Random Valley Organic Wines is located in Karridale, part of the famous Margaret River wine growing region in Western Australia. Random Valley, run by the Little family, joined other vineyards which have now multiplied to make Karridale a significant wine sub-region of Margaret River. Our commitment to sustainibility has seen us awarded as a category winner of the 2005 Banksia Environmental Awards, the pre eminent environmental awards in Australia.
An unique climate
Karridale’s climate is unique in the Margaret River region because of its equidistance from both the Southern and Indian Oceans. It is truly a maritime climate characterised by mild winters and warm but not overly hot summers. The resulting fruit is full of magnificent flavours that have produced premium wine of excellent quality.
Click here to see what’s so special about the Margaret River Region .
The Random Valley Farm
The farm is situated on two sides of a valley in Karridale with the vineyard planted on the north-facing slope of the valley. The top of the valley is the highest point in the landscape ensuring no nutrient run off from adjoining properties. Six hectares of vines were planted in 1996, two hectares of Semillon, two of Sauvignon Blanc, two of Cabernet Sauvignon and one hectre of Shiraz planted in l999.
Soil Science
Since the purchase of our farm we have used a science-based approach to improve the structure and fertility of the vineyard soils to build humus and biological activity. Our vineyard management practice ensures the correct balance of minerals and nutrients in the soil appropriate for the stages in the vine’s growing cycle.
Our soils, our vines, our water, and our organic fertilisers programs are constantly monitored and evaluated in field trials to enable us to learn more about our intervention in natural systems and plan our soil management program.
Chemical Free
As organic farmers we do not use any synthetic chemical based fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides in the management of our vineyard or in the processing of our wines.
Little Valley – a lifestyle
We have been very fortunate to be able to network the services of Ian Anderson a geo-chemist, soil scientist and Neil George a laboratory chemist for our field trials and monitoring programs. The team consists of experienced enthusiastic people willing to learn along with us.
We have enjoyed the many “willing workers on organic farms” (WWOOFers) from a wide range of overseas countries who have stayed to help us on the farm and in the vineyard. Many a night has been spent around a dictionary.
With our regular workers we have set up flexible work arrangements to fit the demands of their family life and outside interests.
For the first five years of our venture the team has focused on establishing soil conditions capable of producing high quality fruit. During these years our fruit was sold to a leading Margaret River winery. Each year has given us enormous satisfaction knowing our fruit was being used for premium wine production.