Sustainability is central to Harris Organic’s philosophy of vineyard management; we favour the ‘slow food’ process of wine production which is vital to our physical and environmental health. By not using industrial techniques and focussing on small-scale processing, ultimately this means caring for you and the local environment.
Land that is cared for without introduced irrigation allows the land to be used for future generations. We only use nature’s underground water on our vines.
In organic winemaking we use minimal artificial energy sources. For example
we built an underground cellar for naturally cooler storage temperatures while our wines likewise mature in natural oak, ultimately sealed in recyclable glass and use wine corks. We use very small amounts of electricity in producing a litre of wine compared with the Swan Valley and Australian average. We are against the use of pesticides.
The embodied energy in our product is minimal as we grow, crush and bottle our organic wine on site, not all Swan Valley wineries can say that.
We use all our grapes every season. Whether the gorganic grapes are used in organic wine production or used to make organic brandy spirits. Pressed organic grape skins are returned to the vineyard
for organic compost and our fat chickens eat the organic grape seeds.
We also recycle our waste. Customers are welcome to return our wine bottles for a deposit on their next purchase. Our used wine corks are given to Australian schools for use in classes.
Therefore we can claim to be of the most sustainable wineries in Australia.
Since the end of 2006 we have been certified Organic.
We have an expensive annual inspection and our practices follow
strict instructions and laws by the Australian government, such that we can meet stringent export criteria.
Certified Carbon Neutral
We planted a green belt of trees and installed 34 solar panels producing a maximum of 7.5kW of power to offset our electricity and hydrocarbon fuel usage -
See our Carbon Neutral certificate.
We examined using bio-dynamic products in our vineyard and concluded that
bio-dynamics created extra stirring and spraying, not to mention the petrol or diesel required to do the spraying. All that stirring must make you love your vineyard.
As we love our vineyard and there is no scientific proof
that bio-dynamics works, we see no need.
Western Australia has introduced a container refund scheme. We have introduced a similar scheme paying 10 times the amount the government stipulates on Harris Organic Wine and Spirit bottles.
Friends of Harris Organic may return their empty Harris Organic labelled bottles to Harris Organic to receive $1 per bottle.