organic wine program
We believe organic, regenerative farming is the future. A return in fact to the values surrounding the respect of nature. We choose to give our Estate wines a chance to express their distinct individuality, by working naturally in the vineyards, employing traditional hands-on methods, and manipulating things as little as possible in the cellar.
We've adopted organic practices in our winemaking for many years but it was only in 2020 that we received our first official Organic accreditation from EcoCert, marking the start of an exciting new journey, into a certified organic era for our Radford Dale Estate wines.
Furthermore Radford Dale is proud to be a founding member of Organic Wines South Africa, an exciting new Association created in September 2024, encompassing the core, established, certified-organic wine estates of South Africa.
terroir - working with nature's bounty
In October 2021, we purchased a 20ha organically certified Estate in Elgin, now named Radford Dale Organic.
Here, 23 years after first launching, we have established a wonderful home for Radford Dale. We are focusing on the production of organic Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet-Franc and Semillon, and importantly, from 2026, South Africa's first ever organic Gamay.
organic estate collection
using nature
Pests should not be removed chemically; our Peking ducks, for example, make for the best natural snail managers. In fact we're bug-friendly. A vineyard should always form part of the natural ecosystem.
Hands on quality control
In the vineyard, and in the cellar. We’re soft on skins. We’ve developed a system of conveyers that transport the grape skins after fermentation to the pressing stage, ensuring they stay completely intact. The resulting wine shows greater depth and elegance, and eliminates the need for fining agents to deal with rough tannins.
Altitude
Radford Dale Organic Estate is situated in the heart of Elgin, on 20 hectares of prime viticultural land at altitude (300-320m above sea level). Elgin offers the coolest climate of any wine region in South Africa with an average annual temperature of 13 degrees celsius.
rainfall
The altitude, together with ample rainfall (on ave 950mm per year), multiple facing aspects, ancient, gravelly, free draining and mineral rich Bokkeveld shale soils, and proximity to the ocean create the perfect balance for successful viticulture.
spearheading organic gamay
We planted the first ever organic Gamay vineyard in South Africa, in August 2022. We believe Gamay has massive potential to produce refreshing wines of heightened quality, in a Cape terroir that mirrors its granitic French 'motherland' of the Cru Beaujolais.
Official organic certification
The law in South Africa stipulates we cannot be certified organic for any wines made in the same cellar as non-organic wines, so we had created a separate cellar in Stellenbosch to achieve this first accreditation in 2020.
Going forward however, we now have our own fully organically certified land, winery and cellar at Radford Dale Organic in Elgin, for which our organic certification is renewed annually.
Click the certificate image to download our latest certification.
EcoCert
Ecocert is an organic certification and inspection body established in France in 1991. With activity in over 80 countries Ecocert has become one of the major organic certification organisations in the world.
If you see the ECOCERT logo on any of our wine product pages, you can be assured the wine has been fully ORGANICALLY-CERTIFIED.
Undulating, multi-faceted vineyard sites
'freedom' Organic Pinot Noir
