It is with honour that Rosnay was invited to be the official wine supplier to Flickerfest 19th International Film Festival, alongside Coopers beer, Jameson whisky and Pheonix organic juices.

The selection of Rosnay Organic wine was part of a move by festival director Bronwyn Kidd and her team to make Flickerfest a green event, using as much organic food and beverage as possible.

For Rosnay, this is a huge opportunity for us to spread the ORGANIC word, and we are doing it through a fun trailer and a video competition called Go for the O!

Have a look now, its all happening at www.gofortheo.com.

We have some truly amazing prizes to give away, not only a grand prize of WINE FOR LIFE but also instant prizes for all entries to the comp, including double passes to Flickerfest sessions and of course, wine.

So if you love organic wine, why not pull out the vid cam and tell us all about it!?

Remember, in all things, “Go for the O!”

In the last month we have installed 48 x 60watt solar panels on Sam and Simone’s house, Richard and Florence’s house, and Dolly’s house. In total we are now putting nearly 3kilowatts back into the grid, per hour of sunlight. Thats the equivalent of three small generators! We beleive this will cover almost all of our power usage, except perhaps our cellardoor coolroom, until we upgrade it.
Well you may say thats not really bloggable, and its true, this is not big news these days. However, I wanted to congratulate the team who organised not only our 3 homes, but a total of 68 homes in one huge bulk purchase. The organisers are “Cowra Low Emissions Action Network”, in particular Charlie Coulson-Knight. The panels were supplied by Solar Shop Australia. We found their installation quality and friendly service to be excellent. Through bulk purchasing the cost of the installation was reduced substantially, and those who could access the federal government solar grant paid as little as $1900 for a 960watt system.
CLEAN are now looking to do it again, aiming for 40 more homes to convert to solar. So if you’d like to get involved, jump in now! Or, if you would like to emulate this in your own community,get in touch with CLEAN and Solar Shop.
You can see a recent news program on the project here.

I recently had the privelige of chairing two local public meetings during the recent tour of two North American farmers, Ross Murray and Moe Parr. After feeling somewhat demoralised by the NSW government’s ending of the GM crop moratorium last year, meeting these two farmers gave me new motivation to keep trying to hold back in the “race to the bottom” that is corporate-controlled, genetically modified farming.

Without trying to tell the whole story, there were a few key points which I thought I should share with you.

The first one, was a comment from Canadian canola grower Ross Murray that in the 13 years since the release of GM canola by Bayer and Monsanto, NO NEW VARIETIES have been released. This was interesting because pro-GM farmers I have spoken to say that the poor yield (0.7t/ha) of the GM canola compared to the non-GM canola (0.8t/ha) was because the moratorium stopped the release of newer and better GM varieties. But in Canada, there have been no new releases anyway. Ross beleives that the profits from the technology fees should be ging into new variety breeding, but its just going into corporate pockets. Anywa, Ross was clear on the poor performance of GM canola: “GM canola doesn’t yield more, it costs more to grow and now farmers in Canada don’t have a choice because non GM canola has been eliminated by genetic contamination.”

The second interesting point was from Moe Parr, a United States seed harvester for nearly thirty years. In 2007 he was sued by the bio-tech company Monsanto for “aiding, abetting and encouraging” farmers to break patent laws by collecting seeds from their crops for re-use in the next season. One point he made which was interesting was that in his lifetime, the number of seed companies in Indiana has gone from 60 to ONE! There may appear to be more companies, but he says that they are all now owned by one comany - and guess who? Like Ross, Moe said that “Because of contamination and monopoly control of seeds by bio-tech companies in the United States, it is almost impossible to go back to non-GM crops. “

Both farmers said that Australian farmers still had a choice whether they want to go down the GM path or not.But once there is a critical mass, which is what the companies want, this choice will be gone, due to contamination.

I just read another article on organic food with unquestioning reporting of “findings” that organic farming cant feed the world. This is a myth. It has been professionally propagated by the corporate “agricultural right” as a way of undermining organic farming. Consider this fact: Since 1961 global output has tripled, while the population has doubled. The food is not getting to the people who need it, because of globalisation. Cargill, the world’s biggest grain trader, recorded an 86% profit increase from grain trading in the first quarter of this year, while ADN, the second biggest, posted a 67% profit increase in 2007. Meanwhile, in 2007 farmers globally produced 2.3 billion tonnes of grain, up 4% on 2006. Global supermarket chains are enjoying record profit growth, investment funds have moved from stocks to commodities, further driving up prices, and the biofuels market is diverting yet more food from the needy.

I am organic farmer, and I admit our yield is lower that our neighbours. However, as my neighbours are high-input, largely corporate operations, this is comparing apples with oranges. An organic farm is a low input operation which is inherently more sustainable because it is less reliant on manufactured, energy intensive inputs. It is a self sustaining organism, it is more resilient to climate change, drought and peak oil (for example, Cuba’s organic farming now feeds the whle country). Organic farms are productive on more levels. For example, at “Rosnay” we run sheep in our vineyard to produce free, non-leaching fertility, as well as meat and wool. As for pesticides and herbicides - they are an addiction. Most weeds actually build fertility, and many “pests” are actually needed to feed the beneficials. And nobody can deny the costs of pesticides and fertiliser leachate on health and the environment.

The article rightly pointed out the problem of economies of scale, which is our biggest challenge in running a commercial organic wine and olive business. But the article needed to mention that in the places where food is scarcest, the third world, its the small scale organic farms that are actually feeding people. Their yield per hectare is higher than the colonial style export oriented plantations, but they are more labour intensive, and hence are less “profitable”. The World Bank and the IMF want mechanised, monocultural, export-oriented plantations to generate export commodities, not food for the hungry. They and the “agricultural right” have created the low-productivity myth to support their globalisation agenda, in particular the acceptance of GM foods.

See www.grain.org/articles/?id=39/ for more info.

GOOD news for eco-conscious wine connoisseurs: a little of what you fancy need not cost the Earth, but only if it’s organic.

Valentina Niccolucci and colleagues from the University of Siena, Italy, measured the resources used to grow, package and distribute wine made from Sangiovese grapes at two farms in Tuscany 30 kilometres apart. The organic farm used only natural fertilisers and pesticides, and most operations were done by hand, while the other used conventional methods of production. The team worked out the resources needed to support the making of each wine - its “eco-footprint”.

A bottle from the organic farm had an eco-footprint of 7.17 square metres, half that of the non-organic wine with a footprint of 13.98 square metres. This is because the mechanised production used more land and non-recycled glass (Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2008.05.015).

Though it’s not clear that organic food is always eco-friendly, the team say wine producers could shift to organic systems to reduce their overall ecological impact.

From issue 2671 of New Scientist magazine, 01 September 2008, page 15

Good news! Cowra winemakers are celebrating its best ever result at the 26th annual Cowra Wine Show - one of Australia’s biggest open wine shows which saw 2590 entries from 461 wineries.

With a history of producing great Chardonnay, it was fitting that a gold medal (top of class) and ‘The Ian Armstrong Trophy for Best Chardonnay of the Show’ was awarded to a Cowra wine, the 2006 Spring Ridge Cowra Chardonnay. Peter and Ann Jeffery are a very committed part of the loca industry, giving up countless hours to our vineyard association. They have been producing small batches of Chardonnay since 1997, so to get this recognition, especially within the forum of an open show such as Cowra, is just what they deserve.

Two other gold medals were awarded to Cowra wines, including the 2007 Mulyan Cowra Shiraz (top of class) and the 2007 Swinging Bridge Cowra Shiraz. The 2008 Cowra Wine Show was overseen by a respected panel of Judges including Chairman Andrew Spinaze from Tyrrell’s Wines, Lester Jesberg from Winewise Magazine, Tim Knappstein from TK Wines, Steve Goodwin from Witchmount Wines, Michael Kerrigan from Hayshed Hill and John Glaetzer from John’s Blends in South Australia. Rosnay won bronze medals for the 2006 Shiraz and the 2006 Chardonnay Semillon in the same show.

The week before at the Australia-New Zealand Organic Wine Show in Sydney (Max Allen Head Judge) Rosnay got bronzes for the 2005 Semillon, 2005 Shiraz, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2005 Triple Blend. These results show the consistency of the Rosnay wines, which have for the last four years always been among the most consistent in that show. Unlike the big corporate vineyards and some of the boutique vineyards that only make small parcels, we are not able to hand select the best sections of our vineyard for medal wining wines - we harvest all of our fruit and make it all into Rosnay wine, without any quality hierachies with heavily oaked hand selected “Reserve” or cheap “Cleanskin” batches.

So on average, we are happy with our wine quality, and we are very happy to be part of the wonderful wine region that is Cowra. Check Cowra out at www.winesofcowra.com.au . We look forward to hearing your comments on Cowra wines!

Simplicity, balance, fullness and earthiness are some words that come to mind, when enjoying and digesting a bowl of Judith Kennedy’s cauliflower soup with truffle oil.
First make the stock - Roast, onion, leek, potato, Carrot, celery and any other favourite roasting vegetables in Rosnay Olive Oil for 30 minutes in a hot oven. Remove the browned vegies and tip into a saucepan of hot to warm water. Add black pepper and sea salt and simmer for 2 hours.
Strain the liquid – It should be light brown, fairly thick and drops of olive floating on top. Tip in plenty of flowerets of cauliflower and boil steadily until the caulie is soft. Cool down before blending or you will break the glass of the blender!
Now it’s ready to serve in nice wide bowls. Drizzle a little truffle scented oil over the top. Pour a glass of Rosnay wine and sit back and enjoy!
The first thing you might think about is the much-touted truffle oil and how difficult it can be to really taste something upfront, especially in the relatively every-day truffle-infused oil. Then you notice the fullness and balance of the cauliflower soup, without any strong highlights or spice. As you get half way through the bowl the two begin to work together into a full-flavoured but rustic balance. The rest is lost in conversation.
I must try this at home!
After saying this I can’t help but plug a book in which you can find this recipe, whose authors are old friends from opposite parts of my life. Judith Kennedy, known to have many pursuits in the culinary, vinophile, cultural spheres, is the chef and co-author, and I had the pleasure of this soup from her very kitchen tonight, along with some family wines - they were also amazing. Matthew Squires is here too, who I know from uni days 15 years ago as a very chilled-out guy who I went to yoga class with once or twice but who now runs his own Sydney physio practice and helped Judith and many others to great health. He is the phsio, co-author ever-impressive demonstrator of his yoga-inspired exercises.
I don’t know about getting up early for yoga, but I do know that the soup was superb. I can’t wait to get into the rest of this book, as it’s all in bite size practical snippets, which is about all most of us can handle these busy days.
The plug: http://www.rescuemeonline.com or from the Rosnay Cellar door - I’m getting a few spare copies just for you!

RTD’s OUT!
The recent increase on taxes on “alco pops” to reduce alcohol related harm is long overdue. Some might think it unwise to comment on this, lest wine be the next target of the federal treasury. However, I think there is more to it than tax collection. From my own experience, spirits in soft drinks give me a filthy hangover, and thats assuming the drinks actually decide to stay in my stomach, probably re-fermenting. Maybe I am soft gutted, but I know that I can consume an equal volume of organic wine and wake up feeling fine, assuming I get enough hours sleep and drink some water before bed. The benefit of using taxes to divert drinkers away from “alco-pops” towards all-natural fermented beverages such as beer and wine is a reduction in health issues.
But is there an alternative to “alco-pops” for people looking for alcoholic refreshment that is less throng than wine, and is not beer?
Organic Sangria IN!
Organic Sangria is a great way to celebrate and refresh. Its so simple to make I wonder why I took so long to find it. First, chop lots of organic fruit, such as juicing apples or in-season stone fruit, some citrus, and even bananas, manoges or other tropical fruit. Work on at least 20% to the volume of sangria being made. Put the fruit in a bucket and cover with red wine overnight, or as long as possible. When the party is about to start, make the mix as follows:
50% dry red wine, not too big and “Barossa”, but not too soft and fines either.
25% organic orange juice. Buy a full carton from a wholesaler and you wont regret the leftover juice in your cupboard.
25% soda water - just for the bubbles
Organic raw sugar to taste - dissolve in some hot water if necessary
Throw the fruit in and some ice, turn up the salsa music and serve.
Make sure people eat their fruit before they can have a refill!

I would be VERY interested in knowing your experiences with Sangria, and I hope that the kids of today will discover this healthy alternative to alco-pops.