News!
Art-wine-garden launch
The 2009 Riesling was launched on Monday 28th September, along with Rebecca Wheadon's "I see trees" art collection, and our new potager garden/amphitheatre.
Long Table Lunch with Maggie
Lunch with Maggie was just superb....see here for pix.
Long Table Lunch with Maggie
The Sprung Writer's Festival is bringing Maggie Beer to Albany, and we've been honoured with hosting the literary lunch at which Maggie will be speaking. Join us if you can, but you'd best hurry - "guaranteed" seats have all sold out - only the "raffle" tickets are available. All proceeds go to Sprung to help continue their great work. Click here to book
Pitter patter of platters
After a lengthy renovation, the Oranje Tractor cellar door is now serving seasonal platters! Featuring produce from the region, visitors will be able to enjoy the platters with a glass or two of our latest wines, or the old faves. Hot off the press, so to speak, is the hugely popular Sauvignon Blanc - which completely sold out last vintage. And our new hottie - the German-style early harvest - Reverse Riesling is ready for bottling mid-June 08. See a pic of the winter seasonal platter menu here (courtesy of our very first guests Tricia & Trevor).
Our new family member
Meet Savi (after Sauvignon Blanc!), the new addition to the OT family! Yes, she's ever so cute...but not yet grown up enough to know not to jump all over you when you visit the cellar door. Savi is a 'rough-coat Jack Russell' and we "discovered" her when we were doing a home delivery of wine. She's got all the personality that this breed is renown for, and more!
Remember, we are now open Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays plus school and public holidays until July.
Previous News!
James Halliday gives OT 4.5 Stars
Legendary wine writer, James Halliday's latest tome has hit the shelves, and if you look closely you'll notice that he's given Oranje Tractor four and a half stars. You'll also see that he bestowed our Riesling (2005) with 93 points, the 2005 Sauvignon Blanc with 92, and the Cabernet Merlot (also 2005) got 90 points (and they're printed in red which indicates consistency across previous years). Read James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion, 2008 edition for more details.
Pam won the WA Rural Women's Award 2007!
This award recognises the role women play in rural life, and will enable Pam to pursue another of her dreams....to establish a series of farmers markets, to be called ROSS (Regional, Organic or Sustainable, and Seasonal), on Sundays at wineries in the Great Southern Region. Pam is an avid Slow Food advcocate, and firmly believes in the principle of sourcing foods grown close to home.
The plan is to rotate the ROSS market in each of the satellite towns around Albany, including Denmark, Mt Barker and Porongurup so that each week "farmers, fishers, bakers and makers" can go face-to-face with consumers. The model is based on the very successful Albany Farmers Market, which operates Saturdays and has done so since it was established in April 2002. Pam, her good friend Debra Hartmann (who also won a 2004 Vin de Champagne Award) and Kate Hawkings, a local nutritionist, were instrumental in getting the Albany Farmers Market established. Not only did they want to provide people with greater access to the region's fresh fruit and vegetables, they were concerned about the stupidity of trucking locally grown produce all the way (400km) to Perth and back again (now known as "food miles") to be sold at supermarkets less than 50km from where they grew. Environmentally friendly? NOT!
Recent News
Ben & Curtis surfed the oranjetractor!
Last year, the team from the ABC's 'Surfing the Menu' program turned up to oranjetractor land. We showed them around, taught them how to drive the oranjetractor, and of course let them taste our wines. They liked them enough to buy a case between them! Here's a shot after the big day of filming.
Country style article
Not so long ago, the oranjetractor was featured in Country style. Check it out.
Newsletters
Click here to read the latest news. You can subscribe to our newletter by sending us an email with "subscribe" in the subject line. We publish between two and four newsletters per year, depending on how things are going out in the vineyard!
