Home Subscribe Print Edition Advertise National Editions Other Languages
Features

Advertisement

Printer version | E-Mail article | Give feedback

Wine with David Ellis

Organic wines a family affair

Special to The Epoch Times
Nov 11, 2007

From
From "a rich organic island" in NSW's central ranges: Rosnay's organic 2005 Semillon.


Related Articles
- Wine with David Ellis Sunday, October 28, 2007
- Wine with David Ellis Wednesday, October 17, 2007

When the Statham family talk about their organic Rosnay vineyard near the little village of Canowindra in the central ranges of NSW, they're talking about more than just eschewing artificial fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.

To them it's a whole lifestyle thing that goes back to when Grandfather Statham grew vegies organically, his passion being enthusiastically embraced by his son, and in turn his sons as well.

Now the close-knit Statham family not only doesn't use artificial aids in the vineyard, they've also grown thousands of native trees in belts amongst their vines, balanced minerals organically, they mulch and compost, and even move large flocks of sheep around small units of land for short periods of time to better distribute manure, build-up organic matter and compact the soil less.

It's resulted in what was once a farm beset with powdery soil with little organic matter into a rich organic island producing quality wines with higher levels than normal of micro-nutrients anti-oxidants that can help the body detoxify.

The 2005 Semillon could arguably be dubbed the flagship of the ten-year-old Rosnay's whites - a perfect seafood-matcher with outstanding crisp apple, light grassy and lime flavours, and a toasty complexity.

Super buying at $16 to go with pan-fried crab cakes and sautéed asparagus.


Advertisement