MEDIA RELEASE 

4 October 2021 

RedHeads Wine receives Environmental Excellence Award at the 2021 South Australian Wine Industry Awards 

RedHeads Wine located in the Barossa Valley was yesterday awarded the Environmental Excellence Award for small to medium sized wineries at the 2021 South Australian Wine Industry Awards held at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide.

The award adds to two international accolades, the first was in 2019 when RedHeads was bestowed with the 2019 Global Drinks Business Green Award for Water Management and the second in 2020 when it was given a special commendation for Power Management at the same awards.

RedHeads’ green initiatives that led to this award trifecta, start in the vineyards with a state-of-the-art Water Management system comprising of soil probes to dictate when vines need water and enable them to only water when necessary and a water collection and storage system. Reducing waste water and water recycling are key focus areas RedHeads has worked towards, capturing all of the water from its winery roof and dam, collecting 2.7 million litres of extra water that can be reused around the winery and site, while the dam, with a storage capacity of 3.8 megalitres is used to supply water for irrigation.

When the winery was custom-built in 2018 by local builder, Ahrens, Power Management was also at the forefront. The winery is fully powered through 100% renewable sources with 97% powered by self-generated and stored renewable energy and the remaining 3% energy sourced from a certified renewable energy source. This equates to a saving of 22 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Alex Trescowthick, Winery Operations Manager is extremely pleased that the word is getting out there and hopes RedHeads’ winery can be a model for other small to medium sized new builds.

“We are immensely proud of what we have achieved over the past two years, contributing to a greener future for all. We are painfully aware of the evidence for climate change and its potentially devastating consequences. To combat this, we built a new sustainable winery in the Barossa Valley in 2019, starting from just a greenfield site.” Alex said

“Building the new winery from scratch gave us the opportunity to focus on accommodating premium winemaking as well as reducing its carbon footprint, waste, and environmental impact. We hope we can inspire other wineries and industries to improve how they manage their waste and energy requirements.” Alex continued.

RedHeads by name, but GreenHeads by nature.

For information on the he South Australian wine industry Association and on the annual Environmental Excellence Awards please visit  https://www.winesa.asn.au/our-services/environment-sustainability/excellence-awards/

For further information on RedHeads’ green initiatives, please visit RedHeads’ and go to ‘Green Creds’ or click here.

Ends

For more information or images, please contact Kate Kriven on 0416 924 061 or email kate@katekriven.com

For more information on RedHeads visit www.redheadswine.com

 Follow RedHeads on Instagram by clicking here or by visiting www.instagram.com/redheadswine/

About RedHeads 

RedHeads Wine was established by Tony Laithwaite in McLaren Vale in 2002 in an old restaurant, called RedHeads! The site was used by moonlighting winemakers to break free from the corporate shackles to come and make “real” wines, the way they wanted to. Tiny batches, hands-on, interesting blends and big flavours. Now RedHeads’ roots are firmly planted in the Barossa and it has a custom-built sustainable winery built from scratch in 2019. 

The principals remain the same today. The aim? Grape liberation. RedHeads hunt down premium parcels of fruit that are lost in larger winery blends. The team rescue the grapes, a few rows at a time and give them the attention they deserve in the RedHeads winery.  

RedHeads work with over 20 different varieties, which form wines of soul, individuality, and unique character. Each wine has its own story to tell, no two wines are the same.