Organic wine duo: lead the way again

The Darling Wines has been awarded the “Riedel Winery of the Year Trophy” at the recent 2019 New Zealand Organic Wine Awards.

In its 6th year, the New Zealand Organic Wine Awards allows entries from New Zealand wineries that produce certified organic wines.

Luke Thomas, founder of the awards states, “The Darling Wines were the recipient of this accolade it its inaugural year back in 2015”.

“Due to consistently high-quality wine making and a fastidious dedication to organic production, they become the first winery to repeat the accolade of ‘Riedel Winery of the Year’ and will have the ‘Riedel Decanter Trophy’ to prove it.”

The Darling Wines has also been awarded a rare Gold Medal at this year’s Organic Masters Competition 2019 held by the Drinks Business in the UK.

The competition is exclusively for wines that are certified organic or made with certified organically grown grapes, and also includes certified biodynamic wines.

There were only two gold medals awarded in the white wine classes, both being from New Zealand.

Patrick Schmitt MW commented, “The final Gold medal among the white entries, was once more, a white from Marlborough: The Darling for its expressive and class-leading Sauvignon Blanc”.

The pioneering organic duo, under The Darling label started with a humble 200 cases back in 2008 when there was only a handful of organic producers in Marlborough.

Their vision was to produce premium organic wine known first for quality. These continuing accolades go to show that Bart, with his early experience in converting organic vineyards and Chris with his belief that organic wines produce the best quality are on the right track.

New Zealand has around 37,000 hectares of grapes planted, of which, 2000 hectares are certified organic.

This organic area has grown 450 per cent in the last ten years, up from 356 hectares in 2007.

Bart has been instrumental in this growth as New Zealand’s leading organic Viticultural expert. He is also an Organic Winegrowers founding member, executive committee member and joint organiser of the hugely successful Organic & Biodynamic Wine Conference, of which was held this year.

The worldwide organic industry turns over one hundred billion dollars with all sectors experiencing growth.

According to BioGro, one of New Zealand’s organic certifiers, two out of three New Zealanders now buy organic products some of the time, with people saying they want to connect with food that is safe and can be traced to origin. Organic wine is part of that equation.