Home | Orbis Wines

Your Cart

Your cart is empty.

TotalA $

For efficiency, sustainability and to ensure that your wines arrive safely, online orders must be a multiple of six bottles.

For the same reasons we are pleased to offer a 10% discount for orders over a dozen bottles.

Hello. We are Brad Moyes and Kendall Grey. We established Orbis Wines in 2018 to pursue the sustainable production of healthy, living wines. Together with our children, we are the proud custodians of a very special vineyard in McLaren Vale, South Australia.

Our belief is that the best results are achieved through taking a long-term view, win-win collaborative endeavor and fair reward and recognition of the many people that contribute.

The Ouroboros

The mythical creature the ouroboros symbolises a perpetual, self sufficient system that does not impact outside of itself. Our name Orbis means circular motion and captures our aspiration simply. Never has it been more important that we take responsibility for the effect that we have on others.

We take satisfaction from finding solutions that maximise positive contributions and eliminate or minimise negative impacts. We feel that this ethos has been captured by artist Dan Tomkins in our happy ouroboros logo.

The Vineyard

The 32 hectare site, overlooking the valley floor, is some 150m above sea level and just 10km west of the cool deep waters of St Vincent Gulf, making it one of the higher and cooler vineyards in the region. As such, it benefits from sea breezes during the day and cool gully breezes descending from the ranges above in the evening. The aspect, sun, temperature and airflow affecting the microclimate make it the ideal site for growing premium organic grapes.

Planted in the 1960s and 70s by Ryecroft and then the Leask and Hardy families, the original vines are north-south orientated with generous 3.3m row and 2.1 vine spacing. These old vines reach deep into the Kurrajong soils beneath them, adding structure and complexity to the wines they give us.

In 2014, 3.2 hectares of the vineyard was grafted to Tempranillo, to complement our 21 hectares of Old Vine Shiraz. Tempranillo is native to Spain and produces excellent quality fruit in our Mediterranean-like climate. We are excited to be adding Grenache, Albarino, Montepulciano, Nero D’Avola and Fiano to the vineyard and look forward to the wines that these will create.

One of the higher and cooler vineyards in the region.

Viticulture

Under the expert direction of Richard Leask, we employ regenerative, or circular, farming practices on our land. This means that we take all practical measures to provide the vineyard with what it needs to maintain natural fertility and good drainage, from the vineyard itself. In the winter months sheep roam freely, controlling weeds and undergrowth, and adding nitrogen, good bacteria and carbon to the soil, creating natural fertility.

Timber is sustainably grown on site to provide shelter, posts for the vineyard and materials for the construction of our on-site winery and facilities. Wood waste, grape skins, stalks and seeds are all composted to return nutrients to the vineyard. We take joy in observing the abundant ecosystem that this supports. Magpies, Cockatoos, Kangaroos, Frogs and Bearded Dragons, just to name a few, are our ever-present companions and make time spent in the vineyard even more special.

Old vines require a great deal of manual effort to keep them producing consistent, high quality grapes. Richard’s expert crew is supported by local viticulture contractors and our family and friends. No machine will train down a cane to replace an old vine cordon. The COVID-19 lockdown has given us the opportunity to make great progress in preserving the heritage of our 50 year old vines and we thank our family and friends for all of their hard work.

In the winter months sheep roam freely, controlling weeds and undergrowth, adding nitrogen, good bacteria and the carbon needed to the soil creating natural fertility.

Sustainability

We are committed to sustainability, carbon neutrality and bio-diversity preservation.

We minimise our impacts and emissions by minimizing the transport of materials on and off our vineyard, harnessing solar energy to power the winery and our vehicles where possible, capturing water to recharge underground aquifers and using standardised lighter weight, locally produced bottles.

Natural cork closures produced from sustainable cork forests which sequester carbon are used. Each cork closure and the forestry practice required to produce it leads to the sequestration of 300g of CO2 compared to up to 37g of carbon emitted to produce each aluminium cap. Corks of course allow our wines to stay alive and continue to develop in the bottle.

Our corks are individually tested to verify the absence of TCA cork taint. You’ll notice that we have dispensed with the traditional foil cap. In our view they serve no purpose and cost the planet. The cork and absence of the foil cap makes it easy to enjoy one of our wines and to wash and reuse the bottles, so please keep your carton and your bottles and we’ll be pleased to collect them and perhaps drop off some more!

Our labels are locally produced by Label Partners from 100% bagasse (sugar cane waste), are biodegradable and easily removed from the bottle for refilling.

We maintain part of the site as sustainably farmed forest and maintain perennial pastures to rebuild soil carbon to offset our emissions. The aim is to lock up more carbon than we release. An aim we believe we achieve. We know that healthy, living soils produce great wines, and hope to inspire others by our actions.

We are committed to sustainability, carbon neutrality and bio-diversity preservation.

Hand Picking

The picking crew are key. We hand pick the fruit for our wines for many reasons. Hand picking enables quality control in the vineyard, removing any diseased or under ripe fruit and retaining whole berries protected from oxidation. Handpicking and the mere 200 meter journey to the winery eliminate any need for the common commercial practice of adding potassium meta bi-sulphate (PMS) to the bin.

Eliminating PMS keeps the yeasts that naturally exist on the skin of the grapes healthy and ready to do their magic. Hand picking also protects our old vines and the natural ecosystem that supports them.

Hand picking protects our old vines and the natural ecosystem that supports them.

Winemaking

We have established key collaborations with winemakers Samuel J Smith and Nick Dugmore. Sam and Nick have been responsible for production of our wines. We are inspired by their skill in the use of indigenous yeast and ability to produce clean, long lived wines without the addition of Sulphur at any stage of the process.

We believe that the courage and hard work of their generation and their commitment to challenging convention is significantly responsible for the quality of our wines.

We are inspired by their skill in the use of indigenous yeast and ability to produce clean, long lived wines without the addition of Sulphur at any stage of the process.

Stockists

Melt Pizzeria

38 Waymouth Street
Adelaide, SA 5000

meltcbd.com.au

Bar Torino

158 Hutt St
Adelaide SA 5000

bartorino.com.au

Local Wine Co

165 King William Rd
Hyde Park SA 5061

localwineco.com.au

Chianti Classico

160 Hutt St
Adelaide, SA 5000

chianti.net.au

EST Pizzeria

30 East Terrace
Adelaide SA 5000

estpizzeria.com.au