Certified Organic, Vegan & Keto Friendly Winemaking

A certified organic wine is a wine made from grapes that have been grown without the use of artificial or synthetic chemicals, such as herbicides, fungicides and pesticides. To keep the weeds and bugs at bay, organic farmers work with nature, rather than against it, by boosting their vineyard’s biodiversity. Our region of McLaren Vale benefits greatly from being ocean front as its strong ocean winds act like a flushing agent in the vineyards and blow away the majority of harmful impacts on our vineyards. Also farmers introduce cover crops to provide a habitat for beneficial insects that are the natural enemy of problem species, or have sheep graze between the vine rows, eating the grass and weeds. In this way, the vineyard becomes a self-regulating, natural ecosystem, which is able to combat problems intrinsically and eliminates the need for artificial, and potentially toxic, chemicals.

Once the grapes have been harvested and come into the winery for fermentation and processing into the finished product, so begins our certified organic winemaking.  It has rules it must adhere to to maintain certified organic status, just as its does in the vineyard. We keep our intervention in the wines to a minimum, however sometimes use organically certified yeasts which help kickstart the fermentation process. Organic winemaking allows for a maximum of 100 parts per million of “pres 220” (a common preservative in wine that is used to inhibit or kill unwanted yeasts and bacteria) which is about a third of the industry standard.  The maximum allowable limit of “pres 220” in Australian wine is 300 parts per million (ppm). For Australian certified organic wine it’s 100 ppm. To give a little context, most dry wines usually won’t exceed 200 ppm, and dried fruits can contain anywhere between 500 and 3000 ppm. If you are overly sensitive to sulphur, then drinking organic wine is a healthier choice and will usually make the next day’s declarations of a sober future a lot less necessary.

Additionally, we also practice vegan and keto friendly winemaking. Vegan friendly means that we use no animal products in the production of our wines.  This means that if we do fine our wines we use plant based fining agents or other methods like cold stabilisation. Keto friendly means that the wines are low in preservatives and low in sugar. Our wines are bone dry with very little to almost no residual sugar therefore very little carbs per glass. 

Our winemaking flavour profile is quite simply described as modern, fresh, and vibrant with a very minimal amount of intervention and use of oak.  We are looking to let the premium, organic grapes speak for themselves and to showcase the true purity of fruit. Today’s wine drinkers are looking for drink now style wines that burst out of the glass with fresh, vibrant, natural flavours. These wines are great for all occasions from drinks with friends on the beach to dinner parties paired with a wide variety of dishes and menu styles.  They are for any time!  And for our ageing process, we use a combination of neutral oak barriques and puncheons as well as a combination of stainless steel tanks that help nurture the freshness and blend this all together to get our finished wines.

Balance Nation are Certified Organic with the ACO Australia Certifier of Organics Certification #13252 and we only work with other certified organic trade partners in vineyards, winemaking, bottling and packaging.