Ballarat’s own winery

HAVING relocated from Beaufort in January this year, Michael Unwin’s new vineyard sits proudly atop the Windermere countryside ten minutes from Ballarat.

An innovator in his own right, Mr Unwin is not just known for his award-winning selection of wine but also for the wineries sustainable growing and production practices.

“We’re organic, we support biodiversity, grow rare trees, use natural flooring and are off the grid,” Mr Unwin said.

“We have a row of solar panels on the roof which allows us to be totally off grid although we do have a backup generator if we need it so we don’t have to be perfect.

“Our flooring is basically just pressed earth which we chose over concrete to reduce our carbon footprint.”

In relation to sustainable practices, one of Michael Unwin Wines main features are bag and boxed wines which are sold alongside its regular bottled varieties.

Not only is boxed wine is more cost effective without impacting on the quality of the drop, Mr Unwin said it’s far more environmentally friendly than glass bottles.

“Although wine bottles are recyclable, they aren’t actually recycled a lot of the time,” he said.

“Thirty per cent of Australia’s bottles are actually recycled and reused and 65 per cent of a bottle of wine’s footprint is in the actual bottle itself.

“We’ve been selling the bagged wine for years, it’s significantly less plastic and waste for the bag and box so I’d like to go totally

bag and box eventually but I don’t think that will happen.”

Aside from packaging and wastage, cultivating the area’s natural biodiversity is another huge task for a winery, one that Michael Unwin Wines have happily taken up.

With a background in horticulture, Mr Unwin said he’s always been interested in soil biodiversity and regeneration, an interest that only grew with his experience in winemaking.

“While reading about soil biodiversity, I decided to stop using herbicides on the crops and vines,” he said.

“I also found out the silver Banksia trees were native to this area pre-colonisation and almost became extinct.

“I teamed up with Friends of Forgotten Woodlands to plant a lot of these along the fence line to then create families of their own.”

Although nature biodiversity and sustainability is at the heart of Michael Unwin’s operations, they are first and foremost a winery.

Michael Unwin’s marketing manager Naomi Irvin said they have been reluctant to define the vineyard as totally organic or environmental because of the potential stigma surrounding these classifications.

“Sometimes when you classify yourself as organic, people can associate it as being negative or bad because of other experiences they’ve had with that kind of wine,” she said.

“It’s not that we want to promote that we’re incredibly sustainable because that’s just how Michael wants to do it.

“If people like the sustainability aspect, that’s great, but if they just like the wine that’s also great.”

Additionally, to its environmental efforts, Ms Irvin said the winery is unique in its efforts to produce a great product without relying on external resources or assistance.

“Michael called it a vertically integrated winery, so it’s like the wine version of paddock to plate, we call it grape to glass,” she said.

“Unlike so many of the bigger wineries around, everything is done here.

“From the vines to bottling and labelling, we don’t even sell it to a distributor, people come here to take it to their restaurants or home.”

Although Mr Unwin’s passion for cultivating the land and growing more than just grapes is clear, he said he doesn’t criticise other forms of growing and farming.

“We are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do all of this because I’ve done it for a long time and I own all of this land,” he said.

“Although I sometimes think as a younger person, I should’ve done it sooner but it’s not a judgement on the way that someone else does it.

“You can’t be critical of what somebody else does because our story is ongoing as this stuff takes a lifetime.”

To learn more about Michael Unwin’s wine variety and vineyard, visit michaelunwinwines.com.au.