Organic wine sales are booming as ‘clean’ drinking becomes an increasing focus for consumers, with winemakers such as Angove producing award-winning wines in the category.
At the recent Drinks Business Organic Global Masters 2020 in London, Angove Family Winemakers took out four Gold medals and a Master for its wines. The winemaker also won Business of the Year at the 2019 Australian Organic Industry Awards.
The McLaren Vale-based winery began its organic journey in 2006, when looking for a better way to care for and manage its extensive vineyards and be more sustainable with its winemaking.
“After a nervous start during the early part of their organic conversion the vineyards soon found their balance and the fruit they produced showed better depth of flavour which resulted in more flavourful wines,” said Richard Angove (above), Managing Director and a member of the fifth generation to lead the company.
"Consumers are more and more wanting to understand where their wines come from and how they are made.
"This is driving them to seek out organic and sustainable wines, wines grown without any artificial herbicides pesticides or fertilisers. They are looking for brands they can trust to deliver this."
Angove said his family's 134-year-old business recorded a 35% jump in organic sales last year.
While restaurant and bar sales took a hit during COVID-19 lockdowns, overall revenue has grown this year thanks to bottle shop and online sales.
"We have seen an increase in the sales of our organic wine across the off-premise market for consumption at home," Angove said.
Angove recently launched Naturalis, a new Certified Organic wine range made exclusively for the independent and on-premise trade.
It includes a Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
"We are always striving to satisfy our trade and direct customers and we saw an opportunity to develop a brand specifically for the independent retail channel, something they could get behind in the knowledge it was designed for them," Angove said.
"These wines are great value and show exceptional flavour for money. Our packaging is clearly identifiable as organic and we also utilise the Australian Certified Organic logo on our front label so consumers can be certain of the integrity of our organic craft."
The winemaker took a thoughtful approach to everything from the varietals in the bottle to the labelling of the Naturalis range.
"We worked with VOICE creative to design a label that appeals across a broad consumer base," Angove said.
"Naturalis is Latin for natural, so that fit in very much with our grape growing and winemaking philosophy. The Bee logo fits in with our philosophy on biodiversity; although a grape vine does not need to be pollinated by a bee (they are self pollinating) bees are important in the vineyard to pollinate the multitude of natural flora to give us a holistic and full diversity of plant growing in the vineyard. The colours used are lovely pastels that really catch the eye.
"These labels are also printed on recycled paper and in themselves are also fully recyclable."
Naturalis is already being embraced by both retailers and consumers.
"It is early days, but we have had fantastic feedback on both the packaging as well as the wine quality," Angove said. "The grapes are grown in our own family owned and managed vineyard so we put a lot of effort into growing the best tasting grapes we possibly can to make the best tasting wines we possibly can. In some cases we have had a 100% hit rate when presenting these new wines to customers."
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