WINE and marmalade from award-winning boutique vineyard Oranje Tractor Wine, north of Albany, is at the Perth Royal Show this year.
The 1998-established organic winery, with an orchard and a vegetable garden, is a featured Great Southern producer for the show that starts on October 1.
The 3ha farm was organic certified in 2001, including open space and legumes between the vines to manage weeds.
“It was a personal philosophy for a lifetime. We’d rather not poison the earth,” owner and 2007 Rural Women’s Award winner Pamela Lincoln said.
A 1964 Fiat tractor used to build the vineyard provided a name for the business but the grapes get special care because chemicals cannot be used.
“Instead of having bunched leaves we separate the vines which open up the branches to the wind and the rain,” she said.
Organic matter in the soil, which was sand up to 3m down, had quadrupled in volume since she and her partner Murray Gomm started work on their vines, with backpackers’ help each year.
“And the shiraz grows like Triffids,” Ms Lincoln said.
In 2008, wine writer James Halliday gave Oranje Tractor 4½ stars, its 2005 Riesling 93 points, a 2005 Sauvignon Blanc 92 stars and a 2005 Cabernet Merlot 90 stars.
A 2011 Sauvignon Blanc from the small acreage but made offsite will compete at the show.
Vineyard visitors have lunches with vegetables grown in the vegetable patch.
The garden has been used for Perth International Arts Festival events and screenings.