Food & Wine

Minimum Wines: Victoria’s carbon-negative organic winemaker

Matt Purbrick and Christian Maier walking in the Minimum Wines vineyards

Nicola Dowse

Posted June 06, 2022

You may have heard about Minimum Wines through the grapevine - the vegan, low-sulphur and carbon-negative winemaker from the small town of Toolamba making a splash.

In the small Victorian town of Toolamba live around 1,000 people and a sustainable, organic winemaker called Minimum Wines, founded by Matt Purbrick.  

“At Minimum, we’re all about simplicity, big into energy, big into trying to capture the vibe of our vines,” Purbrick says. 

The winery sees ‘wine’ and ‘organic wine’ as one and the same, producing wines that “tap into how wine was always made”.  

“From the outset we said, ‘We have to make sure this is something that is beneficial to the planet, not something that takes away from it’.”

While the founder may be biased to boast how good his produce is, RACV Club Sommelier Christian Maier can attest "the wine sells itself. It’s vibrant, it’s engaging, and it really speaks about the variety.”

Victoria’s organic, sustainable winemaker – Minimum Wines | Paddock to Plate

 

Minimum Wines describes itself as a ‘carbon-negative’ winery. “We’re actually drawing down more carbon when we make our wines,” Purbrick says.  

When the winery released its first vintage in 2018, it had sequestered (removed and stored) 130 per cent of the carbon created in producing that wine. Every year since, the winery has sequestered additional 80 per cent of carbon produced.   

It’s a feat Minimum achieves partly by partnering with One Treet Planted (a reforestation organisation) to plant one tree for every dozen wine bottles sold.  

Beyond that, the winery also composts its grape marc (the solid material leftover from pressing the grapes) to fertilize the vineyard soil, and packages using 100 per cent recyclable materials, particularly cork. 

“We love cork,” Purbrick says. “The numbers, the literature, the truth about cork compared to any of the modern closures... it wins hands down.”  

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