{"id":2,"date":"2015-11-20T04:15:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T04:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanvalley.mobi\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-04-19T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:39:09","slug":"organic-distillery-blog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to a Swan Valley  Blog &#8211; Harris Organic  Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duncan Harris started his&nbsp;Swan Valley Distillery, called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/shop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harris Organic <\/a> while working full-time as an engineer in Perth, Western Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"history-swan-valley-winery\">History &#8211; Swan Valley <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"text-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Here is some history about this blog. In 1922, the area of Baskerville west of the Great Northern Highway of the <strong>Swan Valley <\/strong>was subdivided for viticulture. The first grapevines were planted in 1923.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Tolj family arrived to grow table grapes and currant grapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1933 the grape drying shed and home were built, and a workshed, now the current cellar door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1944 the Water tank stand was built, and later, toilets were installed<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1985, the Tolj Family subdivided and sold the property &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"duncan-harris\">Duncan H Harris<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left text-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Duncan Harris started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/shop\/\">Harris Organic<\/a> in 1998 while working full-time as an engineer. \u00a0Furthermore, he spent every spare moment working to establish his dream of a two-hectare organic vineyard and winemaking facilities at the Swan Valley property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left text-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Then, starting from &#8220;scratch&#8221;, he cleared the trees, turning them into mulch, slashed the grass, removed the fruit trees and chased away the snakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left text-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Duncan started ploughing the ground in the hot summer months to remove the couch grass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left text-justify wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/MG_0554.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/MG_0554.jpg\" alt=\"Duncan Harris - Swan Valley - Harris Organic\" class=\"wp-image-832\" title=\"Duncan Harris - Swan Valley - Harris Organic\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duncan Harris &#8211; Proprietor and Distiller<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"planting\">Distillery Adventure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An application for a manufacturer&#8217;s licence was made in 2006 and granted in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Firstly, old wines were used to make neutral spirit for fortifying organic wines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later, leftover grapes were used to make fine organic brandies, winning awards for the 2010 and 2012 blends at the Perth Royal Show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-pages\">Top pages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/shop\/pure-alcohol.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Organic Alcohol<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Home Page<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/building-pizza-oven\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Building a Pizza Oven<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/shop\/organic-vodka.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Organic Vodka<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"..\/shop\/pure-alcohol.html\">Everclear Alcohol<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"text-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Baskerville region &#8211; Swan Valley<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This organic blog features numerous articles about the life and times of an organic distiller at the <strong>first<\/strong> organic distillery in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of all, for more information about this Organic Vodka Distillery, contact <a href=\"mailto:duncan@organicvodka.com.au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Harris Organic <\/a>via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Duncan Harris started his&nbsp;Swan Valley Distillery, called Harris Organic while working full-time as an engineer in Perth, Western Australia. History &#8211; Swan Valley Here is some history about this blog. In 1922, the area of Baskerville west of the Great Northern Highway of the Swan Valley was subdivided for viticulture. The first grapevines were planted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":3597,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-sidebar","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Harris Organic Wine and Spirits - Swan Valley Winery - Perth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harris Organic Wines, organic blog page from the only organic Swan Valley winery and distillery in Perth, Western Australia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harris Organic Wine and Spirits - Swan Valley Winery - Perth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harris Organic Wines, organic blog page from the only organic Swan Valley winery and distillery in Perth, Western Australia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harris Organic Spirits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HarrisOrganicSpirits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-19T12:39:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.organicvodka.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Brandy-spirit-bottles-sxc.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1042\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Harris Organic Wine and Spirits - Swan Valley Winery - Perth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Brandy-spirit-bottles-sxc.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-20T04:15:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-19T12:39:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"Harris Organic Wines, organic blog page from the only organic Swan Valley winery and distillery in Perth, Western Australia.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Brandy-spirit-bottles-sxc.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Brandy-spirit-bottles-sxc.webp\",\"width\":1850,\"height\":1042,\"caption\":\"High Strength Spirit bottles for various home uses\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.organicvodka.com.au\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Welcome to a Swan Valley Blog &#8211; 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