From half-way around the world, Wayne Ellis' charming Aussie accent comes booming down the phone line.
"Rewild is a sustainable wine brand, end to end," he said.
"While sustainability is the key point, we, of course, also think the wine is awesome."
Ellis, the general manager at Duxton Vineyards in southeast Australia's Southern Murray Darling Region, is doing this phone interview with me as part of Rewild's launch in British Columbia.
This month, Rewild introduced two wines -- a Pinot Grigio ($12.60) and a Cabernet Sauvignon (also $12.60) -- that are now sold at select private liquor stores throughout the province.
Both wines are classics of their varietal with the Pinot Grigio being light-bodied, dry and fresh with a profile of pear and lemon and the Cabernet Sauvignon being medium-bodied, dry and concentrated with aromas and flavours of blackberry, blackcurrant and dry herbs.
In Kelowna, they are available at Berezan Liquor at 115 Roxby Rd. (at the corner of Highway 33) in Rutland and at its online store https://shop.berezanhg.com/.
On Vancouver Island, Rewild is Liquor Plus and Cascadia Liquor stores.
Rewild's tagline is: Great wine doesn't have to cost the earth.
It's a quip that refers to its trifecta of deliciousness, affordability and eco-friendliness.
Duxton Vineyards is massive at 2,500 hectares and it makes wines under several labels, including Rewild, as well as sells grapes and bulk wine to other brands.
Sustainability is the standard throughout the company with regenerative farming, recycling vineyard by-products and returning it to the soil for biodiversity, native bees and beneficial insects for biodiversity, recycling 150 million litres of water annually and becoming 100% renewable with solar and hybrid hydrogen battery power.
The name Rewild is also a nod to this giving-back-to-the-land movement as native trees and shrubs have been planted around vineyards in an effort to 'rewild' the region by bringing it back to its natural state.
To further reduce the environmental footprint of Rewild wines in Canada, the wines are transported in bulk in containerized bladders from Australia to Vancouver, where they are bottled in Canadian-made lightweight glass with Australian-made screw caps that are manufactured using 50% recycled content.
The labels, which abstractly depict the layers of browns, greys and greens of the soil and vineyard and the blues of the river that runs through the region and the sky above, are made of recycled paper.
Rewild partnered with Andrew Peller Ltd. to come to Canada.
Peller is the Canadian wine conglomerate that also has Okanagan wineries Sandhill, Wayne Gretzky, Red Rooster, Gray Monk, Black Hills and Tinhorn Creek.
Peller has been using Duxton-supplied bulk wine in Peller's Pinot Grigio bag-in-a-box product for years.
Duxton is Australia's largest grower of Pinot Grigio and the best parcels of Duxton's Pinot Grigio and Cabernet Sauvignon are used for Rewild.
Rewild has become the fastest growing wine brand in Australia over the past three years.
Down Under, the Rewild brand also has other wines from rose, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Fiano to Shiraz, Merlot, Moscato and Prosecco sparkling.
Rewild's international expansion was to neighbouring New Zealand first, then Canada and the US, to China and India by the end of the year and likely the UK in the new year.
Wine and dog-adoption fundraiser
Sip some wine, wrangle Rover into a costume, meet dogs looking for their fur-ever homes and help pet adoption organization Paws It Forward.
All this is on tap at SpearHead Winery's Halloween Howl in Kelowna on Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm.
Paws It Forward will be there with dogs that are currently available for adoption.
You can bring your dog in a Halloween costume and post a photo tagging @spearheadwinery and @pawsitforward for a chance to win a prize.
Buy a $4 raffle ticket to win a portrait of your dog by painter Merryn Lamb.
All proceeds of the raffle go to Paws It Forward.
Everyone goes home with a Halloween treat bag from @pandosyvet for the dog in your life.
Can't make it to SpearHead on Saturday or don't have a pet to dress up?
You can still make a donation at https://www.spearheadwinery.com/events/Halloween-Howl and the winery will forward the contribution to Paws It Forward.
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.
