Tamburlaine Organic Wines have announced the purchase of the former Cumulus winery facility at Cudal, expanding the winery further across the Orange Wine Region.
Acquired just in time to process the 2020 vintage, the new acquisition will build on Tamburlaine’s quest to make Orange known for its organic wines.
Tamburlaine Managing Director and Winemaker, Mark Davidson, described the acquired winery and said: “The Cudal winery was originally purpose-built two decades ago to support a major expansion of the region’s wine production while offering extra services to local vignerons and winemakers.
“Last year it was standing idle with the prospect of permanent closure. All the facility required were some critical upgrades, improvement of its capacity to manage premium parcels of fruit and the winemaking team.”
Davidson also announced appointments after the purchase, with Aaron Mercer now Group Senior Winemaker and Monica Gray as Site Winemaker, backed by an experienced cellar and lab team.
Tamburlaine’s vision and interest in the Orange Wine Region began in the late 1980s, when it was previously a boutique Cellar Door and winery operation, started from an old tin shed on a small Hunter vineyard.
Today, Tamburlaine owns and contracts in the vicinity of 450 vineyard hectares and produces around 200,000 cases of wine annually between Orange and the Hunter regions.
“The move to Orange gives us the capacity to organically produce world-class cool-climate varietals as well as the classic Hunter styles. Tamburlaine is now set as a big player in a relatively small organic pond,” Davidson said.
“The recent acquisition of this facility further demonstrates our confidence in Orange Region wine, organic principles and expanding market opportunities.
“Despite the challenges in the current drought, we see exciting times ahead for us and the wine industry in the region. In fact, it is fair to say that Orange now lays claim to being ‘Australia’s Organic Winemaking Capital’.”
Davidson said the company will continue to work on their ‘Contemporary Organics’ vision with the new winery facility, with the aim to produce award-winning organic, vegan friendly, low sulphur and no added sulphur wines. It’s a vision they have been developing since the late 90s.
“We believe in continuously evolving our practices. Not because it appears now to be trendy, but because it makes sense. More and more consumers agree,” Davidson said.
“When we started down the organic path, there were no blueprints and there were challenges from site to site and season to season. We see plenty more growth ahead, hence our latest investments. Soon we will be sharing other exciting developments with our loyal customers.”