OUR STORY

Botobolar Vineyard was established in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range north of Mudgee in 1971. Founders Gil &Vincie Wahlquist made the commitment to grow grapes organically from inception. When certification bodies were created, Botobolar was the first vineyard to be certified organic. Following onto organic growing Botobolar was a pioneer in preservative-free wine making and has been crafting wines without added preservatives since 1984.

The vineyard was purchased by Kevin and Trina Karstrom in 1994, and we continued with organic viticulture practices and minimal input winemaking. Having a young family at the time, the ability to raise our children on an organic property was truly idyllic.

However, the vineyard was dryland, there wasn’t water to irrigate the vines. Continual droughts throughout our tenure there, culminating with the dry period of 2015-2018 saw much of the vineyard die. Throughout the years, to meet the growing demand for organic wine we sourced fruit from other certified growers. This included grapes from the organic vineyards of Windowrie Estate
located in Canowindra.

Health issues and drought forced us to sell our beloved property and reconsider how we would
produce our flagship Preservative Free Shiraz. We teamed up with Jason O’Dea from Windowrie and his winemaker Anthony D’Onise so we can continue to create this delicious wine.