THE Pokolbin-based Tamburlaine company has become a dominant force in Orange winemaking by buying the 12,000-tonne capacity crush former Cumulus winery at Cudal.
The deal was sealed in December in time for Tamburlaine to process 2020 Orange grapes from its 870-metres-altitude Borenore vineyard and contract winemaking clients.
The winery, 39 kilometres west of Orange, incorporates a 4000-bottles-an-hour capacity bottling line and extensive cask hall and warehouse.
Cumulus Wines, which retains its 205-hectare vineyard north-east of Molong and continues to make its Debbie Lauritz-crafted Cumulus, Rolling, Climbing and Luna Rosa brands, in 2019 left the Cudal facility idle and up for sale as it shifted its winemaking to the Oatley winery at Mudgee.
Herald Weekender: Things to do in Newcastle and the Hunter
Tamburlaine managing director Mark Davidson said the acquisition fused the company's place as one of Australia's largest organic, vegan-friendly and preservative-free producers and meant Orange could now claim to be our "Organic Winemaking Capital".
The company planned to soon open a cellar door in Orange and to take grapes from the Cowra and Canowindra areas.
It had promoted Aaron Mercer to group senior winemaker with Conor Brasier as Hunter winemaker and former Mount Majura Canberra assistant winemaker Monica Gray as Orange winemaker.
Mark has made Tamburlaine a solar-powered, energy-saving and environmental pace-setter, recycling its Pokolbin waste water and turning solid wastes into vine mulch and compost.
He plans a similar eco-friendly regime at Cudal, which performed well despite the drought cutting the dry-grown Orange fruit crush by 80 per cent. Irrigation at the Pokolbin vineyard limited the grape tonnage loss to 40 to 60 per cent.
Tamburlaine was founded at Pokolbin in 1966 by Cessnock medico Dr Lance Allen and bought in 1985 by a group headed by Mark, who swapped his government psychologist day job for a wine career after undertaking a Charles Sturt University winemaking course.
In 1999 Tamburlaine began converting the Pokolbin vineyard to organic production and between 1997 and 2001 planted its Orange vineyard.
It owns and contracts about 450 hectares of Orange and Hunter vineyard with 14 hectares at McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, and 190 hectares at Borenore, which became fully organic in 2006.
It now provides 95 per cent of Tamburlaine's 100,000 to 240,000 cases of annual output.
