The Minimum Manifesto.
Mindful wines, made for humans. With respect for the land they come from, and the people who drink them.
Գ) B CORP.
Դ) VEGAN.
ԺԱ) EPILOGUE.
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Acknowledgement of Country
We honour Gaiyala / Warring
the life blood that flows
through our work
on their banks we live, work and play
we thank them for their gifts
we operate on stolen land
this Country is not ours
we honour the true custodians of these lands,
the 8 clans of the Yorta Yorta Nation
and the Wurundjeri & Taungurung peoples of the Kulin Nation
we pay our respects to their Elders, past and present,
and we extend this to all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples
always was, always will be.
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Organic certification.
Grapes grown with organic, biodynamic and regenerative principles in the vineyard, are nurtured grapes, that become what they always knew they could be. Fermenting those grapes naturally, with organic principles and ingredients in the winery, allows them to transform and expand themselves deeper still. Grapes fermented naturally, without any additional ingredients (including sulphur), are able to take that transformation many depths deeper - and since the 2024 harvest, we made that commitment to 100% ancestral, natural winemaking. We do not intervene with or control our ferments - we let them be them, wild, natural and unbounded - so that they may become surprising, energetic, elevated and alive wines.
Our wines are certified organic (with ACO) since the beginning of the 2020 season. Converting to organic, regenerative farming practices completely transformed the health and the quality of our grapes, and we hope to serve as an example that farming practices can change for the better, on both small and large scales. Soil is life.
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B Corp.
Accountability. Responsibility. Transparency. Joy.
As a young and growing business, we're obliged to take responsibility and accountability for the major role in which we, as part of the broader business community, play in exacerbating social and ecological problems. But we also acknowledge, on the flip side, the role we can play in the regeneration of social and ecological landscapes.
Part of our commitment to ethical and purpose-driven business is our B Corp certification. We received B Corp certification in February 2022, following a year-long process of careful assessment and auditing, which is required to meet B Corp's high standards of corporate, social, and environmental performance.
We are committed to operating an ethical and purpose-driven company and strive always to do what is best for all stakeholders and the planet, across every facet of our business. We are audited by B Corp every three years, receiving constant encouragement to make incremental changes that help maximise our regenerative potential.
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Vegan.
No animal products are used in the making of our wines. However, please note that this is not a particularly difficult thing to achieve in winemaking. You will find that, actually, most wines on the shelves are vegan even if they're not certified.
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Why this approach?
Our background is organic, natural vegetable and flower farming. Just like the flowers and vegetables on our farm that we grew then, we believe in creating wines now that are completely wild and organic from vine to bottle and as true to the grapes we harvest as possible.
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In the vineyard.
It all starts in the vineyard. For over eight years now, we have been supporting organic, regenerative farming techniques in the vineyard we work with (with much inspiration from Biodynamics also). We've experimented with green manure cover crops, compost teas, mulching, under-vine cultivation, and advanced water-saving practices, all without the use of chemicals or pesticides.
Our primary focus over the past few years has been on increasing the amount of organic matter and microbial diversity of our soil. So far, the results have been magnificent. We believe that the healthier our soil gets, the healthier our vines get, the better the character of the fruit gets = even better wine.
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In the winery.
All of our wines are 100% wild fermented. Between 2018 and 2023, we used a few ingredients ('adds') in our winemaking other than organic grapes. Now, since 2024, we use nothing but wild fermented grapes, zero additives, zero sulphur. This move has been the culmination of 10 years of natural winemaking experimentation and practice by Matt, our Co-Founder and head winemaker, especially in his recent years making wine in Europe.
Every one of the adds we've utilised in the past has been organic and naturally derived and we used them only when needed, only in minimal amounts. There were only four of them:
➀ Tartaric acid (naturally derived from the winemaking process);
➁ Spent yeast cells (like a superfood extra nutrition for our wild yeasts when they needed it during a 'stuck' ferment);
➂ Dry ice (solid CO2) and;
➃ Minimal amounts of sulphur (see below).
We ferment in a variety of seasoned (aged) barrels, large 450-1500L buckets, stainless steel tanks and large open wooden vats. We don't fine our wines, but we did filter our Main Range up to vintage 2022 before bottling (with an inert cross-flow filter). Our Short Runs range is and has always been unfined and unfiltered.
Low sulphur limit.
From 2024 onwards, we use zero sulphur and zero additions. Previously, our self-imposed low sulphur limit was for all of our wines to contain less than half what's allowed under the Organic certification rules. Sulphur (also spelled sulfur, or people use the term sulfites/sulphites) is measured in mg/L of total sulphur in the final wine. Here's what this means:
| Protocol | Reds | Whites & Rosés |
| Regular food standards | 250mg/L | 250mg/L |
| Organic standards | 100mg/L | 150mg/L |
| Our ‘low sulphur’ limit | 50mg/L | 75mg/L |
Generally, we would add small amounts of sulphur after secondary fermentation is complete, and just before bottling.
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Sustainability.
Minimum will always give back to nature. We will always support charities we believe in and advocate for change. We are proud partners with One Tree Planted, and by planting 1 tree per dozen, per year, our wines sequester more carbon than they produce. That 1 tree will sequester 10 bottles worth of carbon every year once mature. We previously measured the entire carbon footprint of our wine production and business with the help of the beautiful humans at Toitū. Before we even started making wine, our vineyard and winery were already over 50% offset by trees we’d already planted. That means that in our first vintage, 2018, we sequestered 130% of the carbon made in producing our wines, and we’re adding another 80% to that figure every year.
All of our packaging is 100% recyclable or compostable, and most of it is made from 100% recycled materials. In the winery, we try to reduce waste wherever we can. All of our spent grape marc is composted and returned to the soil.
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An ode to cork.
We bottle under cork. This is why. In short:
1. Cork is 100% compostable. Screw caps, while their components are technically recyclable, are almost impossible to actually recycle and end up going to landfill.
2. Cork is a carbon-negative product, sequestering 70 times more greenhouse gases during its growth than is produced during its transformation into wine closures. Screw caps, on the other hand, generate twenty times the amount of greenhouse gases than corks during their production and sequester nothing.
3. Cork is a zero waste industry.
4. Cork is incredibly abundant – there is not, nor has there ever been, a cork shortage.
5. The phenomenally biodiverse cork forests are one of the most sustainable forestry crops and one of the most efficient carbon sinks on the planet. But when we don’t support the cork industry, those 200-year-old forests get cut down and planted to other conventionally farmed commercial crops instead.
We would love to see cork embraced and returned as a mainstream bottle closure in Australia. The cork industry’s processes are better than ever, and faults arising from ‘bad’ corks now occur less than ever. So buy bottles under cork! You will be supporting a healthier planet.
P.S.
We bottle our Pét Nats under crown seal because the steel caps fully separate from the bottles and the steel is infinitely recyclable. Unlike screw caps, steel crown caps are ferrous (i.e. they can be collected by magnets), so they don't get lost in waste streams and are efficiently recycled.
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5% to Impact.
We commit ourselves, beyond wine, to always contribute at least 5% of revenue to positive social and environmental impact. As we grow, so does our impact. We are committed to having a positive impact in three key areas: product, people and place.
1. Good product: Our aim is to create products that are socially and environmentally positive.
2. Good people: We believe in good people and strive to support and surround ourselves with those who are committed to being accountable and kind.
3. Good place: Everything we do is connected to place. We are committed to a regenerative journey that pursues true sustainability of our environment, social structures and economies.
You can read more about our impact partners and commitments here.
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Epilogue.
We are so proud to have this opportunity to have taken a conventionally-farmed vineyard, convert it to thriving organic health and bring the fruits of those vines to you in a form that is healthily, organically and thoughtfully made, has attention to detail and is full of love. We believe in great vineyard practices and that soil health is the true key to great wine. And we will honour every grape, every harvest.
If you have any questions about our processes, please don’t hesitate to email us.