Dawning Day Farms The Bandit Botanical Gin

An ember attack from Moreton Fire lights up our property, with the accompanying heavy smoke extinguishing all hope for our first harvest.

However, with disaster comes opportunity and a chance for collaboration. The smoke-tainted grapes were picked, wine was made and beauty rose from the ashes as our friends at Headlands Distilling Co. crafted our wine into gin.

It started as a dream…
Dawning Day is the culmination of a 20 year long dream of ours, to own and run our own small vineyard. After much deliberation over site selection, we picked the perfect spot and planted a micro, three acre vineyard in Exeter in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. This cool climate wine region called for varieties like Chardonnay, along with new clones of Pinot Noir from Yalumba nurseries, and our personal favourite, Gamay. Plans are in council for a cellar door, winery and cottage on the property, and we hope to be open to the public in late 2020. On the property we are also establishing bee hives and a self-sustaining food forest based on permaculture principles.

Meanwhile, we have already produced several wines, in partnership with our good friends at Swinging Bridge and Tertini Wines. These include: a 2016 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Orange and a 2016 Merlot Noir from the Southern Highlands. In barrel at the moment is a Skin Contact wine, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, all from local Southern Highlands fruit.

SEE ALL WINES
The idea behind Dawning Day is to combine a passion for wine and winemaking with the desire to help those in less fortunate situations. How does it all work? At the moment, we are giving 10% of all revenues generated by sales of Dawning Day wine to help those that are in need, and the goal is for this % to increase as the brand grows. In the past, we have given to charities like Refugee Connect, Dandelion Support Network, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Weave, Sweet Society, Highland Grace and several other community organisations.