Full Circle: Orbis Wines

Full circle

Story by Megan Carr. Photography by Jason Porter.

Page left: Two of the Orbis Wines sheep hard at work. Above: A birdseye view of Orbis Wines’ vineyards.

There’s a picture postcard quality to the view out over McLaren Vale’s Orbis Wines. The rolling vineyard is lush and alive with activity, the vine leaves still clinging to their stems ahead of the autumn drop. There’s a living soundtrack of buzzing bees and magpies chattering. Ahead, a flock of sheep roam the green pasture and chickens tenaciously scratch for insects. The air feels crisp and cool, and the musky smell of earth fills your nose.

Lauren Langfield bustles outside to greet me as I step out into the peaceful car park at Orbis. She’s dressed in the trademark winemaker’s uniform of work boots, jeans and a wool jumper. Her blonde hair is down and she appears surprisingly relaxed, considering they have only just completed a busy vintage.

It’s mid-April and entering the co-op winery is a squeeze. Barrels are stacked tightly behind the door and seem to be occupying every nook of the small space, apart from Lauren’s ‘office’: a trestle table-cumdesk stationed among wine equipment and a solitary laptop. Not that she spends much time there. Being head winemaker at Orbis while running her eponymous wine label Lauren Langfield doesn’t leave much time to sit down. Lauren has been busy working in organic and biodynamic wineries and vineyards for the past fifteen years throughout Australia and New Zealand. A passionate Kiwi, she cares deeply about creating good wine using regenerative practices. It made her a natural fit with earthfriendly Orbis Wines.

Orbis is relatively new to the wine world. The winery was founded in 2018 by Brad Moyes and Kendall Grey, who dreamed of an off-grid workspace built on sustainability and self sufficiency. Their logo, a circular snake eating its tail – the ouroboros – was used in ancient Egyptian times to symbolise life and rebirth. ‘For us, it’s a part of our sustainability goals. We’re a closed circle not impacting on others, working within our circle,’ Lauren explains.

As we trek into the crisp vineyard, Ernie, a spunky black lab, chews my hand affectionately, only too happy for the company on this quiet autumn day. Ahead, the road is lined by raw timber end posts that vary in shape and size, salvaged from a nearby woodlot of diseased trees. Some have been milled to create shelters and structures within the winery, and others used to replace the standard treated pine end posts. ‘Treated posts use arsenic as one of the ingredients, that’s why things don’t eat it, and there’s research into the leaching of that,’ says Lauren. They’ve been replacing the arsenic-laced posts, but there’s still the issue of what to do with them after removal as you can’t burn them or take them to the dump. ‘It’s a huge problem,’ Lauren trails off, the solution remaining elusive. >

Top left: Lauren Langfield in her element. Top right: Helpful vineyard pup Ernie. Above: Wood salvaged from a nearby woodlot of diseased trees are used to create shelters and structures within the winery as well as replace the standard treated pine end posts.

This timber supports the 26 hectares under vine. Shiraz predominates but the plantings include many emerging varietals chosen for their heat and drought tolerance, such as cinsault, albariño and trousseau. ‘Which makes it fun for making wine, but also, other wineries we sell to want other varieties as well,’ Lauren tells me.

Another point of difference among bottles of Orbis wine is – they’re bottled under cork. It’s a curious move considering the shift towards screw caps, favoured for their ability to reduce the risk of cork taint and oxidation. ‘Aluminum screw caps are great, but people can’t cut the necks off them, so it goes to the recycling, and if it’s still on there, the end process is that it can’t be recycled,’ Lauren explains. Cork – a naturally made product – also sequesters carbon when reintroduced to the soil, with the added bonus of helping to keep the bottles from landfill.

Recycling as much farm waste as possible back into the earth is an essential component of regenerative agriculture. Next to the car park, a henhouse is filled with grape marc (the leftover skins, stalks and seeds from winemaking). Chooks cluck and scratch at the ground. ‘They’re really good at turning soil and getting into the weeds,’ Lauren explains. ‘And they love to eat snails.’ Snails are also a constant problem, and ducks will form the main line of defence once an exclusion fence is built to keep pesky foxes and kangaroos out. Lauren walks briskly, peering under the tall rows searching for the resident babydoll sheep. The staff have begun to train the vine cordons higher, eventually allowing the miniature sheep to graze year-round without damaging the fruit. Their voracious appetites keep down the weeds, reducing the need for tractors and ultimately avoiding soil compaction, while their excretions add nitrogen, carbon and good bacteria back into the soil.

There are thirteen sheep in total, with a breeding trial underway to hopefully augment the population. A ram watches us with trepidation – he’s been chosen to sire based on his shorter stature and is fastened with a chalk-filled chest harness. Three ewes are sporting red spots on their backsides, a telltale sign the stud has been doing his part, with hopefully many baby lambs born into the pasture this spring. These types of sustainable farming measures align Orbis with many other growers in the region, with McLaren Vale boasting the highest percentage (38%) of certified biodynamic and organic vineyards in Australia. ‘There’s a lot of like-minded people,’ Lauren says.

As much as Lauren loves contributing to the planet’s health, she also loves the finished result. ‘You feel healthy, and you like to drink the product you’re making,’ she says, her enthusiasm contagious. ‘It’s about actually enjoying the wines you’re making and getting involved in.’