Story
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our organic story
Founder Leon Hill
Organic Hill was a creation that was born from all facets of my experience gained in over twenty years in the Wine Industry. The creation of Organic Hill was personal, it was health conscious, it was me.
My Organic wine journey began personally back in 2009 when I realised that I was Gluten intolerant (not Coeliac) and needed to find Gluten free products. This lead me to discovering the myriad of Organic shops located in and around Melbourne, many of which also sold Organic wine. After lots of trial and error searching for a solution to my intolerances, it became obvious that it was also Preservatives that I was allergic to, therefore Organic simply made sense.
Looking back ten years ago there was a very limited source of anything Organic, Gluten Free, Preservative free or Vegan. There was a very limited range of Organic wines available at that time, especially good quality Organic wines! The Organic industry was misunderstood and perceived as a ‘hippy lifestyle’, when what it was really about was creating a healthier lifestyle through the creation of products that contain no herbicides, pesticides or toxic sprays. That’s when the light bulb moment happened back in 2009 after discovering the benefits and increase in health through switching to Organic products and lead me to the acquisition of my Organic wine distribution business “Merchant of Vino”. I paved the way in Victoria to begin with through distribution of Organic wines and products offering a premium range of Organic, Preservative Free, Vegan and Bio Dynamic wines.
A little history
The ‘Hill family’ have an affinity with wine in South Australia, dating back over three generations, to the arrival of the first settlers.
Having family and friends with over 100 years of wine industry experience, and a 6th generation Great Grandfather “John Hill” who was the Bosun and founded South Australia having lifted the 1st flag back on Proclamation day on December 28 in 1836 with Governor Hindmarsh and Colonel Light, which then led to Hill & Co (South Australia’s first wine haulage originally business based in Kapunda in the Barossa Valley and Willunga right near McLaren Vale), then Cobb & Co, then along comes Clem Hill (Australian Cricket Captain) and then finally 50+ years later along comes Organic Hill off the back of a dream and a personal health requirement.
So I guess that pioneering and entrepreneurial flair had to have come from somewhere, and when your family comes out on the Buffalo from UK as free settlers sent by King William IV to have firstly founded the State of South Australia it’s something pretty special I reckon!
Grown ‘from the ground up’ we’ve now focussed our 100 plus years of family history and over 20 years’ personal experience in the wine industry on growing and making a premium level of 100% Organic and Preservative Free wines for Australian wine lovers.
Now four years since the creation of Organic Hill, in what seems like yesterday but has been 10 years in the making “Organic Hill” has grown into one of the country’s finest and fastest growing premium Organic wine ranges.
Oh, and the name? Well, it was a ‘no-brainer’ really – I’m a "Hill", and my pioneering family Surname had to be used as it’s a stamp of authenticity.
Organic Hill Wines vineyard is positioned in the Golden triangle of McLaren Vale amongst the likes of D’Arenberg, Angoves and Maxwell.
Leon Hill
"WE’RE ORGANIC VIGNERONS FIRST AND FOREMOST"
Here, amongst the vines at Organic Hill, we believe wine tastes better and is better for you, made the good old-fashioned way - Organic. Free of the effects of artificial pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. With no synthetic hormones, no growth promoters, no fish or animal products, no GMO and no genetic modification of any kind.
And in the case of our Preservative Free ‘PF’ range, free from added noxious Sulphur Dioxide and related preservatives. In fact, no unnatural anything!
We’re true believers that the best wines are created naturally organic, from the ground up. Just like ‘paddock to the plate’ is to food, our growing philosophy is ‘soil to the wine' - organically.
Our vineyards are rich in natural nutrients and jam-packed with living organisms that naturally enrich the soil, the vines and the grapes they bear. It’s the natural foundation for all the premium 100% organic wine ranges we make.
“Organic & Preservative Free Winemaking
Thread Through Our DNA”
All our vineyards and winemaking facilities are formally “Certified Organic” by NASAA, one of Australia's foremost Organic produce certifying bodies.
NASAA place strict restrictions on artificial vineyard nutrients, chemicals, insecticides and machinery and agricultural practices. In the winery strict controls are specified and policed in terms of the scrupulous cleaning of equipment, storage vessels and winemaking, storage and packaging practices along with the minuscule amount of sulphur dioxide preservative that can be added, along with fining agents (in our case vegan) used in the winemaking and bottling process.
Enjoy our premium organic and preservative free wines and experience the purity of flavour Organic Hill is fast being acclaimed for. If you’ve got a thirst for more information on our growing and winemaking practices simply click the link and go to the: Viticulture and Wine Making Page
Discover more about the strict NASAA Organic Wine CertificationProcess
Click the link: www.nasaa.com.au
