the vineyard allowing genuine hand made estate wines to be produced. They have received the Australian Certified Organic seal on all their wines.

Nowadays, people around the world are making their own wine. It’s a fun way to enjoy a particular type of fruit wine that you may not normally find in your local wine shop. Many folks who decide to try winemaking, experience the pride of serving their own bouquet to friends, family, and neighbors.

With home wine making you can be assured of the wine’s ingredients.  With all the confusion today over organic, biodynamic, and semi-organic wines, you’re never quite sure what you’re getting. If you decide to make organic wine from home, you know exactly how your grapes were grown, and what kind of preservatives and sulfites were added in the winemaking process.

When you make wine from scratch, you have several choices about how to get your grapes.  You can grow them yourself, which can take years, and require lots of work.  You can buy organic grapes from a vineyard, which is less effort, but may not give you the full satisfaction of the complete winemaking process.  And, lastly you can buy grape concentrates which may not yield the flavor you were looking for.

Home wine makers can add various ingredients to enhance the flavor of the grapes, to create a higher alcohol content, and to preserve the freshness of the wine and prevent oxidation. You can ferment grape juice in its own yeast, but most wine makers don’t want to take the chance.

You can also choose to add sugar or honey to grapes with lower sugar content. Some home winemakers add wood chips to get the woody flavor without storing the wine in wood barrels for long periods of time. And of course, every organic wine maker must ask him or herself whether to add sulfites, and if so how much. 

Sulfites prevent oxidation and spoiling of the wine.  But most wines that are certified organics are limited in the amount of sulfites that can be added in the wine making process. The fermentation process naturally creates sulfites, so you’ll need to be careful in your assessment.

If you want to make your own wine without all the hassle, you can buy home winemaking kits that include grape concentrate, yeast, nutrients, and preservatives, as well as the basic equipment you’ll need like a bucket, carboy, hydrometer, a siphon, and corks.  Some kits come with organic ingredients and limited additives.  These kits usually only require adding water and sugar. So they are handy, and come in several different wine types including Chardonnay, Reisling, Sherry, Port, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chianti, Merlot, Shiraz, and White Zinfandel.

All kits come with some sort of wine making instructions, and will generally yield a good bottle of wine in about three weeks.

With the movement towards organic winemaking, regular people are challenging themselves to get back to nature and to create a wine that is rich, flavorful, and aromatic without compromising the holistic values of organics.