A small family winery run by Gareth and Rainbo Belton, located on Peramangk Country in beautiful Basket Range in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Farming eight hectares of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling across five sites in the western part of Adelaide Hills.
Prior to winegrowing, Gareth and Rainbo were marine scientists, specializing in phycology. Years ago, the loving of wine made them eventually drew away from academic life. The story of Gentle Folk began in 2012, after spending a lot of free time helping out with James Erskine (Jauma), Alex Schulkin (The Other Right) and other early pioneers of Basket Range wine moment. Over the years they had traveled around the world and learning about winemaking and growing, have acquired a lot more vineyard area as well as built relationship with some amazing growers in the Adelaide Hills.
“We love forest s and rivers of our beautiful region and hope they will be there for many more generation.” With this in mind, they farm the vineyard organically with some bio-dynamic preparations used throughout the year. They also make use of green manure and flowering cover crops, grazing animals and various organic fertilizers to help keep the vines and soils healthy. The growing season occurs from September to April each year with a few months in the middle for some rest and winter pruning. It results the wines are tinned, trucked, straightened and hedged as needed and the grapes are harvested by hand in the cool mornings.