Rosnay Organic Wines Garage No 1 Cowra Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, the first wine made personally by grower Sam Statham, was named NASAA Ltd Certified Organic ‘Wine of the Year’ Australia 2016 last week.
In conjunction with Winestate Magazine, NASAA (The National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia), only certified Australian organic wines were judged for this prestigious award, using a fully managed professional tasting process and panel.
Judging was open only to wines grown and produced in Australia that are certified by a Department of Agriculture accredited certification body such as ‘NASAA Certified Organic’, an organisation that is teaming up with Winestate Publishing to promote Australia’s organic wines to the world.
The overall winner, Rosnay Organic Wines, is based in Canowindra, a small town between Cowra and Orange in the NSW Central Ranges. It was the first organic and biodynamic vineyard of the Cowra wine region, planted by the Statham family as part of a unique certified organic rural farming subdivision, now known as Rivers Road Organic Farms.
The Stathams established the property as an organic property and winery in 1997, naming it after a maternal French ancestor Alberic Dulong de Rosnay, a beaujolais vigneron. It is a diverse family farm enterprise, which spans production, processing and tourism.
“Rosnay – the farm and the idea – encompasses all of my passions: family, eco-living, community, self reliance, cooperation, natural farming systems and an almost spiritual – call it biodynamic – connection with this place,” Mr Statham said.
The process of reviewing 139 wines from five states and the ACT took place at Winestate Magazine, where all wines were judged blind by a panel of three independent wine expert industry judges.