Rosnay Organic Wines
Cowra , NSW & ACT
Winery Overview
Rosnay is a vineyard, olive grove and fig orchard established by the Statham family in 1997. The vines have never been sprayed with harmful chemicals, and have been certified organic continuously since 1998. In 2012 Rosnay won the Inaugural Organic Pioneers' Award, and a trip to France to study organic wine. As a result of that trip, new varieties were planted, and Sam Statham, son of Richard and Florence, began making wine on the estate. In 2019 a new strawbale winery was built. In 2021, all the Rosnay wines were produced and bottled on the estate, which is unique to the region. In 2021 the vinyard was 19.5 hectares in size with the varieties being (in order of size) Shiraz, Chardonnay, Saperavi (newly planted), Grenache, Mourvedre, Vermentino, Carignan and Cinsault.
Winemaker Bio
Half French and half Aussie, Sam studied geography at Paul Valery University in France, and then horticulture management, viticulture and organic farming in Australia. After 17 years of successful organic grape growing, he made his first wine in 2014 after being inspired by his French cousins, who still make traditional "vin de garage" in the south of France. His first wine, a traditional Cabernet Sauvignon, won Wine of the Show at the Winestate Organic Wine Awards in 2015. He soon became interested in "natural" wine and in the following years produced the first wines of the "Garage" range to develop his natural winemaking techniques and experience. In 2019 Sam began making the "Freedom" range of wines, which are preservative free but mainstream in style, and which had previously been made on contract. By 2021, Sam was making all the Rosnay wines on site, including five wines in the Freedom range (Shiraz, GSM, Mourvèdre, rosé and Chardonnay) and three wines in the Garage range (skin contact white blend, carbonic red blend, and pét nat).