C yril Henschke took the extraordinary step in 1952 of citing the source vineyard on a wine label: Mount Edelstone Shiraz.

It was unheard of in Australia at the time, but Henschke realised that this 16ha site in South Australia’s Eden Valley produced Shiraz grapes that stood apart from its neighbours and deserved to be celebrated as a unique entity.

Mount Edelstone Shiraz, which celebrates 70 vintages in 2026, provides an important landmark for Australian wine by identifying site and terroir as a defining feature.

While other famous wines capture a distinctive Australian character through multi-regional or multi-variety blends – such as Penfolds’ Grange, Yalumba’s The Signature, Hardy’s Eileen Hardy and Wendouree’s wines – the action that Cyril Henschke took to highlight a single vineyard introduced a new, rarefied Australian fine wine story.

Within two years, Henschke had issued a second single-vineyard Shiraz – from the 4ha Hill of Grace Vineyard, planted in 1860 – which commanded a higher price because of its extremely limited production.

It declared a powerful statement that linked prestige to place. By the early 1980s, key vineyards that provided integral components to famous brands were being mentioned on the labels of a number of elite Australian wines – including Orlando’s St Hugo (from Coonawarra), Centenary Hill and Steingarten (both from Barossa), and St Hallett’s Old Block Shiraz (also from Barossa).

It placed great value on a league of century-old vineyards and their specific characteristics.

Singing their praises

By the 2010s, more Australian winemakers believed these deserved to be vinified and issued as single-site wines, rather than being labelled as ‘Reserve’ wines – a movement that underlined growing ambition to earn more plaudits on the world stage.

Talent and ideas matched this ambition, signalling the emergence of a ‘grand cru’ status in Australian wine – an important refocusing on specific sites that highlights the continuing maturity of Australian winemaking and wine marketing.

Recent historical tastings reveal the distinct personalities of superior locations – most notably Yangarra’s examination of all 15 vintages of its High Sands Grenache, vindicating the winery’s decision to reserve this extraordinary parcel, which defines the best of elite Australian Grenache.

Plenty of flagbearers are capturing specific aspects of the best old vineyards to produce wines of specific character.

Beyond the 10 sites listed here, Cullen’s 1971-planted Margaret River vineyard stands as a leading light of biodynamic viticulture. Brokenwood’s Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz provides a definitive Hunter Valley wine expression.

And also in Margaret River, the Vasse Felix home vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec produce the exemplary Tom Cullity.

Sites in the spotlight

More winemakers are being inspired to pursue single-site expressions of excellence, and to place renewed focus on historic sites in prime locations.

Toby Bekkers spent five years reviving a Clarendon vineyard (planted between 1842 and 1848) that had been the initial poster-site of South Australian wine, but since the 1970s had become derelict through neglect.

Now Bekkers Wines is producing single-site Clarendon Vineyard Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache of outstanding quality.

Sites are flourishing after careful research to maximise the potential of superior terroir. Shaw & Smith’s Lenswood Vineyard introduced intensive vine planting (about 4,800 vines per hectare) to naturally reduce crop load, resulting in exceptional Chardonnay.

In Western Australia’s Franklin River region, Swinney’s bush-vine Mourvedre is planted alongside Grenache and Shiraz on an ironstone gravel hilltop at the family’s Powderbark vineyard – and winemaker Rob Mann is producing three single-variety wines of extraordinary finesse.

Such celebrated outcomes don’t happen by accident. Meticulous, intelligent viticulture and vine health and soil restoration programs ensure these vines continue to produce extraordinary fruit that sits in idyllic balance – many in better shape now than ever.

The best is probably still ahead of us.

Henschke Mount Edelstone Vineyard

Eden Valley, South Australia

The 16ha Mount Edelstone Vineyard was an anomaly when pastoralist Ronald Angas planted only Shiraz vines on its rocky red loam soils in 1912, rather than follow the Barossa tradition of mixing several varieties.

His neighbour Cyril Henschke recognised the unique characteristics of this east-facing, 400m-high site when he started making wine from these grapes in the 1950s, and purchased the vineyard in 1974.

Now, viticulturist Prue Henschke nurtures the network of 1,300 old vines with biodynamic practices that have dramatically improved fruit quality from its 11 blocks – with Blocks G and H in the lower southeast portion of the vineyard being the winemakers’ favourite parcels.

From 1989, Prue introduced an upright trellis system to allow more even light onto ripening fruit.

‘This had an immediate effect on the wines,’ she says. ‘It amplified colour and brought great clarity and purity to the fruit flavours and subtle aromas. Vineyard attention led to sharper wine definition.’

This ensures great acid retention in the grapes and promotes an earthy savouriness to the palate, evident during Henschke’s February 2026 tasting event, hosted at the historic cellars in Keyneton, Eden Valley to examine key Mount Edelstone vintages between 1952 and 2022.

Highlights included the sprightly, lean 1958, sustained by the Mount Edelstone vineyard’s characteristic gentle tannins; and the recurring terroir hallmarks that showed off the vineyard’s twin personalities, with warmer vintages showing red earth and red spice as prominent features, and cooler vintages revealing lively sage and bay leaf herbal aromas over lush blackberry and black pepper.

Henschke Hill of Grace

Barossa, South Australia

Success for Mount Edelstone Shiraz inspired Cyril Henschke to elevate another single-site wine, this one produced from an even more precious vineyard resource – the small Hill of Grace Vineyard, with its gnarled Shiraz vines from the 1860s.

Planted on original rootstock, these fragile sentinels are among few surviving ancient relics to have avoided the impact of the destructive vine-root louse phylloxera – and they produce fruit of extraordinary intensity and unique character.

Dry-grown on clay-rich alluvial soils overlain by a layer of fine, sandy-silty loam, Shiraz from a 4ha portion of the Hill of Grace vineyard is treated with reverential care, benefiting from careful organic composting and mulching to ensure maximum microbial activity in the soil and optimal vine health.

Each portion of the vineyard is handpicked at different times around the full moon at Easter (significantly later than neighbouring Eden Valley and Barossa vineyards), yielding only about 2.5 tonnes of tiny berries per hectare, compared to 4 tonnes or so at Jim Barry’s Armagh vineyard, one of South Australia’s elite Shiraz sites.

It provides coiled power in a dark, inky wine that unfurls slowly over time in the cellar to scale monumental peaks.

These include the phenomenal 2010 and 2015 vintages, which best capture characteristic Hill of Grace signatures of dried sage, Chinese five spice and black pepper notes atop vibrant blackberry, dark plum and juicy cranberry.

Tolpuddle Vineyard

Coal River Valley, Tasmania

Soon after Tolpuddle Vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley was planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines in 1988, it was commanding respect as one of Australia’s elite cool-climate sites, yet Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw saw potential to do a whole lot more when they purchased the vineyard in 2011.

‘It has that special something,’ says Hill Smith, who is also one of the five Co-Chairs at the Decanter World Wine Awards.

‘Tolpuddle has very deliberate focus – but we felt it could be significantly better.’

The revitalisation programme saw a dam installed to help manage frost, ripping of the soil between vine rows to alleviate compaction of the silica-rich, stony ground, and new clones introduced within more intensive vine plantings to increase diversity and complexity of grape flavours and textures.

Through this focused attention to detail, Tolpuddle Chardonnay won immediate acclaim, but careful patience has also seen Pinot Noir flourish, as the influence of clonal diversity from new vines across the site has reached maturity.

‘Pinot Noir is capricious,’ says Shaw. ‘It reacts so sensitively to vintage and yield differences that it took time for Tolpuddle Pinot Noir to show site familiarity, but we have now arrived at a very strong place.’

Distinctive, prominent acidity comes as a consequence of the site’s typically very cold, very dry ripening season – an asset that gives these wines sharp flavour definition and extraordinary longevity.

Yangarra High Sands

McLaren Vale, South Australia

When Yangarra winemaker, the late Peter Fraser, identified as a result of the 2010 vintage that the specific terroir of this site – with Grenache bush vines planted in 1946 on a 1.7ha block of deep, ancient sand at Blewett Springs – produced a parcel of exceptional fruit with unusual delicacy and intensity, he boldly argued that it should be vinified separately and promoted as an elite, single-location Grenache expression.

No one else in Australia at that time had considered elevating Grenache to such a lofty pedestal, but Fraser’s astute observation set in place a movement that has rightly brought a league of superb McLaren Vale Grenache to international attention.

Yangarra High Sands remains the standard bearer for elite Australian Grenache, and a 15-vintage retrospective tasting demonstrated that its fragile beauty captures vintage variation with keen subtlety.

‘I always knew this block was very special. I had something that everyone else wanted, so I gave it my very best attention,’ said Fraser at the tasting.

The site provides fruit of exquisite purity, but minimal-intervention winemaking deserves praise for exercising poise and bringing every component into ideal balance – a talent amplified in more recent vintages, especially the magnificent 2024 High Sands Grenache.

It’s easy to be immediately seduced by its waft of wild herbs framed by fresh plum and wild raspberry, but it’s the lean muscle of a complex mid-palate that marries beauty with power, with its fine-boned frame carrying extraordinary persistence of pure flavours.

Alkina Estate Vineyard

Barossa, South Australia

When Chilean soil expert Dr Pedro Parra examined Alkina vineyard in the Barossa’s Greenock subregion, soon after Argentina’s Alejandro Bulgheroni bought the site in 2015, he confirmed its excellent pedigree – but also dug pits that identified a series of different soil outcrops within the 43ha vineyard.

These ‘polygons’ became the source of tiny fruit parcels that have been vinified separately and delicately in concrete vessels, with no oak influence, to accentuate their different character.

Polygon 1 Shiraz – sourced from a mere six rows of 70-year-old vines planted in granite-flecked schist and iron-rich clay over limestone – shows Barossa Shiraz in a dazzling fresh light, slender and nimble, yet supported by subtle, supple tannins and a lick of savoury minerality that guides a long palate line of rare finesse and purity.

Polygon 1 shows but one facet of Alkina’s studied Shiraz and Grenache output, as there are now 20 polygons defined within the vineyard’s Old Quarter – and more new sections are being identified to produce a suite of exemplary ‘polygon’ wines.

‘These are all significant micro-sites, all with significantly different geologies that introduce vastly different characteristics in the wine,’ explains Parra, ‘and it would be a crime if they were not identified individually and celebrated.’

Bastard Hill Vineyard

Yarra Valley, Victoria

Surrounded by dense temperate rainforest in the remote upper reaches of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, the 13ha Bastard Hill vineyard earned its harsh nickname from the workers who toiled in the especially difficult terrain.

Planted in the 1980s by the region’s leading cool-climate viticulturist, Ray Guerin, this was regarded as one of the great Chardonnay sites in Australia, being a source for Eileen Hardy Chardonnay.

The clearing is flanked by towering eucalyptus trees and giant tree ferns, and scales up from 300m to 400m above sea level.

With vines planted on gradients of up to 32%, riding farm machinery here is fraught with danger. Such difficulty and high labour expenses saw previous owner Accolade lose interest in maintaining such a gnarly site to the highest standards.

When Giant Steps Wine, owned by Jackson Family Wines, purchased the vineyard in August 2022, extensive vineyard restoration work commenced.

Winemaker Melanie Chester didn’t expect the neglected Bastard Hill site to respond immediately to viticultural attention and produce fruit of a standard befitting Giant Steps’ esteemed suite of single-vineyard wines.

But an exceptional 2023 Bastard Hill Chardonnay won immediate accolades, and the quality keeps improving.

A key factor is a rare soil type – rich red basalt that points back to the region’s volcanic activity of 500 million years ago – which produces fruit with an exciting concentration of flavours without sacrificing strident natural acidity.

Jim Barry Wines Florita Vineyard

Clare Valley, South Australia

Racy, citrus-driven Clare Riesling is now a globally recognised style, built on the historical success of the famed Florita Vineyard.

Pioneer wine merchant Leo Buring bought land at Watervale in 1946 and called the site Florita (Spanish for ‘little flower’) because he initially planted Palomino and Pedro Ximénez grapes to make fino-style ‘sherry’.

He then planted Riesling vines in 1962 and his winemaker John Vickery created a benchmark style, winning 50 trophies and 400 gold medals over subsequent decades.

Jim Barry Wines purchased the 32ha Florita site from corporate owner Philip Morris in 1986, but although the Barrys immediately began making superior wines with this stellar resource, they couldn’t use the trademarked Florita name for another 18 years.

‘It was maddening that we couldn’t use the name for so long, because we wanted to shout from the rooftops that we had the most famous Riesling vineyard in Australia,’ says retired managing director Peter Barry.

Jim Barry Wines finally issued its own Florita Riesling in 2004. In this wine, the site’s shallow, loamy soils provide a delicate floral beauty coupled with a rich citrus line, firm acidity promoting sharp, clean flavours with unusual length and persistence.

It boasts the unusual dichotomy of being both pretty and fragile, yet resolute and sturdy – factors that amplify with age.

To highlight this, Jim Barry has been issuing a 10-year-old cellar release of Florita, with the recently reissued 2015 showing gorgeous, developed honeysuckle, toasted cashew and lime marmalade characteristics, without sacrificing the primary citrus zestiness that defines Watervale Riesling.

Grosset Polish Hill River Vineyard

Clare Valley, South Australia

The single-minded pursuit of purity in Riesling expression is Jeffrey Grosset’s winemaking obsession, which led him to plant three different Riesling clones (two German and one rare local variety) on an 8ha vineyard in the stony, austere Polish Hill River region of Clare in 1996.

The site’s 500 million-year-old bedrock of blue slate produced a distinctive type of Riesling wrapped in dark, pensive flavour tones and spiky minerality – far removed from the neighbouring Watervale district’s lively lemon-lime characteristics.

Its austere personality reflects the struggle endured by such close-planted vines on tough soils, with each producing just two bottles of wine per vine.

‘I saw such particular attributes in the fruit from each site that I saw no point blending them together. I wanted people to see them side by side, so I just went ahead and bottled the Rieslings from both sub-regions separately,’ says Grosset.

This started a new, serious conversation about Riesling in Australia, which Grosset escalated as he honed more fine-chiselled flavour profiles after adopting organic viticulture principles, then achieving biodynamic certification in 2019.

Pursuit of this painstaking vineyard-care model has seen Grosset applauded as an early adopter of sustainability practices, but he simply points to the finished wine, and its extraordinary cellaring life, as his raison d’etre.

‘Quality over quantity,’ he says with an earnest stare, ‘is always the answer.’

Brokenwood Oakey Creek Vineyard

Hunter Valley, New South Wales

Semillon from the Hunter Valley carries unique characteristics that relate directly to site.

As Australia’s most northerly fine wine location, within a sub-tropical zone but also influenced by coastal breezes, the Hunter has produced Semillon for almost 200 years.

Its modern-day expressions of this grape variety combine seemingly disparate elements of bright, citrus-driven fruitiness with steely acidity that allows flavours to develop over time in bottle.

Semillon has thrived thanks to being planted in exactly the right locations – and Oakey Creek Vineyard, from which Brokenwood has sourced Semillon grapes since the early 1990s, ranks among the best.

In 2021 Brokenwood moved decisively to purchase the vineyard from the Drayton family, who planted it in 1982 on free-draining but fertile alluvial soils located close to the creek.

This vineyard is a primary source for Brokenwood’s elite ILR Reserve Semillon (first produced from the 1992 vintage, and released after six years of bottle age) – yet incredibly Brokenwood had never owned a Semillon vineyard.

‘We had always relied on local growers, so to take control of such an important vineyard gives us an opportunity to improve and invest in the vineyard’s future,’ explains chief winemaker Stuart Hordern.

He believes the importance of this vineyard will be more vigorously promoted, suggesting ILR will be labelled as a single-source wine, in addition to the Oakey Creek Semillon as a current-vintage expression.

‘It’s unmistakable where this wine comes from – and that’s rare.’

Giaconda Estate Vineyard

Beechworth, Victoria

The emergence of Giaconda, with its distinctive mineral-driven personality, proved pivotal in shaping the understanding that the best Australian Chardonnay should be defined by site rather than style.

When winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner left Brown Brothers Wines in 1981, he chose to plant his own vineyard on a tiny outcrop of 450 million-year-old granitic loam over clay and decomposed gravel near Beechworth in northern Victoria’s elevated sub-alpine region.

He had a specific goal – to produce rich but balanced Chardonnay in a powerful Burgundian style – but he needed to locate the right geological site. He found exactly what he wanted.

Chardonnay is planted on a relatively cool south-facing slope at more than 400m, providing a slow ripening period, enhanced flavour complexity and elevated natural acid levels.

It provides Giaconda Chardonnay with a robust frame, yet also unique poise and dignity.

Kinzbrunner remains a staunch advocate for a low-intervention winemaking style – pressing the grapes in a basket press, fermenting the must in oak, using no cultured yeasts, and not fining or filtering before bottling.

He believes this ensures the most accurate and authentic representation of his organically managed vineyard.

This supports a confident wine style that hasn’t changed with fashion, showing its personality with pride.

10 great Australian wines from 10 great Australian sites

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While it takes an astute sense of smell and taste to make a great winemaker, there’s no question that Samantha (Sam) Connew has an excellent nose, both literally and metaphorically.

Soon to celebrate the 15th vintage of her wine label Stargazer, the New Zealand-born, Tasmania-based winemaker tells me that her career has been founded on instinct and passion.

‘I’ve just followed my nose, I suppose,’ she says. ‘A lot of it has been going in the direction of what popped up at the time.’

But there’s more to her career than good timing, with a list of achievements that highlight an unshakeable work ethic and a streak of gritty resilience.

During her decade at Wirra Wirra in South Australia’s McLaren Vale, she was named the 2007 International Red Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge and most recently, she was named the 2025 ASVO (Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology) Winemaker of the Year.

Back in 2014, she became the youngest judge to serve as chair of judges at the Sydney Royal Wine Show, and the first woman to hold the position, helping to pioneer change in the Australian wine show system.

Finding her path

Connew grew up in Christchurch and wine wasn’t the obvious career path. For most New Zealand students in the 1990s, a job in hospitality supplemented their meagre student allowance, which, in Connew’s case, was for a degree in arts and law.

‘Even back then, I was living beyond my means,’ she says with a laugh.

She worked at the now-shuttered Annies Wine Bar & Restaurant, which served a whopping 70 wines by the glass and introduced her to the joys and diversity of wine.

‘It was the early ’90s, right when the New Zealand wine industry was really starting to go ballistic, not just for Sauvignon Blanc, but also for the smaller producers,’ she recalls.

‘Wineries like Ata Rangi and Felton Road were becoming established around that time.’

She wasn’t actually that keen on practising law, but it wasn’t clear what the alternative would be until a post-degree trip to Adelaide.

‘I had access to the incredible wine regions there,’ she says, ‘which convinced me to study wine back in Christchurch.’

On completion, she jumped at an invitation to work her first vintage in Oregon.

‘I just loved the physical part of it, dragging hoses, doing punchdowns, and the vineyard,’ she recalls. ‘It was great. That was it. I thought, “Yes, this is what I want.” And the rest is history.’

After stints in McLaren Vale and the Hunter Valley, it was while working vintage at Bay of Fires in 2012 that a half-joke of ‘you should start your own label’ from Peter Dredge (profiled in the Decanter January 2026 issue) turned into a reality.

Connew bought some Huon Valley Pinot Noir grapes, heralding Stargazer’s first vintage in Tasmania.

Branching out

Fast-forward to 2016 and increasing problems with gaining access to fruit led to a vineyard purchase in the Coal River Valley.

‘I moved down here at the beginning of the year and started picking at the beginning of March 2016,’ Connew says. ‘It was boots on the ground and let’s get cracking.’

The vineyard checked all the boxes: not too far from Hobart, not too large, and with water security – essential in a region where 600mm of rain is a good year.

The tasting room opened late last year, hosting a 10-year retrospective tasting of the Palisander Riesling and Pinot Noir that revealed a through-line of expression.

‘I think we’ve got a pretty special piece of dirt that we’re taking care of in Tea Tree [sub-region] in the Coal River Valley,’ Connew says.

‘The joy of having my own label is that it can reflect that site, but also reflect that year as well.

‘We’re not trying to do what Australia is renowned for, which is consistency and uniformity from vintage to vintage.

We’re aiming for the wines to honestly and transparently reflect the site and the vintage, and to be able to celebrate the differences each year. We’re trying to be nonconformist and anti-uniformity in a way.’

Stargazer might have been intended as a side project, but it has already cemented its place among the best wineries in the state.

Stargazer Wines

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What shall we do with the drunken sailor? In the early 1800s, the answer would have been to keep him sailing to whichever far-flung destination the British Empire was attempting to expand into. One such destination was Van Diemen’s Land – now Tasmania – where a penal colony was established in 1803, marking the beginning of the long history of the Tasmanian spirits industry.

In the early days, coins were scarce and booze plentiful, leading to spirits playing an essential role in trade and payment for goods and services. Distilling was legalised in Tasmania 1822, and Australia’s first legal distillery, Sorell Distillery, was established by Thomas Haigh Midwood in Hobart. In fact, Sorell Distillery produced Tasmanian whisky a full two years before Scotland's first legal distillery, Glenlivet.

Over a dozen distilleries followed suit, but not for long. Tasmania’s whisky industry was halted in 1839 with the introduction of the Distillation Prohibition Act, introduced by Governor John Franklin. His teetotaling wife famously declared: ‘I would prefer barley be fed to pigs than it be used to turn men into swine.’

A new era

It would take another 154 years until the distilling industry was rebooted and there’s one name we have to thank for the modern Tasmanian whisky industry: Bill Lark. It was Lark’s lobbying (along with his wife, Lyn) that resulted in legislative change in 1990 to legalise small-scale craft distilling in Tasmania.

The pair launched Lark Distillery in 1992, distilling from the family home in the suburb of Kingston, just south of Hobart. ‘I grew up with the still outside my bedroom door,’ shares Kristy Lark-Booth, Jack and Lyn’s daughter, who is now owner and distiller of Killara Distillery, as well as president of the Tasmanian Whisky and Spirits Association. ‘That's where the name Killara comes from. It’s the name of the street where we lived.’

Shortly after Lark’s inception, in 1994, Tasmania Distillery was founded by Robert Hosken in Sullivans Cove, changing its name to the latter with new ownership in 1999. Patrick Maguire, a friend of Bill Lark, then purchased Sullivans Cove with several investors in 2004. It was under his management that the distillery transformed the trajectory of Tasmania’s whisky industry.

Making history

In 2014, the distillery was the first outside of Scotland and Japan to win the World’s Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards with its French Oak Cask expression. The distillery has since gone on to take home the title of Best Single Cask Single Malt three times: in 2018, 2019 and 2026.

The 2014 accolade inspired a swath of new producers, and the figure has continued growing. ‘Killara was about the 16th licensed distillery in 2016. So it was roughly 25 years between the first distillery and the 16th,’ says Lark-Booth. ‘And now we’ve got about 80 or so distilleries in Tasmania.’

It’s difficult to establish the exact figure in terms of whisky producers, as distilling licences don’t differentiate the type of spirit distilled. However she estimates that around 60 distillers produce whisky throughout the island state.

A sense of place

Distilleries are dotted throughout the island, all benefiting from its diverse microclimates, fresh air, pure water, and high-quality barley. Tasmania sits between 40-44° latitude south; Scotland between 55–59° degrees north.

‘There’s not much between Antarctica and us,’ says Lark-Booth. ‘We get huge pressure systems from the south, creating a perfect environment: warm days, cool evenings, but not too hot or too cold. Whisky interacts with the cask through those pressure changes,’ she adds.

‘In Scotland's stone warehouses, the temperature is very even year-round, so maturation takes much longer, also because they use larger vessels than the ones most people here use,’ she adds. This, alongside the industry’s youth, is why age statements are not the norm for Tasmanian whisky.

Quicker maturation

The Tasmanian climate and greater temperature fluctuation are responsible for another unique difference in the cask ageing process. At most Tasmanian distilleries, the angel’s share (the portion of whisky that naturally evaporates through the porous wood of the cask as the spirit ages) is at least double the amount in Scotch production, consisting of higher amounts of water evaporation versus alcohol evaporation.

‘In Scotland, casks are generally laid down at 63.5% and lose 1-2% volume annually to evaporation, primarily alcohol, as alcohol has a lower evaporation point than water. Colder, humid conditions mean whisky slowly drops in strength,’ Ashley Pryor of Sullivans Cove explains.

‘In Tasmania, warmer and drier conditions mean losses of 4-5% annually, but what evaporates is primarily water. Tasmanian whisky gets stronger in the cask, concentrating inside the barrel with the temperature fluctuating around 20 times a day, driving exacerbated interaction with the wood. In short, it matures at roughly double the pace of Scotch.’

A Tassie signature

Tasmanian whisky is spelled without an ‘e’, reflecting a style and production method closer to Scottish than American or Irish whiskey. But several hallmarks set it apart from Scotch and other global whiskies. Predominantly, you’ll find single malts, not blended expressions, and many distillers produce single cask releases.

Distillers take pride in local ingredients: locally grown and malted barley, Australian fortified casks, Tasmanian Pinot Noir casks, Tasmanian peat, and local coopers and still-makers. Tasmanian peat differs from UK peat, shaped by local botanicals such as gum trees, pepperberry and more, giving it a distinct character that carries through to the spirit.

‘The formula for Tasmanian whisky is making sure you care about each part of the process,’ shares Rob Polmear, co-founder and head distiller at Waubs Harbour. ‘Brew it yourself, using Tassie barley and water, things that make it provenance-based, but also because the barley here is great; it’s a brewer's barley meant for high flavour,’ he adds.

‘Then distilling involves using stills like Bill Lark chose in those early days. Pure copper, short-necked stills, which are hallmarks a lot of distilleries share, pushing for big, oily whiskeys,’ says Polmear. Finally there’s maturation. ‘A lot of Tasmanian whiskeys use tawny, and all three of our core lines have it. As you go up in price, you see more. That’s a hallmark of Tasmanian style.’

Tasmanian whisky: five to try

Killara KD91 ex Tawny Whisky Abbey 2025 Release – Bonnie ‘Breath of Fire’

A single cask, small-batch release, matured in a 100-litre tawny Port cask and offering up caramelised malt, Christmas cake, sea spray and salted caramel. Fruity and smooth on the palate with a creamy, spiced custard apple finish. Also available at cask strength. Alcohol 52%

Lark Fire Trail No 151

From Tasmania’s founding and largest distillery, which is now a publicly traded company. Single malt aged in Port and Sherry casks, then finished in ex-bourbon and American oak wine casks. Vanilla bean toast, orange blossom, creamed honey and subtle smokiness. A smooth, balanced, easy-drinking whisky with a generous finish. Alc 41.5%

Overeem Port Cask Matured Distiller Strength

From the fourth distillery in Tasmania, founded in 2005 by Casey Overeem and now run by his daughter Jane Overeem and her husband Mark Sawford. The Port Cask is their flagship, always a single-cask release, yet with a consistent house style. Mid-caramel toast, a lick of sea salt, white gum honey and creamed pear. Smooth and approachable. Alc 43%

Sullivans Cove TD0348 14 Year Old Single Cask American Oak Second-Fill

This single-cask, small-batch distillery placed Tasmanian whisky on the map with global accolades. The core range is centred on American oak, French oak and a double cask blend. An emerging Tassie category, second-fill casks allow the spirit to shine without the influence of a fortified predecessor. Bright citrus and orchard fruits, crème caramel, a dusting of dried sage and an impressive finish. Alc 48%

Waubs Harbour Founder’s Reserve Batch 11

A maritime distillery located in Waubs Harbour and founded in 2018 by head distiller Rob Polmear (ex-Lark and Overeem), and his brother and sister-in-law, Tim and Bec Polmer. Matured in older tawny Port casks and offering up layered spice, molasses, lamb fat umami and deep complexity. Rich and oily, a cask-strength cigar malt style. Alc 62%

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The use of ‘Old World’ and ‘New World’ as terms might be increasingly redundant as descriptors in the global landscape of wine, but they remain useful when discussing geographical wine regions.

There is little question that a place that has produced wine commercially for less than 70 years is a new kid on the block, compared to one that has hundreds (or thousands) of vintages under its belt.

When exploring a newer wine region, I find it interesting that, without question, one or two names are always synonymous with it.

Sometimes, those names were the region’s founding wineries. Sometimes, they were the first to buck the trend and see potential for greatness – rebels, you might say.

And sometimes, it’s a little of both, along with such a deep commitment to excellence that a name itself becomes congruent with the place.

Ed Carr’s name has been synonymous with House of Arras since its inception in 1995.

And House of Arras is a name intrinsically bound to Tasmanian wine, a shining beacon for the possibilities that abound for Australian sparkling wine.

The beginnings

Tasmania was a fledgling wine industry with just 46ha under vine when Carr visited in 1988 and earmarked the state for sparkling wine production.

It was while working at Hardys that Arras was founded by the business in 1995, and Carr was appointed chief sparkling winemaker.

‘I started with what was then BRL Hardy in 1994, and we had the plan to extend our premium sparkling wine winemaking to expand into new cold climate areas,’ says Carr, over a hydrating glass of bubbles. ‘I mean, it was still pretty new stuff then, most of the colder regions.’

Other cooler regions at play included Pemberton, Adelaide Hills, Yarra Valley, Tumbarumba and Macedon.

‘But we knew that what we wanted to do moving forward was to create a world-class wine. In 1995, we proved our theories that Tasmania would be the best to suit our style.'

Why Tassie?

Ever the master of understatement, Carr adds: ‘We didn't have a name for a brand at that stage; we were just making wine, really.’

The original Arras releases – 1995, 1996 and 1997 – were blends of fruit from Tasmania and the upper Yarra Valley.

Carr explains: 'We liked the structure of the higher latitudes, so the more southerly vineyards [of Australia] as opposed to the high altitude vineyards. Or a combination of both. And Tasmania offered the southerly latitude and the maritime climate.'

By 1998 Arras had accessed several more vineyards in Tasmania beyond the initial Tamar and Pipers River sites.

‘We found that we had the diversity of fruit coming from within Tasmania, so we didn’t need to step outside it,’ says Carr. ‘In fact, if we blended something else in [from another region], it seemed to sort of blow the structure a bit down the track.’

Thirty years on

Over the course of the past three decades, the brand has changed hands several times and is now owned by boutique Australian producer Handpicked Wines.

But Carr has remained a constant. A guardian of the cellar reserves, he has gently guided the growth of Arras from a single label, the Grand Vintage, to a portfolio.

‘We spent the last 30 years fine-tuning our style and planting or purchasing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, in all seven or eight regions [in Tasmania], then seeing where they fit in a matrix of base wines,’ he says.

‘It’s interesting how those different sub-regional terroirs express themselves with the different varieties and how we’ve managed those into the various blends.’

The house style is one that sings clearly from the glass. Lengthy tirage and a sophisticated oak regime are hallmarks of the Arras style, with fermentation of up to 10% in oak introduced from 2007 onwards.

Carr adds: ‘We've always gone for the more robust sort of style, the richer style. Our use of 100% malolactic fermentation and oak probably enhances that. We pick it quite ripe compared to other people.’

Patience is a virtue

‘If anything has amazed us over the course of time, it's how well these wines age,’ continues Carr.

‘Initially, we thought four years was a very long tirage time. But now we’re thinking 20 years is achievable with all the cuvées. We just have to choose when and how we want to sell them.’

One of the biggest learning curves has been the management of stock, as there is nothing that can replace what time adds in traditional-method sparkling wines.

As confidence in the Arras brand grew, there’s been a progressive build-up in the tirage age.

‘Making the wines, keeping tirage stocks and finished goods in museum and assessing them over time; it’s a business model you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody to fund,’ notes Carr.

‘Essentially, you’re saying I’m going to pick some grapes this year and you're not going to see a wine on the shelf for six.’

The favourite child

So, over 30 years, are there any standout vintages or wines for the man who has made them all?

‘Oh, 2008 stands out really strongly,’ he says. ‘And the Late Disgorged is one of my favourites for being a classic. We’ve just disgorged the 2013 and that’s looking very strong.’

More recently, 2015 was a favourite. ‘The 2015 Grand Vintage really is just a killer. It’s just been so successful and very, very strong.

'So probably the 2015 for overall appeal. I almost can’t wait for the 2015 to come out as the Late Disgorged, but that’s still three years away yet,’ he adds.

Where to from here?

30 years is a milestone for a Tasmanian wine label, but there are plenty of plans and aspirations ahead.

Carr says: ‘We’re looking back at some wines which have had three, four and five years of cork age. I love that style, but that really comes back to the consumer holding on to them. So we might hold back some bottlings for release with extra cork age. That would be interesting.’

Other possibilities include a blanc de noir with oak reserve influence; ‘but that’s not in tirage yet, so that's a long wait’.

More magnums in the market are a reality, as is an increased focus on the international market.

‘The feedback from international markets is very, very positive about Tasmania in general. It’s like it’s a discovery of something entirely new,’ says Carr.

While there have been many stalwarts of the Tassie wine industry over the years, including people who planted key vineyards and people who have made great wine, Carr’s name, like the Arras wines, is one that speaks of consistency, persistence and generosity.

Putting Tasmania on the map

The global representation of Tasmanian wine is largely led by the Arras name, for both quality and export reach.

Meanwhile Carr’s international accolades – including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships and the Sparkling Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge – have placed his name, and thus Tasmania’s, in the spotlight for sparkling wine.

However, Carr never speaks in the singular. It is not ‘I’, but ‘we’. Most importantly, it is his willingness to share his knowledge with the Tassie wine community, with a humble and quiet knowing, that has stitched his name into the fabric of Tasmanian wine.

Top House of Arras wines to try

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Tasmania is Australia’s smallest state, a coven of those who seek change from the mainland cities, or a cadence away from the mainstream. There is that rare species, too, that was simply born there.

The bucolic undulations of Tasmania’s north, from the Tamar to Pipers River, are juxtaposed against the salt-bitten ruggedness of the east coast and the drier Derwent and Coal river valleys, where consistency of crop and proximity to the state capital Hobart account for a concentration of wineries.

Further south, sunlight jitters between gum leaves, vineyards and the road’s next bend, revealing silver bays-cum-cobalt tributaries in which fishing boats nestle in the Huon valley.

The Apple Isle has long been secure in its moorings as a spectacular place to grow grapes, traditionally those for sparkling wine and still Pinot Noir. Looking at Tasmania’s landscape today, it’s fascinating to ponder the veracity of empirical barometers such as sunlight hours and latitude – solid, sensible and traditional dictates for planting the likes of Riesling, now increasingly being pulled up or grafted over to more commercially viable options, despite superb examples from the likes of Stargazer and Pooley. Sauvignon Blanc, too, is going the way of the dodo.

Today, Chardonnay makes up just over 26% of Tasmania’s total plantings, while Meunier plantings are growing. These varieties are mostly used for fizz, the state’s most popular wine style, but also for still wines, reflecting global trends favouring whites and friskier reds. Of this lighter idiom, but far from the madding crowd of commercial obviousness, is Stoney Rise, Trousseau 2024. Energetic and eclectic, this delicious wine exhibits notes of distilled cherry, bound by a mandala of sinuous tannins, attesting to Tasmania’s capacity for diversity.

When established trains of thought are challenged, we ask whether there is something else; whether there are alternatives to the status quo. Climate change is shattering preconceptions with a velocity that can make established norms feel anachronistic, forcing us to be open to discovery, or to cling doggedly to that sinking ship of hyperbolic scores, rich wines and Boomer affectations.

Factors including soil structure and geology help determine quality vineyard sites and appropriate plantings, yet alignments once benign are increasingly malignant, as shade and elevation find favour in the quest to obviate heat and UV intensity in warmer regions, while peripatetic weather patterns in Tasmania are sublimated to a search for warmer, protected pockets to ripen grapes. What was once a bane is often a virtue as the environment’s variable nature challenges the vinous establishment.

A recent tasting of still Tasmanian wines did just that. While Pinot Noir was the inevitable focus, attendees expressed unsolicited support for Syrah. The irrefutable quality of many wines suggests that this later-ripening variety represents an exciting new frontier as the climate warms. Yet official figures indicate little statistical enthusiasm. Syrah plantings remain stagnant overall, nudging just under 2% of the state’s total. No wonder, since earlier renditions (then called Shiraz) largely bring recollections of ungenerous wines marked by the bitter astringency of an ill-suited climate.

Misguidedly, certain producers sought to emulate headier South Australian bottlings via extraction and oak. But today, a raft of midweight wines dabbed with lilac, tapenade, blue fruits and smoked meat touch on the cracked-pepper vibrato of the northern Rhône, tempered by Aussie generosity.

Impressive examples come from Stefano Lubiana and hughes & hughes, and a ferrous, almost sinewy expression from Grey Sands, parrying with a svelte, fine-boned one from Marion’s Vineyard. Syrah makes sense, perhaps, if Tasmania is understood through a logic of specific sites that combat coldness, rather than the holistic Pinot-centric narrative of the establishment.

In my glass this month

Claudio Radenti of Freycinet Vineyard crafts fine Syrah. His overall parlance is cool climate, yet he focuses on ‘north- to east- facing warmer slopes, sheltered from winds’. The 2017 Shiraz (yes, that word) has now aged impressively, while the younger-vine Louis Syrah 2021 is electric, taut and redolent of souk spices.

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Growth occurs at the edge of one’s comfort zone, and it’s safe to say that Tasmanian winemaker Peter Dredge’s life has remained constantly on the precipice of comfort. While he hails from South Australia, he’s not from a wine family, and his winemaking journey hasn’t followed a conventional path. In fact, there’s nothing conventional about Dredge.

‘I was a bit of a jock. I wanted to play AFL [Australian rules football] and be a physio. Unfortunately, an errant discus got me in the head in my last year of high school,’ he says, while placing a record onto the decks at the tasting table. Rehabilitation followed, but while he (mostly) recovered his balance, the future of a sports career and the hearing in his left ear never returned.

Dredge’s setback cost him an extra year of school, following which (and a gap year) he landed a lab job at Petaluma with Brian Croser in 1997. ‘I fell in love with the wine industry,’ he says.

‘I was in a pretty low place and listening to very dark, evocative 1990s trip hop, mostly based around Massive Attack. I was making the cellar hands listen to this morose stuff. Ironically, it’s called the Headz series, and I’d just been clocked in the head.’

After a 12-year tenure at Petaluma, he leapt to the cooler climes of Tasmania and joined Bay of Fires, staying there for the next five years. ‘We worked with 13 growers around Tasmania,’ he says. ‘I pitched the idea for a bit of sub-regional differentiation between the Bay of Fires Pinot and Rieslings, but that wasn’t the direction they wanted to take.’

Thankfully, they didn’t. ‘When I started Dr Edge, that’s where the north-, the east- and the south-style wines started to eventuate.’

Hitting the right notes

The common thread that runs through Dredge’s entire winemaking journey has been music. ‘To the chagrin of the corporate marketers, I said, “We don’t have stuck ferments if we have hip hop playing.” So I used to have concert speakers set up and would pump it through the winery.’

Dredge has been making wine under the Dr Edge name since 2015. His labels speak to the cultural zeitgeist and the deep connection between music and wine.

‘While playing those tunes in my early days, I thought if I ever started my own label, I’d try to get a similar picture [to those on the Headz album covers]. Lots of the contributing artists on the [Headz albums] were experimental [visual] artists, including Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja. I managed to acquire a couple of art pieces from Bristol 15 years ago, and since then we’ve had a very amiable exchange of wine sent to the recording studio in Bristol for artwork or rights to use all the artworks on the labels.’

Del Naja’s philanthropy and generosity inspired Dredge to set up his charity magnum programme, whereby the retail value of all Dr Edge magnums is donated to the Hobart City Mission.

Initially, the wines were made at Moorilla on Hobart’s Berriedale peninsula, so it’s fitting that this 10-year retrospective tasting of 48 Dr Edge wines took place at Mona, the Museum of Old and New Art, which forms part of Moorilla Estate.

Dredge also makes wine for many of the state’s smaller producers and was instrumental in opening a new custom crush facility in Cambridge, on the outskirts of Hobart. The facility is set to close in early 2026, and Dredge will be shifting his winemaking to a nearby winery in the interim.

‘I used to have music speakers set up and would pump hip hop through the winery.’

Peter Dredge

A sparkling future

Tracing the Dr Edge wines’ evolution, it becomes clear that regardless of vintage or site selection, there’s a clear stylistic through line. They all exhibit an expressiveness and innate delicacy, in part thanks to a measured, Old World approach to Riesling and a restrained relationship with oak, leaning towards amphora, tank, used oak barrel and foudre.

Recent vintages have shifted from single-site expressions to blends that capture a broader expression of Tasmania. And on my recent visit to the winery, the tunes set the pace for the disgorgement line.

‘It took me five years of Dr Edge before I could start investing in a sparkling wine program, and I’m continuing down that line,’ Dredge says. ‘With the Croser and Bollinger background [the Champagne house was a founding partner in Tapanappa, Croser’s new project after the sale of Petaluma] I grew up with in Adelaide Hills, then House of Arras here, it would be remiss of me not to make it. Probably 40% of our growth has been sparkling. I’ve always made it for my clients.’

If Dr Edge’s current sparkling releases are anything to go by, the pace is perfectly timed.

Music for the tastebuds: Wines from Dr Edge

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Snaking along Tasmania’s Tamar river, or Kanamaluka in palawa kani, the reconstructed language of the island’s Aboriginal people, the Tamar Valley wine region is just a pup – vines may have arrived in the mid-1800s, but the industry didn’t bloom until the 1980s. It’s on the map now, though. Legendary local winemaker Ed Carr won two Platinum awards for his sparkling wines at the 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards.

About 50km from north to south, this unofficial sub-region (Tasmania is a singular GI) is renowned for world-class sparkling, though a cohort of still winemakers is on the up. It currently boasts around 30 wineries, with about 820ha under vine.

As few bottles make it off the island, I meet up with sommelier James Welsh for an inside line. Welsh, who co-owns Launceston restaurant Stillwater (see address book) drank his first wine here 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back.

Named a City of Gastronomy in 2021 by UNESCO, Launceston – ‘Launnie’, to the locals – provides the perfect base camp. But don’t try to do the whole region in a day, Welsh advises. ‘Do the east [of the river] one day, then the west,’ he says. The east is leafy, with slopes of vines and water views. To the west, vineyards share real estate with sheep farms along gum tree-lined roads. ‘And you can have so much fun close to the city,’ he adds.

The region is famous for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which form the backbone of its sparkling wines, but don’t overlook the Rieslings. Cool conditions – pack a coat, no matter the season – make for some ageworthy souvenirs.

Day 1: East of the river

Fuelled by the complimentary morning coffee and croissant delivered to guests at Stillwater Seven, the boutique hotel above Welsh’s restaurant, I head northeast to House of Arras, where Ed Carr has been making his award-winning sparkling wines for more than 25 years.

Poised in the carpark is Flinders, a tri-colour border collie belonging to cellar door manager Will Doggett, who’ll lead this morning’s Sparkling Scholar masterclass (from A$105 per person). ‘She’s the director of people and culture,’ Doggett tells me as we follow Flinders’ wagging tail into the tasting room for a two-hour session that covers traditional method winemaking and Tasmanian wine history (‘arras’ means rich tapestry, a nod to Carr’s state-wide fruit sourcing).

The experience also includes a vineyard tour – a rare opportunity for a sanitised walk among the vines, as biosecurity laws protect Tasmanian fruit from mainland diseases. ‘We’re all still learning,’ Doggett tells me as we examine Meunier fruit that’s just starting to blush. ‘The best location in Tasmania probably doesn’t have vines on it yet!’

As I’m on this side of the river, I can’t pass up the chance to stop in at Sinapius, where Linda Morice makes estate-grown Pinot Noir, Gamay and Grüner Veltliner, among others. Twenty years ago, her husband Vaughn Dell planted Sinapius’ first vines with a no compromise approach to high-density planting and minimalist winemaking; when he passed away suddenly in 2020, Morice took the reins.

I arrive at the vine-covered, cottage-like cellar door just in time – Morice has just bottled Tasmania’s first Ribolla Gialla. ‘It’s as close to an Italian white as you’ll find up here,’ she says, pouring me a taste. Grippy from skin contact, with a baked apple twang, this amphora-aged new release encapsulates why Sinapius’ wines are some of the state’s finest – it’s brave, complex and delicious.

Day 2: West of the river

Heading northwest from Launceston the next morning, heritage houses quickly give way to vineyards. First on my list is the Tamar’s newest cellar door. Utzinger, run by Swiss-born winemaker Matthias Utzinger and his Tasmanian wife Lauren, is certified organic, with 20% of their 20ha property set aside for revegetation. ‘We live here,’ Lauren says. ‘We have bandicoots and bugs. There’s a balance.’

The couple planted their first vines in 2018; their minimalist cellar door, which boasts envy-inducing river views, opened in late 2024. Lauren and Matthias run the tastings, as well as the winery, so bookings are essential. Seated flights (A$20 per person) take you through Matthias’ wild-fermented Riesling, fumé-style Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the optional Swiss cheese pairing (naturally) a nod to the maker’s homeland. And if you see a bottle of Utzinger Roter Satz, buy it immediately. Locals snap up so much of this vibrant red field blend there’s hardly enough to go around.

Over the fence – literally – is Evenfall, with a restaurant and cellar door shared by three labels. Evenfall’s Cabernet is made from estate vines by winemaker Liam McElhinney, the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay supplemented by Derwent Valley and East Coast fruit, respectively (Matthias is consulting viticulturist, which is very neighbourly). Natalie Fryar of sparkling label Bellebonne and her husband Hugh McCullough, who makes German-style Rieslings under the Wellington & Wolfe label, share the on-site winery, drawing fruit from around the region.

The communal cellar door – housed in a white-on-white brick chapel with stained-glass windows that was probably built in the 1940s – offers drop-in tastings from one winery or all, but Fryar’s low-volume vintage releases are the drawcard. ‘You could put me anywhere,’ she says, ‘but Tasmania delivers something truly magnificent.’

My last stop is Stoney Rise, which hosts a cellar door for Joe Holyman’s Stoney Rise and Holyman wines, and a bar of sorts. There are no pubs or restaurants in the area, Holyman tells me, so he stacked the list with wines he likes to drink. Alongside the estate Chardonnay, Savagnin and Pinot are premier cru Chassagne-Montrachet and Mosel Riesling.

As we sit in the late afternoon sunshine – Holyman with an alcohol-free beer (he still has vines to tend) and me with a glass of his zippy, crunchy Trousseau – he explains that Stoney Rise isn’t named for nearby Stony creek, but for a surf break in South Australia, which explains the surfer dude on the label. Stoney is still spelled the wrong way, he says with a laugh.

And if you have an extra day to spare…

Morning

Bread + Butter makes the best pastries, bagels and pies, not to mention killer coffee. A pork and fennel sausage roll – an Aussie classic – or a walnut croissant will set you right for the day’s adventure. Next, a stroll through Cataract Gorge, an inner-city forested river reserve with waterfalls, colonial-era bridges and a retro chairlift to ferry you across the 65 million-year-old gorge along the South Esk river. The reserve is also home to a picture-perfect outdoor swimming pool, usually open from November to May.

Lunch & afternoon

Fifteen minutes’ drive from Launceston, the restaurant at Evenfall makes for a picturesque early lunch, with estate vines just metres from the Federation-era house’s floor-to-ceiling windows. East coast oysters in a splash of Bellebonne sparkling wine are a good start, while the tea-smoked duck features raspberries from the owner’s berry farm. From here, meander north a few kilometres to Tamar Ridge for a guided tasting (from A$10 per person). Known for its rich, complex Pinot Noirs, the cellar door is also home to Pirie sparkling. Further north along the estuary, Small Wonder Wines will add a rural touch to your afternoon. Its certified-organic wines are grown amid native bushland, with tastings all day (11am-5pm) and book-ahead winery tours at 10.30am and 2.30pm (A$50 per person).

Evening

Back in Launceston, drop your bags at Peppers Silo Hotel, luxury accommodation housed within 1960s grain towers beside the Tamar. From here it’s a 25-minute stroll to Du Cane beer hall, where pre-dinner beers named for local mountain ranges and walking trails await. Around the corner you’ll find Havilah, a must-visit wine bar co-owned by winemaker Ricky Evans, who’s behind labels Two Tonne Tasmania and Woodlawn. On the menu: wallaby skewers with beetroot ketchup and chargrilled zucchini with dill butter and romesco. If you’ve got it in you, Midnight Rambler shakes up whisky sours in speakeasy surrounds until the wee hours.

How to get there, and getting around

Launceston is a 70-minute flight from Melbourne, which is well served by international airlines. Distances within the region are managed easily by car, with all wineries within around 50km of the city.

Your Tamar Valley address book

Accommodation

Domescapes

For a hitching post in the heart of the region, Swinging Gate Vineyard’s glamping domes are kitted out with a real bed, heating and an outdoor tub and firepit.

Stillwater Seven

This boutique hotel is the latest addition to the Stillwater family, its charcoal-hued suites occupying the old mill’s top floor and offering personalised mini-bars stocked with a wide range of local products, deep baths and river views.

Wahroonga on Bourke

A stylish self-contained studio apartment in a 1901 Federation-style house, replete with heated floors for chilly Tasmanian nights and a kitchenette stocked with local eggs, milk and bread.

Restaurants

Black Cow

Try Tasmania’s famous Cape Grim beef and Robbins Island wagyu at this high-end steakhouse. The list backs Tamar wines alongside heavy hitters from the Barossa, Bordeaux and beyond.

Stillwater

Located in an 1830s flour mill at the edge of the Tamar, Stillwater shows no sign of age after 25 years of fine dining. Its two- or three-course set menu puts a mod-Oz riff on the region’s finest crayfish, abalone, wallaby and lamb.

Timbre Kitchen

This eco-friendly restaurant sources backyard fruit and veg from its neighbours. The wood-roasted chicken is a classic, particularly with a glass of Chardonnay from its landlord, Velo Wines.

Shopping & leisure

Design Tasmania

Peruse the collection of contemporary Tasmanian design then hit the gift shop for artist-made textiles and jewellery.

Launceston Distillery

Get a taste for Tasmania’s famous whiskies at this urban distillery, conveniently located in a hangar at Launceston airport.

Stockton & Co

The walls are decked with works by top Tasmanian artists, the shelves a mix of local and Japanese-made kitchen tools, notebooks and knits.

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For an island state with a population of just 576,000, Tasmania punches well above its weight in the world of wine. It produces 1.2% of Australia’s national crush by volume, but 6.1% of the crush by value.

Tasmania, or Lutruwita in the palawa kani language, is located south of the eastern end of the Australian mainland.

With a cool climate, moderate rainfall and numerous mountain ranges, it’s an extremely diverse pocket of the country that subverts many of the classic tropes.

Scroll down for Cassandra’s pick of Tasmanian sparkling wine

Sitting between about 40° and 43° latitude, summer days are long, winters bring snow in the central uplands, and although the island has a temperate climate, the maritime influence can provide benefits and challenges to wine-growing, meaning that site selection is key.

Of course, grape variety also plays an important role, with Pinot Noir comprising just under half the total yield, followed by Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. About 40% of total production is sparkling wine.

The island has one official GI (Tasmania), divided into seven unofficial wine-growing regions in the north, east and south: Tamar Valley, Pipers River, East Coast, North West, Coal River Valley, Derwent Valley and Huon Valley.

Soils and microclimates are diverse, and the variable weather means that vintage variation can be considerable. Recent top vintages include the outstanding 2016 and 2019, with 2017 and 2021 also great for many. 2020, 2022 and 2023 saw high quality but lower yields, while 2024 was a brilliant season for quality and quantity.

Steady growth

Although grapevines were first planted in Tasmania (on Bruny Island) in 1788, it wasn’t until the mid-1950s that the first contemporary vineyards were planted and the island’s wine industry began in earnest.

The La Provence vineyard (now known as Providence) was planted in 1956 in the island’s northeast by French émigrés Jean and Cecile Miguet. Two years later, Italian textile merchant Claudio Alcorso established Moorilla Estate in Hobart, unaware of the recent plantings in the north.

Many of the instrumental founding players still drive the industry. In 1974, Dr Andrew Pirie put the Pipers River sub-region on the map with his Pipers Brook vineyard; he established his 2ha Apogee vineyard in 2012.

The 1990s brought new plantings and pioneers, and the industry has steadily grown to what it is today, with the top producers winning accolades among the world’s premium wines.

Tasmania’s sparkling wine industry is an exciting space right now. Vineyards have matured, reserve wine programs have aged, and producers – from the established, such as House of Arras, to young guns and family-owned operations such as Bellebonne – are crafting wines that express place in a fantastic diversity of styles.

Tasmania’s sparkling fruit is among the country’s most sought-after, reaching a record A$3,797/tonne in 2024.

With the wine sector predicted to be the largest contributor to the Tasmanian economy by 2040, it’s clear that the sparkling train is travelling full steam ahead. There has never been a better time to pick up a bottle and jump on board.

Tasmanian sparkling wine

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The term ‘small but mighty’ could have been coined to describe Tasmania, at least in terms of its winemaking prowess. With just over 26,000 square miles of land to its name and a mere 2,000 hectares of vineyard plantings, the state could so easily be overshadowed by the vast Australian mainland to its north.

But take a close look at the results from the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) judging in May and it seems that Tasmania’s day in the (albeit cooler-climate) sun has arrived.

The 2024 results for Tasmania were outstanding with two Best in Show awards, three Platinum medals and four Golds. Before this year, no Tasmanian wine had been garlanded as Best in Show since the Awards’ inception in 2004. That performance is no mean feat, especially when you consider that only 50 wines earned this accolade in 2024 (just 0.28% of the total wines tasted).

Given its relatively diminutive proportions, Tasmania punches far above its weight. To put things into perspective, it has 160 licensed wine producers and some 230 vineyards (England, though twice the size of Tasmania and very much an ‘emerging’ wine country, has more than 1,000 vineyards).

Tasmania accounts for just under 1% of Australia’s total national vineyard acreage, yet it accounts for more than 4% of the total value. Those figures paint a picture of a region where quality is uppermost.

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir evidently thrive here: all the Tasmanian Best in Show, Platinum and Gold winners, both still and sparkling, are made from these varieties. Added to that, Tasmania is fortunate enough to have a relatively cool climate – and the winemaking expertise is first class, as these results show.

Regional Co-Chair Justin Knock MW sums up the state’s winemaking potential and reality, saying: ‘The prevailing climate and warm weather, plus a natural Australian appreciation of fruit and soft tannins, mean a predisposition towards full evolution in young wines can be common. Therefore, a lot of winemakers, commentators and buyers really appreciate it when Australian (and Tasmanian) wines show built-in restraint, coolness and complexity, freshness and latent potential alongside the gifted fruit expression and refined tannins we expect. It suggests strongly of development potential in bottle, which is an essential marker of truly fine wine on the global stage.’

Tuning into Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir accounts for just under half of the vines grown in Tasmania and this notoriously finicky grape has put down roots in what it seems to consider a hospitable home: both of the Best in Show awards went to (still) Pinot, a DWWA first.

Bay of Fires, Pinot Noir 2022 (97 points) is a pan-Tasmanian blend while Lowestoft, Single Vineyard Jacoben Pinot Noir, Derwent Valley 2022 (97 points) comes from a single plot in the Derwent Valley in the eastern half of the island, north of Hobart in the rain shadow of Mount Wellington.

On the topic of rain, it’s a myth that Tasmania has high rainfall across the island, asserts Stewart Byrne, winemaker at Bay of Fires. ‘Although the western half of the island experiences very high rainfalls, the wine growing regions are predominantly on the eastern half. These are dry, typically receiving 300-500mm of rainfall a year. Summer and autumn days are sunny and long, with cold nights. This results in a very long growing season.’ It is, he says, ‘an amazing place to grow Pinot Noir’ – though not without challenges.

‘There is a high level of risk growing vines in Tasmania. It is very common to experience severe spring frosts, and high winds during flowering – and constant pressure from the abundant wildlife. We [at Bay of Fires] have decided the best approach is to diversify the location of our vineyards around the state to minimise the risk of losing an entire vintage to smoke damage or extreme frost; this allows us to mitigate risk and produce consistent high-quality wines.’

It’s a very different winemaking approach at Lowestoft. Chief winemaker Liam McElhinney explains: ‘The 25-year-old Jacoben Vineyard sits on a south-facing slope on the banks of the Lower Derwent River in Hobart. It defies every ounce of conventional Southern Hemisphere viticultural theory, in that optimal vineyard exposure is north-facing. With that said, Jacoben is comfortable in its ‘coolness’ on every level. Perhaps it’s ahead of its time.’

The climate can be challenging, McElhinney agrees, but that’s what makes it exciting. ‘The soils on which we grow these grapes have been formed by these often-harsh seasons over millennia, and we are now seeing just how compelling Pinot Noir can be on these ancient sites. The climate is challenging, but in my very short time (five years) making Pinot Noir in Tasmania, each vintage has yielded Pinots of immense charm, purity and excitement that I’ve not seen anywhere else in my 25 years as a winemaker.’

Sparkling success

Tasmania puts much of its Pinot and Chardonnay to excellent use with its sparkling wines, which in the 2023 vintage accounted for 38% of all wine produced in the state. About three quarters of Tasmania’s Chardonnay and just under half of its Pinot Noir are used to make sparkling wine.

Two of this year’s Platinum awards went to sparklers from a single producer: House of Arras, Blanc de Blancs 2014 (97 points) and House of Arras, Grand Vintage 2015 (97 points). Legendary chief winemaker Ed Carr has been masterminding sparkling wines here since the winery’s inception in 1995.

Of the Platinum winners, Carr says: ‘The Chardonnay selection for the Blanc de Blancs favours the most refined component options and their ability to meld as a single wine; the aim is to reflect the purity of the highest quality Tasmanian Chardonnay. The component selections for the Grand vintage blend are the more robust wines that will most critically combine to form an absolutely seamless palate.’

Fittingly, ‘arras’ is a French-derived word meaning ‘rich tapestry’; House of Arras wines are made with fruit from six Tasmanian regions with varying terroir – inland, coastal, and balancing warmer, drier areas with wetter, cooler areas. Carr explains: ‘We were always attracted to Tasmania as it is the most southerly of the Australian landmass and has a very cool maritime climate, and early winemaking pioneers had made some very exciting styles. Ultimately the test was to make sparkling wines in our own style from many regions to establish how the individual terroir from these sites suited our winemaking concept. We have since further evolved the vineyard resources to include all the recognised viticultural sub regions of Tasmania.’ It’s an approach that evidently works.

Tasmania’s third Platinum award went to a still wine – another from Derwent Valley: Dawson James, Chardonnay, Derwent Valley 2020 (97 points). After Pinot, Chardonnay is Tasmania’s second most-widely planted variety, accounting for 25% of tonnage. This example was deemed, “Seriously age-worthy with a moreish tang of texture on the impeccable finish” by the tasting panel.

Looking to the future

The winemaking future in Tasmania looks bright. According to government predictions, Tasmania’s climate is not predicted to change as rapidly as other Australian regions and the forecast temperature changes are not likely to impact significantly on the state’s suitability for grape-growing. Unlike many other parts of the winemaking globe, availability of water is not as problematic here as elsewhere (Tasmania receives 13% of Australia’s annual rainfall run-off). And it’s phylloxera-free.

Knock believes that Tasmanian wine producers are now hitting their stride.

‘Tasmania has been emerging as a fine region for Pinot Noir for some time,’ he says. ‘I think there was a long period of ‘high potential’, let’s say from the 1980s until maybe the late 2000s, when vineyards were young and many wines were made in a small number of custom wineries and perhaps converged a bit in style. In the last 10-15 years, we’ve seen a blossoming of vine age, deeper investment in winemaking facilities and a richer sense of stylistic interpretation, so that there is now a truly varied range of wines emerging.’

Tasmania’s viticultural history dates back to 1823 but it’s likely that its best days are yet to come.

DWWA 2024: Tasmania’s top-awarded wines to try

Sparkling

House of Arras, Blanc de Blancs 2014

97 Platinum

Sensational tiers of lime marmalade, orchard fruits and roasted pineapple with a whiff of sea spray which freshens and simpers. Silky and billowing with a gossamer mousse, gentle acidity and a gorgeous lemon curd finish. Alcohol 13%

House of Arras, Grand Vintage 2015

97 Platinum

Utterly delicious notes of lemon curd and green apple with a tapered mousse which flows delicately over the luminous acidity. Textured and generous with an unfolding bustle of citrus and quince parading enthusiastically towards the finish line. Alc 13.2%

Jansz, Late Disgorged Cuvée, Pipers River 2015

95 Gold

A triumphant nose of brioche, toasted nuts and honeyed stone fruits with a delectable creamy mousse and precise acidity. Delightfully mature with a delicate butterscotch finish. Alc 12.5%

White

Dawson James, Chardonnay, Derwent Valley 2020

97 Platinum

Oozing magnificence with its wonderful levels of honeyed fruit, super smart minerals and vibrant spice which cascade over the sleek, simmering acidity and luxuriously buttery consistency. Seriously age-worthy with a moreish tang of texture on the impeccable finish. Alc 12.5%

Dalrymple Vineyards, Single Site Pipers River Chardonnay, Pipers River 2021

96 Gold

Oodles of succulent red grapefruit, lemon and pear overlay a profile of textured oak and flinty minerals. Strikingly fresh and crunchy with a generous finish. Alc 13%

Red

Bay of Fires, Pinot Noir 2022

97 Best in Show

Prior to 2024, we’ve never had a Tasmanian Pinot in our Best In Show selection. This year we have two. Was it because 2022 was a sensational vintage? Not exactly – the east coast of the island suffered from a spectacularly cool, wet season; elsewhere on the island, though, conditions did indeed vary from good to outstanding. The first wine in our pair is a pan-Tasmanian blend with source fruit from several regions. It is a translucent dark red in colour, with warm, settled aromas of plum, cherry and raspberry just teased towards sweetness with subtle oak. It is warm, soft and mouthfilling, built on the same core of subtly mingled fruits with muted, natural acidity and fine tannins, the combination giving an almost silky charm to the wine. This considered, restrained winemaking lays the groundwork for a Pinot which is hugely easy to drink yet at the same time deeply satisfying and highly amenable – a Pinot to sip on its own, to chill with fish or to serve at a cool room temperature for white meats and salads. Alc 13.6%

Lowestoft, Single Vineyard Jacoben Pinot Noir, Derwent Valley 2022

97 Best in Show

The second of this year’s outstanding 2022 Tasmanian Pinot Noirs comes from the Derwent Valley, just to the north of Hobart and in the rain shadow of Mount Wellington. The region can be drought-susceptible in warm summers, but in the wetter season of 2022 its site stood it in good stead. This is a darker wine that its pan-Tasmanian peer, but beautifully crafted: singing red fruits without any shadowing from oak, and with the intrinsic grace and charm of the Derwent Valley’s fruit well to the fore. On the palate, it is pure, bright and mouthfilling, packed with juicy raspberry; both tannins and acids are soft and sustaining. They nourish and ease the gorgeous fruit core through the palate to a gently subsiding finish. There’s just a touch of tarry complexity behind those fruits. Virtuoso work from a Pinot region of extraordinary promise. Alc 13.5%

Eddystone Point, Pinot Noir 2022

95 Gold

Beautifully defined strawberry fruit with inflections of spice and tobacco leaf. Voluminous and charming with a succulent flow of tannin and acidity opening up with every mouthful. Alc 14.5%

Pressing Matters, Pinot Noir, Coal River Valley 2022

95 Gold

Delicate strawberry fruit enlivened by cracked black pepper and sour cherries with finely woven gossamer tannins and a wonderful freshness running throughout. A delightful treat! Alc 12.8%

Search all DWWA 2024 results from Tasmania

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In 20 years, Tasmania’s area under vine has doubled. At 2,100ha, the island’s vineyards remain ‘small beer’ compared to mainland Australia in terms of production. But as for performance – well, that’s another story.

Australia’s southernmost state bagged 12 out of 13 Pinot Noir trophies at the country’s Capital City Wine Shows between 2021 and 2022. In 2022, not only was House of Arras’ Museum Release Blanc de Blancs 2001 pronounced World Champion Library Vintage at the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships but Tolpuddle’s 2021 Chardonnay was named Decanter’s White Wine of the Year.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 21 top cool-climate wines from Tasmania’s seven winemaking regions

Judging at the 2023 Tasmanian Wine Show – my fourth visit since 2004 – my expectations were high. And well met.

Because of the island’s marginal cool climate, explains Claudio Radenti of Freycinet Vineyards, vines take the full length of the season to achieve ripeness. ‘This gives excellent natural balance in the fruit, resulting in wines of remarkable elegance, finesse, intensity of flavour and refreshing, cleansing acidity.’

Fellow winemaker Jim Chatto agrees: ‘The flavour intensity and purity of Tassie fruit is unsurpassed.’ In fact, everyone agrees. So much so that producer numbers here are now edging towards 200, and with growing experience, craft and confidence, the individuality of terroir and winemaking expression is increasingly striking.

Chatto contrasts producers’ reticence to share ideas and experiences when he arrived in Tasmania 20 years ago with today. ‘Now the industry is a lot more collaborative,’ he says. ‘And a second generation of highly experienced young wine professionals are taking on their parents’ mature vineyards.’

Their number includes Justin Arnold of Ghost Rock, a pioneer of the North West Coast wine region which, together with Huon Valley (where Chatto planted a vineyard in 2007), is a relatively new wine-growing area. ‘We just wanted to prove it could not only be done here, but done really, really well, at commercial scale,’ says Arnold.

And he’s not alone. During my visit, I met a producer from each of Tasmania’s seven winemaking regions who reveal how they are getting the most out of their cool-climate island terroirs.

Tasmania: around the regions

Ghost Rock – North West

Justin Arnold would prefer Tasmania’s North West wine region was renamed Cradle Coast. Not only is the ocean-facing North West coast, between the towns of Stanley and Penguin, ‘much cooler and wetter’, there aren’t even any vineyards.

Port Sorrel, further east along the island’s northern shores on the Cradle Coast, is ‘literally the centre line of the state’, Arnold says. Because it fronts on to the Bass Strait (the body of water between Tasmania and Australia’s mainland), as opposed to open ocean, and thanks to the Central Highlands mountain range as an additional sheltering influence, the Cradle Coast is well suited to wine growing. ‘We just don’t see extremes in either direction – hot or cold,’ he explains.

Ghost Rock put this region on the map. The winery was founded by Arnold’s parents, Colin and Cate, after they bought a 10-year-old 0.4ha Pinot Noir vineyard in 1999. Arnold was 19 at the time; ‘we had no idea what we were doing!’.

By 2014, Arnold had done his oenology studies and had worked vintages for prestigious Margaret River, Yarra Valley and Californian producers, and returned to Tasmania with his wife Alicia to run the family business.

Since officially acquiring Ghost Rock in 2017, they have taken control of production from grape to glass, planting their vineyards and building a winery, tasting room and restaurant (Alicia is a former CEO for Jamie Oliver’s Australian restaurants).

Arnold draws on seven vineyards, now totalling 30ha, to produce a roster of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs – Ghost Rock’s specialty. Fertile deep clay and clay-rich sandy soils produce aromatic wines with vivid, ripe fruit. His Supernatural range is more playful and boisterous, including juicy, fruity pét-nats and high-toned skin contact styles.

Stoney Rise/Holyman – Tamar Valley

Joe Holyman’s father planted a hobby vineyard in Pipers River in 1984 but, when the former Tasmanian wicketkeeper and his wife Lou decided to make wine in 2004, they were drawn to a mature vineyard in the Tamar Valley on well-drained gravelly soils. Situated on a gentle stoney rise close to the river Tamar, it is a relatively warm site and additionally benefits from the prevailing north-west wind, which helps keep fruit healthy and clean.

Holyman’s 100% estate-grown label showcases Joe and Lou’s love of classically structured, ageworthy Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays (a 2013 Holyman Chardonnay enjoyed with them was stunning).

Their Stoney Rise wines include grapes from contract growers and are more fruit (and tannin) forward, yet still have the same trademark finesse as wines in the eponymous brand.

Restrained in alcohol, with vibrant natural acidity (they are among the first to pick in the Tamar Valley) ‘the underlying theme of the wines we like is acidity and food friendliness’, explains Joe.

Having worked for one of Australia’s leading importer/distributors for four years and been a buyer for a major Australian retailer, his ‘wine miles’ more than compensate for a lack of formal oenology training.

While the portfolio plays to Tasmania’s classic strengths of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the Holymans’ curiosity reveals itself in recent additions to the range, including a Grüner Veltliner, Trousseau and a Savagnin called Tradition – a deliciously nutty, oxidative cuvée that is paired with aged Comté cheese at the cellar door tasting room.

Here, overlooking the vineyard and river, the couple stay true to their philosophy that wine is for the table and sharing with friends by offering visitors a selection of favourite European wines alongside their own, together with sardines and a range of charcuterie and cheese.

Sinapius – Pipers River

Although she had ‘never hooked up a pump in my life or transferred wine, now I do all of it’, explains Linda Morice, who gave up her day job as an occupational therapist to focus on Sinapius after her husband Vaughn Dell died suddenly in 2020, aged 39.

Dell, who had had stints studying and making wine in the Yarra Valley, Hunter Valley and Margaret River, bought a 2ha vineyard in Pipers River with Morice in 2005. His vision for their estate was achieving maximum terroir expression – and quality through high-density farming was at the heart of it.

‘He spent all that time, he’d done the hard work…’ she says as her reason for picking up his mantle. With subtle tweaks to vineyard practices and the wines, Dell’s memory continues to be honoured.

Now totalling 4.5ha, the boutique property has 31,000 close-planted vines. Meticulous to a fault, Dell had introduced multiple Chardonnay and Pinot Noir clones as well as planting innovative new Alsace white varieties alongside Grüner Veltliner, Ribolla Gialla and Gamay.

The north-east and south-facing amphitheatre vineyard speaks of superior green fingers. Morice has named Sinapius’ new Gamay as Vaughan’s Jardin.

‘He kept the whole vineyard, but especially that block in front of the house, picture perfect. I came home one day after he had been in Beaujolais to find our lawn pegged out for planting,’ she laughs, adding that at a super-close 11,111 vines per hectare, she needs a push mower to keep the weeds at bay.

Fine-framed, with elegant fruit and taut acidity, the Sinapius wines capture Pipers River’s relatively cool climate perfectly, with all the intensity of flavour bestowed by high-density, low-yielding vines.

Freycinet Vineyard – East Coast

Softly spoken, with an unhurried air, Claudio Radenti is a gentle giant. You could say the same of the wines he has been making for 30 years now at Freycinet Vineyard, founded by his wife’s parents, Geoff and Susan Bull, in 1979.

Powerful yet understated, vertical flights of the Chardonnay and Riesling have impressed on three visits now including, last year, a mini-vertical back to 2006 of The Wine Society’s keenly priced Exhibition Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir, meanwhile, is robust and generous, reflecting the estate’s sheltered, warm location on the Freycinet Peninsula.

Comprising 1,393ha, the estate is ‘largely very rocky, lean and mean ground – a rock farm’, says Radenti, which explains why only 16ha are under vine (Merino sheep have the run of the rest).

Facing north to east, the amphitheatre-like vineyard fans out on the slopes surrounding the winery and, with a long growing season, grapes ripen slowly, accumulating great flavour intensity, while holding onto their natural acidity. ‘Showcasing purity of varietal fruit aroma and flavour is important to us,’ says Radenti.

The grapes are handpicked and, within four or five minutes of harvest, are at the crusher. Describing the winery as rustic, Radenti explains, ‘with no-one to help out in the beginning, my father-in-law had to get all his own gear’. Following the acquisition of Coombend’s neighbouring 6ha vineyard, the team has expanded, with the appointment of Keira O’Brien (assistant winemaker); Radenti’s son Pinot has also joined the fold.

Coveted niche labels to seek out include Radenti R3 (a rich, complex, late-disgorged, non-vintage traditional method sparkling) and Freycinet Botrytis, a luscious sweetie which puts a tiny 0.19ha parcel of Schonberger to great use.

Stargazer – Coal River Valley

New Zealand-born Sam Connew built her winemaking reputation on the Australian mainland before moving to Tasmania in 2016. ‘It’s a perfect combination of NZ and Australia,’ she says.

Having first encountered Tasmanian Pinot Noir when she made wine for Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley, she used the same variety to quietly launch her Stargazer brand in 2013 with a 2012 Tasmanian Pinot – still tasting bright and fresh, 11 years on. At the time she was working full time at the Australian Wine Research Institute.

After quitting and making the move to Tasmania, she acquired a 1ha vineyard in the Tea Tree district of Coal River Valley and also became winemaker for Pressing Matters (where Stargazer wines are now made).

Planted in 2004, Connew renamed her vineyard Palisander, and has expanded it fivefold with new Pinot Noir clones, more Riesling and introducing Chardonnay as well as Gamay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer for her innovative blends.

Connew was first attracted to Coal River Valley because ‘it could consistently produce great Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling’. However, the ‘driving force’ in choosing this region was its brown dermosol soil over limestone with Jurassic dolerite underneath.

Connew feels this high-calcium terroir helps with slower ripening and thicker grape skins, while the site’s relatively inland location at the northern end of Coal River Valley also contributes to longer hang times ‘because it cools down a bit more at night’.

These thick skins (and the vineyard’s windy, valley-side location) increase disease resistance and have another bonus, which contributes to the lightly textural style of the Stargazer wines. ‘There was so much flavour in the skins that, moving to skin contact, the positive phenolics would build wines that are more than just fruit bombs,’ she explains

Skin contact, natural fermentation and lees ageing in seasoned barrels mean that aromatic white varieties in the Stargazer portfolio are particularly interesting. ‘I don’t want to be able to taste any one element, but to use these techniques in combination to build mouthfeel, texture and complexity, while still allowing the fruit to express the site,’ she says.

Chatto Wines – Huon Valley/d’Entrecasteaux Channel

On New Year’s Day 2017, Jim Chatto really did turn over a new leaf. Upping sticks from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, he left behind a plum job – head winemaker at Mount Pleasant – to dedicate himself full-time to his dream of growing and making Tasmanian Pinot Noir.

The winemaker and his Tasmanian wife Daisy had wanted to return to the island after Chatto’s first brief foray making wine in the Tamar Valley from 1998 to 2000.

Although Chatto had started his eponymous label in 2000, it took him six years to find the ideal spot to grow Pinot Noir. ‘When I sat down and thought about the top five Tasmanian Pinots I’d tasted, three came from the Huon Valley,’ he says, explaining why the 2ha vineyard he planted in 2007 is one of Australia’s southernmost.

Overlooking Glaziers Bay, Chatto added, ‘was looking for the warmest site in the coldest region. My instinct was that this vineyard would deliver the purity and intensity of flavour I was chasing, with great natural balance.’

Because his starting point was ‘making great, definitively Australian Pinot’, Chatto closely planted the virgin site from scratch to eight clones (114, 115, G5V15, D5V12, 777, MV6, 667 and Abel). Plus a cheeky 1% of Siegerebe – ‘a beautiful accident’ – he says of the German white grape that was intermingled with his 777 rootlings. ‘It tastes of Turkish Delight, musk and heady spice, and even tiny amounts – 0.5% to 1% co-fermented with the Pinot Noir – add another dimension, making our wines taste like no others in the region,’ says Chatto.

While his approach to wine growing is forensic, Chatto’s Pinot Noirs are supple and sensual. A self-proclaimed ‘Ata Rangi and Helen Masters fan boy’, the fruit is deftly balanced with what Chatto calls ‘something savoury, something sour’.

Sold out en primeur, Chatto’s black-label estate wines, Isle and Intrigue, are augmented by a growing band of white-labelled, grower-sourced, single-vineyard Pinots, including Bird and Seven Inch, as well as a regional Pinot, Lutruwita.

And, being a Pinot-obsessive, it’s not surprising he has also made a Burgundy: a few barrels of Aux Vergelesses Premier Cru Savigny-lès-Beaune.

Stefano Lubiana – Derwent Valley

Stefano Lubiana planted his vineyard in Granton in 1990 – ‘at the bleeding edge of estate-growing’, as he once put it. It is Tasmania’s only certified biodynamic producer and remains a pioneering force. While Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for multiple cuvées of still and sparkling wine are a strong suit, he has ventured well beyond these signature varieties.

Drawing on his Italian heritage, the Riverland-born winemaker’s 26ha estate currently includes Nebbiolo, Barbera and Malvasia Istria, the latter fermented on skins in amphorae (Lubbiana worked at noted orange wine producer Radikon in Italy’s Collio on the Slovenian border). Grüner Veltliner is another alternative variety (he also did a vintage at Pittnauer in Austria’s Burgenland).

As for Syrah, which has become increasingly popular in Tasmania after Glaetzer-Dixon’s 2010 Mon Père Shiraz won the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in 2011 for best young red wine, Lubiana is ‘fine tuning’ the house style, having experimented with whole bunch and destemmed ferments.

However, he is at pains to emphasise that he is ‘doing nothing crazy or different’. After all, his father and grandfather fermented their Riverland whites on skins. ‘Italians want texture and body,’ Lubiana observes – wines for the table or, indeed, the estate’s acclaimed restaurant, Osteria Vista which his wife Monique and their daughter Isabella and son-in-law Joel Edwards manage.

Marco, the couple’s winemaker son, joined his father in the cellar in 2021. ‘We think along the same lines,’ Lubiana says. ‘Marco also likes really good Burgundy and Barolo – traditional styles, using barrels, lees, strict hygiene and all the detail. It’s just about respecting nature and terroir; letting that shine without any artefact.’

The estate’s top Pinots showcase three parcels. La Roccia, named for the large limestone rock in its centre, gives tannin-driven examples that benefit from bottle age. Il Giardino’s red clay and lighter soils deliver bright acidity, while, near a small creek, Ruscello’s silt over porous, gravelly clay produces generous wines.

Tasmania: 21 wines to try from the island’s seven regions

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It was never for sale, yet they bought it. Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw, cousins and co-proprietors of Shaw + Smith Wines in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills, visited Tasmania in 2011 on a fact-finding mission with no set plan to purchase a vineyard. Then they discovered Tolpuddle and were smitten.

Tolpuddle Vineyard in the Coal River Valley, about 20km northeast of Hobart, was already respected among Tasmania’s elite wine grape sites, but Hill Smith and Shaw saw the potential to do a whole lot more.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 19 Tolpuddle Vineyard wines

They envisaged creating an Australian version of premier cru. Now, after a decade of producing Tolpuddle Vineyard wines, a cabinet full of trophies proves their hunch was well founded.

‘It has that special something,’ says Hill Smith. ‘Tolpuddle was already producing some of the most expensive fruit in Australia, and I believe that was entirely justified.

‘It wasn’t a fruit salad vineyard, producing every variety. It had a very deliberate focus – only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – which is exactly what we wanted, but we felt it could be significantly better. Our decision to buy it was a spontaneous reaction. It got us that excited.’

Tolpuddle’s rebirth

Hill Smith and Shaw make no secret of their ambition to make the very best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and realise that such lofty goals are intrinsically tied to exceptional vineyards.

With global warming a serious factor in determining future vineyard viability, they wanted to consider the coolest possible growing sites and went to investigate whether Australia’s southernmost vineyards held the answer.

Their reconnaissance took them to Accolade Wines’ Bay of Fires Winery in the northern Tasmanian region of Tamar Valley.

Tolpuddle Vineyard at a glance

Planted: 1988

Owners: Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw.

Chief winemaker: Adam Wadewitz

Production: 3,000 cases annually (25% allocated for export).

Vineyards: 30ha, comprising 12 blocks of Chardonnay and 14 blocks of Pinot Noir (13ha are new plantings not yet in production).

Winemaker Peter Dredge showed them barrel samples of wines from various vineyards across Tasmania where Accolade purchased fruit. The site that impressed Hill Smith and Shaw most was Tolpuddle, which Accolade was using in its elite Arras sparkling wines and Eileen Hardy table wines.

‘We drove down to look at the site and we were immediately sold on it,’ says Hill Smith, ‘so we started making enquiries.’

They knew the owners – especially the charismatic Dr Tony Jordan, who had established Domaine Chandon Australia – and commenced a conversation about buying the site.

Within six months, they had agreed on a price (‘Not an insignificant sum,’ offers Hill Smith candidly, arching an eyebrow). Now they faced the additional challenge of significant ongoing costs for fruit harvesting and vinification logistics.

The first vintage, in 2012, saw the hand-picked fruit transported across Tasmania to the Bay of Fires winery for processing, then the juice was shipped to Shaw + Smith’s Adelaide Hills winery for transfer to barrel and maturation.

The high cost of such a process didn’t bother Hill Smith. ‘I figured that a high price attached to Tolpuddle wines could drive respect for the Tasmanian identity – but we absolutely had to deliver elite quality from day one.’

It helped that Shaw + Smith was in the process of luring ace winemaker Adam Wadewitz to join their team from Best’s Great Western winery in Victoria.

The prospect of working with Tolpuddle fruit was the enticement that won him over. ‘Our viticulturist Ray Guerin took Adam to Tasmania for a vineyard inspection before the 2013 vintage commenced,’ recalls Hill Smith, ‘and Adam just stopped in his tracks once he tasted the grapes on the vine. At that moment, we knew we had him.’

A head-to-toe renovation

Shaw immediately focused on making significant changes in the vineyard. ‘Some of Tolpuddle’s Pinot Noir had been selling for $7,000 a tonne, which is at the top flight in Australia – but it was only bits of the vineyard commanding that sort of attention, not all of it. I said we had to get all the vineyard right before we went ahead, so we immediately focused our attention there.’

After installing a new dam to help manage frost control, soil was ripped between vine rows to alleviate compaction, drainage was improved, composting increased and cover crops introduced, along with more intensive vine plantings.

Because many of the original grape clones planted at Tolpuddle were chosen specifically for sparkling wine production, adding new clones to increase diversity and complexity for elite table wines was seen as crucial. Chardonnay clonal varieties Bernard 76, 95,96 and 548 were introduced, along with Pinot Noir clones Abel, 777, MV6, 667, 828 and Pommard.

‘We had to sort out what worked and what didn’t,’ says Shaw. ‘We made a lot of very important decisions that were going to steer the future course for Tolpuddle.’

Tolpuddle Vineyard timeline

1988 Tolpuddle Vineyard planted by co-owners Dr Tony Jordan, Garry Crittenden and the Casimaty family. It is named after the Tolpudlle Martyrs, who were English convicts transported to Australia in 1834 for the crime of trying to form an agricultural union. The leader of this group, George Loveless, served some of his sentence on a farm property that is now part of the Tolupddle vineyard.

2006 Tolpuddle wins inaugural Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year award.

2011 Vineyard purchased by Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw.

2012 Debut vintage of Tolpuddle Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

2013 Winemaker Adam Wadewitz’s first vintage.

2015 The first vintage vinified at Shaw + Smith’s Adelaide Hills winery.

2019 No Tolpuddle Pinot Noir is released, due to the winemaking team being wary of possible smoke taint from bushfires across Tasmania.

2020 New clonal material introduced to Tolpuddle Pinot Noir.

They also changed the processing regime, hoping to achieve greater refinement and more control over fruit handling.

From the 2015 vintage, fruit was hand-picked at night, stored in refrigerated containers and shipped immediately to South Australia.

Time spent in the container during transportation matched the time Shaw + Smith choose to cold-store all their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit before processing, so the Tolpuddle fruit was then subjected to the typical fastidious sorting, crushing, fermenting and maturation that is standard procedure at Shaw + Smith’s Adelaide Hills winery.

Important philosophical winemaking questions needed to be answered, especially how best to address the distinctive Tasmanian acidity that is so pronounced in Tolpuddle fruit, a consequence of its typically very cold, very dry ripening season.

How to frame it? How to tame it? ‘We can see many wineries in Tasmania are wrestling with this notion, but that acidity is part of the DNA and personality of the site,’ says Hill Smith. ‘That acidity certainly has attitude and it gets your attention – but it’s an asset that will give these wines extraordinary longevity.’

Standing on its own two feet

Importantly, once the wines were ready to sell, they were marketed as Tolpuddle Vineyard, rather than branded as part of the Shaw + Smith stable.

‘We didn’t want to follow the corporate growth mantra, so we felt no need to plaster Shaw + Smith’s name all over it. We felt this special site needed to show its own identify, so we issued it under its own label.’

The Chardonnay won immediate acclaim, but achieving the ideal viticulture and winemaking balance with Pinot Noir required more work, especially when introducing the influence of more clonal diversity as new vines across the Tolpuddle site came into maturity.

‘Pinot Noir is more capricious. It reacts so sensitively to vintage and yield differences that it took time for these wines to show site familiarity – and you can see this across the 10-year period – but we have now arrived at a very strong place,’ says Shaw.

Much of this comes down to careful winemaking inputs and technique. ‘Yes, there’s whole-bunch influence in the Pinot Noir,’ said Wadewitz at the Tolpuddle 10th anniversary tasting masterclass, ‘but do we get the percentage right?’ Looks shoot back and forth among the Shaw + Smith hierarchy. ‘Let’s just say that we are never certain, and that there is always discussion amongst us.’

They have made a point not to enter Tolpuddle wines in many wine shows – just a few prestigious events as benchmarking exercises – and yet the Tolpuddle wines have now won 20 trophies across the 10 vintages produced.

‘A different set of circumstances are presented at this site with every vintage, but the wines from Tolpuddle Vineyard definitely show a sense of place,’ says Hill Smith. ‘Being able to capture that in the glass – identifying the true essence of that special site – is where the great excitement is.’

Tolpuddle Vineyard: tasting notes and scores for 19 wines

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Decanter’s dream destination: Saffire Freycinet, Tasmania

Australia’s island state of Tasmania has long been earmarked as a wine region of great potential, largely for the distinctive quality of its pristine cool-climate fruit. Now there is proof on the table of potential realised.

Popping open the House of Arras’ 2001 Blanc de Blancs, you can only marvel at the freshness and vitality of a 20-year-old wine just entering maturity. Extraordinary grapes have been caressed and framed masterfully in the winery in a way not seen on the Australian mainland, nor rarely elsewhere in the world.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for a selection of the best wines from Tasmania

Tasmania at a glance

Producers 184

Area planted 2,000ha

Proportion Represents 1% of Australia’s total harvest volume but 4.2% of national sales by value

Wine regions Seven in total: North West (near Davenport), Tamar Valley and Pipers River hugging the north coast; East Coast (from St Helens to Freycinet); in the south, Coal River Valley, Derwent Valley and Huon/d’Entrecasteaux Channel

Climate Temperate maritime, cooled by westerly winds off the Southern Ocean; daily mean average is 9°C-12°C

Key varieties Pinot Noir (48%), Chardonnay (25%), Pinot Gris (9%), Riesling (6%). Note that 76% of Chardonnay and 45% of Pinot Noir is allocated to sparkling wine production

Source: Wine Tasmania

Learning process

It has been a slow journey to reach this point. From the 1980s, boutique growers began planting the right grape varieties in the right sites, with a particular focus on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. But early efforts were often clumsy, as winemakers struggled to properly harness the intensity of unusually persistent acidity in the grapes and the island’s maddeningly fluctuating vintage conditions.

It’s a tricky landscape for growers to read. The temperature is seriously cold here – a daily average of 9°C in some parts – and the next landfall beyond Australia’s southernmost point is Antarctica.

But Tasmania is also dry, with the eastern span of vineyards lying in the rain shadow of a range of mountains that splits the isle. All this promotes slow flavour development in the fruit and an extraordinary acid line that ensures complexity while retaining freshness.

House of Arras winemaker Ed Carr was among the early true believers to stake his winemaking reputation on the potential of Tasmanian fruit. When his bosses at Hardys Wines (now part of Accolade Wines) gave Carr free rein in the late 1980s to source whatever fruit would bring wine show trophies and prestige to the company, he chose only Tasmanian Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes.

Since its launch in 1995, the success of Arras as a sparkling wine brand of global significance has inspired confidence to accelerate growth and double its 240,000-bottle annual production. This will lead to a significant expansion of Tasmanian vineyards, a prospect that delights Carr.

‘We don’t see Tasmania as a single vineyard,’ says Carr. ‘It’s the complexity of the components from different areas that I’m most excited about, because that brings the elegance and nuance to the wines. It’s a unique resource.’

The very best

Carr’s colleagues at Hardys took notice – most notably senior winemakers Peter Dawson and Tim James, who have both now retired from positions in large wine corporations to create their own boutique label. While they live in McLaren Vale in South Australia, the duo source only Tasmanian fruit for their Dawson James wine brand.

‘We wholeheartedly believe Tasmania can produce the very best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Australia,’ enthuses Dawson, ‘and that’s why it’s the only place we source fruit from.’

Dawson and James are primarily excited by the personality of a specific site: a portion of the Meadowbank vineyard in Coal River Valley, which they lease from growers Gerald and Sue Ellis.

The duo demand particular management of their leased vines and, as a result, their wines are significantly different to the Meadowbank wines made by Peter Dredge (another former Hardys/Accolade winemaker who has now settled in Tasmania), along with his own Dr Edge wines. ‘The very varied wine personalities that can come off this one site means this can be like Burgundy,’ says Dawson.

Tolpuddle Vineyard, also in Coal River Valley, is arguably Tasmania’s most valued and important site. Established in 1988, it was purchased by cousins Michael Hill Smith MW (one of Decanter’s four DWWA Co-Chairs) and Martin Shaw in 2011. The pair transfer the grapes by refrigerated transport to their Shaw & Smith winery in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills.

It’s a big investment that Hill Smith says is entirely justified. ‘The vineyard has focus. It shows place,’ he says. ‘It’s uplifting to be making wines from such a recognisable site.’

When the first vintage of Tolpuddle Vineyard was issued in 2012, Shaw and Hill Smith chose a Tasmanian identity for the label rather than brand it as part of their existing Shaw & Smith portfolio. Hill Smith says that this was vital to respect the integrity of the site, and to elevate an elite Tasmanian entity.

‘People around the world are so curious about this frontier island, and they find the notion of Tasmania’s remoteness hugely interesting,’ Hill Smith says. ‘The story ties in with the fruit quality to drive respect for a distinctive Tasmanian identity – and there’s great value attached to that.’

The big challenge now facing Tasmania is consistent and reliable output. Wild vintage variations due to harsh weather patterns result in variable annual yields, along with unpredictable flavours from fruit of younger vines. Despite such obstacles, many winemakers from Australia’s mainland have embraced the challenges and now live in Tasmania.

Realising potential

New Zealand-born Sam Connew came to Tasmania in 2016 following stints in Oregon, a decade at Wirra Wirra Vineyards in McLaren Vale and two years at Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley. She chose island life because she wanted to make the best possible Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – today the focus of her Stargazer label, which she established in 2012. ‘Tasmania is the only place I know that excels in all three varieties,’ Connew says, ‘and I understand instinctively just how great this region can be. To me it instantly felt like home – like a perfect combination of Australia and New Zealand.’

Having taken the plunge to buy a vineyard in Coal River Valley in 2016 and plant more vines, Connew has now built a winery in partnership with Greg Melick of Pressing Matters, for whom she also makes wines. ‘We believe in the potential of this place,’ she emphasises. ‘The story of excellent-quality Tasmanian wines is just beginning.’

Another with long-term belief in Tasmanian wine is Robert Hill-Smith, former CEO and now chairman of historic Barossa Valley estate Yalumba. His curiosity in the island’s potential was piqued in the mid-1980s, when Tony Jordan of Domaine Chandon Australia planted grapes for sparkling wine production there, and then Champagne Louis Roederer followed, partnering with Heemskerk Wines to create the Jansz sparkling wine label. ‘That European insight into the possibility of Tasmania signalled something of importance to me,’ says Hill-Smith.

When the opportunity emerged to buy Jansz in 1998, he pounced. ‘I felt a sense of adventure by being among the first to recognise the potential of Tasmania and embarking on improvement and specialisation,’ he explains, having just opened a new winery at the Pontos Hills Vineyard estate in Coal River Valley for the Jansz sparklings. ‘Now, we can see that our belief in consistently making wines of great quality has been entirely justified.’

Tasmania: eight producers to know

Altaness

Having sold their Cascabel Winery in South Australia’s McLaren Vale to pursue cool-climate winemaking, Susana Fernandez and Duncan Ferguson are now making notable Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and pétillant naturel wines from deep in the Huon Valley.

Bellebonne

Former Jansz winemaker Natalie Fryar has launched her own boutique sparkling wine venture, with the first vintages of her Bellebonne Blanc de Blancs and Rosé cuvées showing great finesse and structure. This small, dedicated sparkling wine brand is destined to build a big reputation.

Derwent Estate

A long-time provider of elite grapes to Penfolds, Derwent Estate now retains most of its fruit for estate wines. A lithe, textural Riesling stands out as an exemplar of the style in Tasmania, but winemaker John Schuts is equally fixated on the top-quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Glaetzer-Dixon Family Winemakers

Barossa-born winemaker Nick Glaetzer caused a stir when his 2010 Mon Père Shiraz won the Jimmy Watson Trophy for best one-year-old red wine at the 2011 Royal Melbourne Wine Show – a first for a Tasmanian wine. It has drawn eager crowds to his funky tasting shed in Hobart, and his enterprise has been augmented by a recently planted vineyard in Coal River Valley.

Holm Oak

Best known as a white wine specialist, winemaker Bec Duffy is reading her Tamar Valley vineyard cleverly to produce serious barrel-fermented Chardonnay. The brand also has notable Riesling, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc, along with the best example of Arneis grown on the island. There’s also a smart range of Pinot Noir expressions.

Pooley Wines

Significant among Tasmania’s pioneer grape-growers, the Pooley family’s shift from primarily farming to a serious wine business has propelled them on a quest for the highest quality. Winemaker Anna Pooley is now focused on specialising in single vineyards within the large Pooley range.

Tolpuddle Vineyard

This estate sets a lofty new benchmark for vineyard management and winemaking finesse in Tasmania, with exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay coming from an elite single site in Coal River Valley. It has benefited greatly from a decade of investment and vineyard improvement undertaken by its owners, cousins Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw.

Two Tonne Tasmania

The attention to detail of winemaker Ricky Evans, with his small parcels of Tamar Valley fruit, has resulted in a small portfolio of very interesting, particular wines. He explores a raft of different ideas, from use of whole bunches in his Dog & Wolf Pinot Noir to the Ziggurat range, which is his playground for experimentation.

Key Tasmanian vintages to seek out

2021 Signs are good for wines across the most recent vintage release, with pristine Chardonnay, bright and lively Pinot Noir and a diverse array of Riesling styles showing great texture and balance between ripe fruit and persistent acidity. Broach from 2022, drink to 2033.

2020 The best examples of Pinot Noir yet seen from Tasmania. The benefits of a long, even growing season have been coupled with more finesse and an assured touch by winemakers to produce Pinots of heightened delicacy and complex structure. Broach from 2023, drink to 2033.

2018 A superior Chardonnay vintage, showing luscious fruit character and sharp minerality, built around a firm spine of acidity that will ensure long-lasting freshness and vitality. Drink 2022-2035.

2011 Unfairly tarnished with criticism due to a prolonged wet ripening season across mainland Australia, the 2011 vintage in Tasmania offers many exceptional wines showing the true benefits of the island’s renowned acidity. Key examples are Dawson James’ Chardonnay, showing remarkable freshness a decade on, and Glaetzer-Dixon’s Mon Père Shiraz. Drink 2022-2030.

See tasting notes and scores for 40 great wines from Tasmania

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The journey to Saffire Freycinet is one that requires commitment. First, you have to make your way to Tasmania – the heart-shaped landmass off Southern Australia – via a two-hour flight from Sydney. Next, you need to drive three hours north from capital Hobart, squiggling along the coast-hugging Tasman Highway.

Then, when you finally reach a peninsula cloaked in a natural park, you must fight to keep your eyes on the road as surrounding hills soar upwards and blue bays rush by. But put in the effort to get to this remote luxurious retreat, and you won’t regret it.

The hotel’s design is remarkable – a silvery, stingray-shaped build, lined in floor-to-ceiling windows, hedged by a row of private villas. Everything here is geared towards that unrelenting view: wild forest, rugged peaks and glittering bay fringed in soft golden sands. Enter the light-flooded contemporary lounge, where a sleek wooden ceiling ripples above and gas fireplaces flicker lowly, and it feels a bit like you’ve wandered into the pages of Architectural Digest.

The villa-like rooms are no less impressive. With just a clutch on offer, the vibe is exclusive – and there is not a single dud. All 20 come dressed in Tasmanian woods and earthy hues. They offer sublime views across sun-soaked foliage to Coles Bay and the pink granite mountain range, The Hazards. The top suites are more spacious than a sizeable London flat. They come with dedicated dining areas and kitchens, as well as private plunge pools.

Dining and drinking

Food is a serious priority here. The hotel operates on an all-inclusive basis with well-stocked minibars, three meals a day and bottomless pours from the impressive wine cellar. Think sparklings from Tasmania’s Pipers River, Roswell and Lebrena regions and Riesling from the Tamar and Coal River Valleys. Not to mention Pinot Noir from across the island.

The menus feature a roll call of native Tasmanian ingredients. From abalone to beef to venison, dishes show off the incredible diversity of the local larder.

Out and about

But don’t get too comfortable. Part of the draw of checking in is the excuse to get out. Stays at Saffire Freycinet include unique ‘experiences’ that plunge you into the local landscape, while giving you a taste of its bounty.

Spend a morning wading through crystal-clear waters on a working oyster farm, harvesting briny bivalves and washing them down with glasses of traditional method Clover Hill fizz. Don an apiarist suit and visit hives to learn about the production of Tasmanian honey.

The resort can also arrange visits to a historic vineyard on Tasmania’s east coast, Craigie Knowe. Here you’ll meet winemaker Glenn Travers and sip a selection of his wines.

If you strike out further – and you should, if you’ve made the effort to come all this way – then Tasmania has more riches to discover beyond its sublime wine and food. Saffire Freycinet, with its bountiful connections, can arrange for you to see endangered Tasmanian devils up close or will helicopter you to Currawong Lakes for fly-fishing.

You can self-drive down to Hobart for the day to visit the city’s fabulous MONA museum of old and new art or sample award-winning Tasmanian whisky. Or take the ferry to Bruny Island to tour Australia’s southernmost vineyard.

Or of course, you can explore the other wineries of the island – highlights include Jansz for impressive sparkling or Tamar Ridge for complex Pinot Noir. Just make sure you’re back in time for dinner; whether it’s sticky quail on the menu or scallops with macadamia, you won’t want to miss executive chef Paddy Prenter’s plates.

And just before you make the epic journey home, you have to climb up the famous nearby lookout point, through lush forest and rounded russet boulders. You’ll emerge into the sunshine to a perfect half-moon curve of white beach and azure water blanketed beneath you. The name of this special place? Wineglass Bay. For an oenophile, there can be no more fitting conclusion to a stay in Tasmania.

For more information visit: saffire-freycinet.com.au

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Applying the experience of working vintages in Burgundy, former Australian architect Brian Franklin has established himself as the maker of critically acclaimed Pinot Noir at his Tasmanian winery Apsley Gorge. Konrad Muller reports…

‘The coffee machine is out of order,’ he says in a deep rumble. ‘So you can have water or wine.’ As it’s 11am, and I have to take the spectacular Great Eastern Drive back to Hobart, and had seen the warning signs to ‘EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED: rockfalls, ice, trucks on narrow causeways and wildlife’ on the road up, I say water will be good thanks.

Scroll down for Konrad Muller’s pick of Apsley Gorge wines

But I am tempted. For the winery – an anonymous old fish factory in the seaside hamlet of Bicheno – is Apsley Gorge, and my host is Brian Franklin, a one-time Melbourne architect turned Tasmanian fisherman and knife-wielding deep-sea diver.

He is also one of the great mavericks of the Australian wine world – the maker of rich, alluring Pinot Noirs that speak of deep immersion in Burgundy, where Franklin has worked the vintage every year since 2002 with Philippe Charlopin at Gevrey-Chambertin.

In fact, so deep is the immersion that Franklin, with a Burgundian friend, has recently made his own grand cru – an extraordinary feat for an outsider.

Much of this he dresses up as so much happenstance. Of his move to Tasmania, he says: ‘I came here when the bottom fell out of the building industry in Melbourne in the early 1980s. I knew how to dive; I spent 18 years underwater harvesting abalone.’

Of the choice in 1988 of the mighty site at Apsley Gorge where he has just 5.5ha of Pinot Noir and 1ha of Chardonnay, he assures me: ‘It was more good luck than anything.’

He points to the good soils and unique microclimate of which he was then blithely unaware – river loam over clay, shot here and there with ironstone; and the benign effects of the gorge which acts as a vent, preventing frost in spring, and in autumn shepherding the extended slow ripening of the rich, fully flavoured fruit that is probably the last each year to be harvested in Australia – sometimes as late as June, in the first nip of winter.

Vintage roots

And of his rare entrée in Burgundy? A similar good fortune. As Franklin tells it: ‘I had a friend, a wine importer – Ross Duke. He imported a bit of Burgundy, and I asked him if he could get me a job there for the 2000 vintage. Ross found me a job with Domaine Fourrier in Gevrey-Chambertin. The son, Jean-Marie, had just taken over; he spoke a bit of English; I went across, refining my French.

‘Then, in 2001, I didn’t go back – only vintage I’ve missed in Burgundy since 2000. Anyhow, that year I get a call from Jean-Marie. he tells me he’s got a friend, Philippe, and Philippe’s got a son, Yann, and Yann’s just finished his degree and is doing this thing called the stage. Could he come to Tasmania and do his placement with me for six months? I say sure, we’ll find him something to do.

‘Well, I was told two things about Yann. The first was he didn’t smoke cigarettes, and the second was he spoke very good English. The day his bus arrives from the airport, I’m late picking him up. I turn up at the bus stop, and here’s this young bloke sitting in the gutter, with a Malboro sticking out of his mouth. I wind down the window and go: “That you, Yann?” He looks at me and says: “Quoi?”

‘He didn’t speak a word of English; he does now, with a Tasmanian accent. Yann lived upstairs in the old fish factory here for six months. First time out of France, big adventure for him. We did a few trips on the boat together – I made him paint the mast, put him in the bosun’s chair and winched him up. He wasn’t too happy about that,’ Franklin smiles.

‘Anyhow, Yann went back [to France] in June 2002, and I said, “Can I come and work at your father’s domaine?” I’ve been doing the vintage with the family ever since.’

Fruit first

Without formal training, these Burgundian interludes with the Charlopins (echoed by other young French winemakers staying with him in Tasmania) now frame Franklin’s every thought from the soil to the barrel, whether in Tasmania or making a grand cru in France.

On fundamentals, he defers to his Burgundian master: ‘Taste, taste, taste,’ he reiterates. ‘Philippe Charlopin said to me very early, the secret is to trap the fruit. If you trap the fruit, everything else follows.’ Accordingly, Franklin places a premium on low yields – at times as low as 9hl/ha for some Pinot Noir parcels (and 30hl/ha for the Chardonnay).

He does not irrigate (something banned in Burgundy) and he eschews fertilisers, except for the organic (seaweed, cow manure), which recently he has applied sparingly.

Soil hygiene is a genuine precept here. Herbicides have not been used for some years. ‘In Burgundy,’ Franklin notes, ‘there are areas where the soil is dead after 50 years of herbicides. The view now is let’s not kill the soil.’ He stresses that the timing of harvest is driven by taste, ‘not a set of chemical parameters’, and underlines: ‘I am looking for full fruit flavours, for phenolic ripeness, not acid.’ Green notes – bracken characters especially – are an anathema.

As in the vineyard, so in the winery. Franklin’s emphasis is on natural processes and minimal intervention. Many of his practices go back to Philippe Charlopin’s own friend and mentor, the legendary Henri Jayer. Historically, table-sorted fruit at Apsley has been 100% destalked (though, in the latest vintages, Franklin has toyed with small volumes of whole-bunch, 10%-15%) before an extended cold maceration; the lateness of the season means that rarely is that maceration artificially chilled. Wild yeasts are then left to do their own work in their own time. ‘You don’t force it. There’s no point in forcing it,’ says Franklin, sounding like the ghost of Jayer. The malolactic is also indigenous and runs to nature’s clock as the temperatures warm up in the spring. Franklin does not adjust acid. There is no fining, no filtration. The wine sits for a minimum of 18 months in the barrel (30% new oak), longer than is usual for Pinot Noir in Australia.

Ageing gracefully

The results at Apsley Gorge are wines, and especially Pinot Noirs, that brilliantly express spirit of place, a Tasmanian terroir through Burgundian technique – richly flavoured, complex Pinot Noirs, with soft tannins, that are an ode to the splendours of late autumn fruit. At a vertical tasting of vintages from 2010 to 2015, what emerged was how individual the different vintages were.

The 2012, from a very small-cropping year, was a dense, multi-hued Pinot with chewy tannins above notes of plum, blackcurrant and liquorice straps, shifting into spice. The 2014, by contrast, was more suave, not subtle as yet, but rich and resonant, a festival of violet, cherry and plum. Franklin himself detects an overall shift towards greater elegance, reflecting slightly higher yields and vine ageing, allowing ripeness at lower pH.

Back in the old fish factory now, as the cold waves thud in from the Tasman, Franklin recalls that when he first returned and told his confrères in Tasmania what the Burgundians were doing, ‘they mostly didn’t want to know’. The main problem was indigenous yeast: ‘Too dangerous, too risky, it scared the shit out of them,’ he says with pungency. And it is true, historically, that Apsley has sat outside the orthodox in Australia, where Pinot Noir has tended to be very controlled, occupied with pH and acid, as opposed to picking on full ripeness and submitting to nature’s hand.

For all these reasons, Andrew Jefford, a declared fan, once listed the unschooled Franklin among the 10 bravest winemakers in Australia. Today, Franklin looks less maverick than seer, as Burgundian methods have become more frequently applied to Pinot Noir in Australia. Critical acclaim has also come, and Apsley’s cult wines sit comfortably in the premium price range for Australian Pinot Noir (on a par with Burgundy premier cru).

Kindred spirits

And so to the latest project: the grand cru Franklin is now making on the Côte d’Or. His partner here is none other than his old friend Yann (not smoking the Malboro any more). These days Yann has his own domaine (Charlopin-Tissier, as distinct from his father’s Charlopin-Parizot) at Morey-St-Denis, just down the road from Gevrey. And that explains Franklin’s incredible access to the grand cru fruit: a tonne of viticultural gold. ‘If it were me,’ he concedes, ‘and not Yann Charlopin, it would not have been possible – a business like you wouldn’t believe.’ He does not elaborate.

The source, in any case, is the clay soil at Clos de Vougeot, which can get quite wet, but in a dry year delivers good quality. The 2017 vintage was dry and Franklin assures me: ‘The fruit is sensational, as good as any I have seen during my time in Burgundy – superb primary Pinot characteristics, cherry and strawberry, and no astringency.’ Nor are there divergences on matters philosophical. Franklin remarks: ‘The basic principles – 100% destalked, a long pre-ferment maceration, indigenous yeast, a press for grand cru that halts at the tannins, and 100% new oak – go back to Henri Jayer, and the techniques he imparted to Philippe Charlopin. Yann is his son; and I have worked as assistant winemaker to Philippe. There is complete likeness of mind.’

When we spoke, the wine, in two special barrels – one from François Frères, another from Taransaud – was going through malolactic at Yann’s winery. Some 600 bottles will be on the market under the Charlopin-Tissier label before the end of 2019. As with Franklin’s Tasmanian Pinots, the UK retailer will be Justerini & Brooks. A grand cru with Yann Charlopin? No better tribute to Brian Franklin’s Burgundian odyssey.

Konrad Muller is a writer based in Hobart, Tasmania. He works for part of the year in a small family vineyard in the Tamar Valley

See Konrad Muller’s pick of Apsley Gorge wines

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Well known for its award-winning sparkling wines, Tasmania is growing in stature as a producer of top-quality still whites and Pinot Noirs. Sarah Ahmed follows the latest developments on this ‘cool’ island state

Cast adrift 240km south of mainland Australia, across Bass Strait, Tasmania was quickly spotted by colonial explorers as a natural fit for Europe’s cool-climate-loving crops.

In 1788, the first of them, Lieutenant William (Mutiny on the Bounty) Bligh, recorded planting three apple trees and nine vines ‘to do good the most in our power to the Natives or those who may come after us’.

Scroll down to see Sarah’s tasting notes

Tasmania, the Apple Isle, went on to become Australia’s most productive apple-growing state. Today, it’s the apple of the wine industry’s eye – a zero-surplus zone, whose grapes are conservatively estimated to be worth almost six times the national average and whose entire production (about 0.5% of Australia’s total) retails at above $15/£9.18 a bottle.

Nailing its colours so firmly to the super-premium mast is not this enviable wine state’s sole point of difference. Tasmania is also charting fresh territory as Australia’s coolest wine region. With a climate not dissimilar to that of Champagne (but, crucially for still wines, significantly drier), it is Australia’s undisputed capital of traditional method sparkling wine.

Made from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sometimes Pinot Meunier, this style of fizz accounts for about 35% of the island’s production. With ‘a suppleness of structure’, which Ed Carr, Accolade’s sparkling winemaker, identifies as Tasmania’s signature note, demand is seemingly insatiable.

When I visited last year, traditional method specialist Fran Austin of Delamere Estate told me: ‘Sparkling has gone berserk… we can’t keep up.’ Oddbins head buyer Ana Sapungiu MW echoes her comments, reporting of Jansz Rosé: ‘Customers can’t get enough of it.’

My top-scoring fizz from House of Arras is imported to the UK by Liberty Wines; its managing director David Gleave MW observes sanguinely that demand will naturally exceed supply ‘if, like Arras, the wines taste better than Champagne at the same price’.

Carr, Australia’s most awarded sparkling winemaker and Arras craftsman, is renowned for his commitment to lengthy ageing of wines on their yeasts in bottle; the Grand Vintage 2007 was disgorged after several years to build complexity, while his flagship cuvée, EJ Carr, spends a decade on its lees.

Beyond Sparkling

If fizz is firing on all cylinders, what about the other two-thirds of Tasmanian wine production – the still wines? Mainland producer Hardys (owned by Accolade), then Penfolds were quick to siphon off top-notch Chardonnay for respective multi-regional blends Eileen Hardy and Yattarna, even if, joked Hardys’ Tom Newton, he initially ‘picked up the crumbs’ from Carr’s sparklings.

Although both wines now include a hefty percentage of Tasmanian Chardonnay, competition for fruit is hotting up, especially now freshness (which Tasmania so reliably delivers) is prized over sheer power.

Take Tolpuddle Vineyard, historically a key source for Eileen Hardy and Arras. It was acquired in 2011 by Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith MW (owners of Shaw & Smith in the Adelaide Hills) and the pair now make a stunning single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from this mature Coal River Valley site.

Although Coal River Valley is in Tasmania’s warmer, drier south, its distinctive raciness is, for Hill Smith, a product of the fact that, while ‘the Adelaide Hills are cool, southern Tasmania is cold’, plus his belief that Tolpuddle Vineyard is ‘one of the great single vineyards of Australia’.

With unusual limestone sub-soil, southern Tasmania’s Derwent Estate in the Derwent Valley is another. In 2013, this long-term supplier to Penfolds’ Yattarna Chardonnay partnered up with winemaker John Schuts, building a winery to increase the quantity and quality of wines Schuts previously made for Derwent Estate at Winemaking Tasmania, a leading contract winemaker.

Derwent’s new flagship Chardonnay and Pinot Noir label Calcaire highlights the more exacting terroir-focused approach, especially for Pinot Noir. It is now harvested by block or clone over two to three weeks in 20 picks.

Such developments are a win-win for Tasmania. Gleave praises ‘a new breed of small independent wineries aiming for the very top of the tree’, whom it is exciting to see refocusing pedigree sites on ambitious 100% Tasmanian wines.

Meanwhile, the big players push to find the great sites of the future, such as the Central Highlands’ only vineyard (Tasmania’s highest at 250m) which, says Penfolds’ Kym Schroeter, ‘walked into Yattarna’ in the 2014 blend: a shoo-in.

As for Tasmania’s biggest vineyard, the 175ha Hazards on the East Coast’s Freycinet Peninsula (known for its fruit density), it was bought by Victoria-based Brown Brothers in 2010. Approving of Ross Brown’s pledge to create a category he said did not yet exist, a generous and flavoursome Pinot Noir with mass appeal, The Wine Society’s Sarah Knowles MW says: ‘It really is fantastic to see Devil’s Corner open up such a great potential market given its price point, style and appeal.’

Because so much of the island’s typically small-scale production has either gone to contract winemakers or been blended on the mainland, I can understand why rising star Domaine Simha’s Nav Singh (who honed his skills at Burgundy’s Domaine de l’Arlot and Bordeaux’s Château Le Pin) describes Tasmania as ‘embryonic… the last frontier of premium winemaking in Australia’ when it comes to showcasing the island’s individuality.

However, since my 2012 visit, I have noticed a growth spurt (in both number and maturity) of small independent wineries and winemaker-led labels, which, by cultivating a closer relationship with the land, are building on the work of boutique pioneers such as Domaine A, Freycinet Vineyards, Josef Chromy and Stefano Lubiana.

Tasmania: key stats

Latitude (Launceston) 41°27’S

Mean January (summer) temperature 17.2°C

Planted area 1,880ha

Most-planted varieties Pinot Noir (41%), Chardonnay (18%), Sauvignon Blanc (17%), Pinot Gris (10%), Riesling (8%)

Diversity of style

Tasmania wine is fast growing up in terms of sub-regional and terroir expression, stylistic diversity and innovation, as well as quality. Drawing on five years’ chairing the Hobart Wine Show plus overseeing production of Yalumba’s mushrooming Tasmanian portfolio (Jansz, Dalrymple, Parish Vineyard), winemaker Louisa Rose confirms: ‘The general quality is lifting so much; we are starting to see great sites emerge, and understand the differences between them, especially for Pinot Noir.’

Huon Valley, for example, has been catapulted into the limelight after Home Hill’s Kelly’s Reserve Pinot Noir 2014 won Australia’s prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy in 2015. Stefano Lubiana has now bought a vineyard in this atypically humid (for the south) region once regarded as fit only for sparkling, as has Mount Pleasant’s chief winemaker Jim Chatto and Home Hill’s winemakers Paul and Gilli Lipscombe of Sailor Seeks Horse.

In Tamar Valley, Stoney Rise’s Joe Holyman, formerly a wicketkeeper in Tasmanian cricket, is fine-tuning his Pinot Noirs – and pushing stylistic boundaries with an unsulphured example and the textural skin-contact Brian range, made with fellow winemaker Peter Dredge and wine writer Mike Bennie.

Earlier-picked and less extracted, the wines have become brighter, crunchier and more precise – a better reflection of northern Tasmania’s cloudier, wetter climate. Even Project X, a 100% whole-bunch Pinot, which he initially trod daily for a fortnight, but now hand-plunges. ‘It dawned on me,’ says Holyman, ‘that Dujac [the influential Burgundy producer] plunged because they didn’t want the whole-bunch [style] to show.’

In the small amphitheatre of vineyards surrounding their home, Sinapius’ Vaughn Dell and Linda Morice are making sublime, slow-burn, mineral Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays amid the cluster of Pipers River sparkling producers. It is the most humid of Tasmania’s principal regions.

Meticulous viticulture (doubling, even tripling planting density for super-low yields) and sensitive winemaking (differentiating parcels) have enabled Dell to achieve his goal of ‘making wines that taste like they are grown here’. New wine Clem Blanc (a field blend of Grüner Veltliner, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Riesling) has the texture and spice of a sophisticated Alsace Edelzwicker.

Samantha Connew made her name at Wirra Wirra in South Australia’s McLaren Vale, and is burnishing her credentials in Tasmania with Stargazer, which she founded in 2013. Since acquiring a Coal River Valley (CRV) vineyard last year, she has switched her Pinot Noir source from Huon Valley. Though she describes CRV Pinot as ‘traditionally more robust and tannic than Huon Pinot’, Connew uses whole-bunch fruit for aromatics and is ‘pretty gentle with extraction’; it accounts for the uncommon levity of her pale CRV Pinot.

Also part-sourcing from CRV, Nick Glaetzer (Glaetzer-Dixon) favours a traditional style, describing his ageworthy Pinots as ‘having a Pommard character; that leathery savouriness’. They starkly contrast with Sixteen Nouveau, his new ‘Beaujolais rip-off’ made from Pinot Noir.

CRV and the Meadowbank Vineyard in the Upper Derwent Valley were the source of Barossa-born Glaetzer’s controversial 2011 Jimmy Watson Trophy-winning Mon Père Shiraz 2010. This savoury, fresh, Rhône-ish wine prompted a disgruntled, anonymous caller to phone Meadowbank’s Gerald Ellis, demanding to know how a Tasmanian Shiraz could win Australia’s top wine award.

Meadowbank has been a magnet for both established (Arras) and new-wave producers, including former Accolade winemakers Peter Dawson and Tim James (now of Dawson James) and Peter Dredge (both for his funky Dr Edge label and Meadowbank’s recently revived label).

It is also where Singh and wife Louise Radman mainly source and craft perfumed, delicate yet textured Riesling, Chardonnay, Gamay and Pinot Noir. With early picking and skilful use of skin contact, 600-litre barrels and amphorae, Domaine Simha’s light touch has won listings at The Fat Duck in Melbourne.

Like most Tasmanian wines, quantities are tiny. Just 5% of Tasmanian wine is exported and, even then, Knowles says: ‘The limiting factor is often The Wine Society’s “allocation” rather than our members’ appetite.’

Offbeat appeal

To appreciate the uniqueness of Tasmania and its wines, my best advice is to visit this beautiful island, which has experienced the fastest growth of international tourists in the nation as a whole, largely due to Hobart’s acclaimed Museum of Old and New Art adjacent to the Moorilla Estate winery at Berriedale, where resident winemaker Conor van der Reest is taking things in exciting new directions while painstakingly conserving its heritage 1970s vines.

As Sapungiu points out, this island has a special allure for wine lovers: ‘It is the region that is the point of difference… Tasmania is cool in every sense; a bit unusual.’

Best of Tasmania wine:

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This island state has less than 1% of Australia’s vineyards and just 0.1% of wine is exported, but that hasn’t muffled the huge buzz surrounding its cool-climate potential. Huon Hooke finds very good things come in small packages...

Tasmania at a glance

Vineyards 1,320ha (56% white, 44% red)

Main varieties (in order of importance) Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling

Average yield white – 4.6 tonnes/ha, red – 4.2 tonnes/ha

In a hot and thirsty country like Australia, cool is now cool. As grape growers across the continent lament increasingly hot summers and earlier harvests, Tasmania holds most of the aces.

Warmer regions like the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale were front and centre of our palates for most of the 20th century, but public taste and winemakers’ aspirations have both moved on. Few attempt to make fine white table and sparkling wines in hot regions any more. They’re now growing their grapes – or buying them – in higher altitudes or more southerly latitudes.

Global warming is a major reason the mainland winery Brown Brothers paid A$32 million for Tasmania’s Tamar Ridge four years ago. In 2001 Kreglinger, a Belgian family company with a long interest in Australian primary industry, bought the 1974-established Pipers Brook Vineyard, one of Tasmania’s most important wine producers, with 185 hectares of vineyards and a world-famous brand. And a smaller but also highly significant purchase was Adelaide Hills winery Shaw & Smith buying the Tolpuddle Vineyard in 2011. It released an impressive first pair of wines, a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, in 2013.

These purchases have given a moral fillip to Tasmania’s tiny wine industry, although its size in terms of hectares planted and tonnes crushed has barely changed in recent times. Tasmania has for several years been the one Australian wine region where demand for grapes exceeds supply.

The island state has 1,320ha of planted vineyards, which is less than 1% of Australia’s total. Both wine quality and prices are relatively high, however, the economics of production ensuring that only premium-priced wine is produced.

Vines are grown from the northern coastline all the way down to the lower Huon Valley a couple of hours’ drive south of the capital Hobart, and from the east coast across to the foothills of the central highlands. Virtually all of the densely forested western half of the state is as uninhabited by vines as it is by humans, its cold, wet and windy climate being inhospitable to both.

The wines are exciting, and they suit today’s tastes and food fashions. Delicate, refreshing whites are what people want with their seafood, not the heavy, oaky whites of yesteryear. They’re drinking more bubbly, and more upmarket bubbly, and these wines have to be smart to compete with keenly discounted Champagnes. Only a few places in Australia can grow these kinds of grapes and Tasmania leads the way. Red-wine tastes have seen the biggest shift. Where once, heavy hot-climate Shiraz and Cabernet was the staple diet of barbecued steak-eating Aussies, we now also want light to mid-bodied reds with lower alcohol and tannin levels. There’s been a Pinot-led renaissance, and Tasmania has rushed to fill our glasses.

Tasmania is cool, but contrary to popular belief it is not wet, assuming we leave out the western half. Indeed, it surprises many visitors that Hobart is Australia’s second-driest capital city. This combination of cool and dry is a winner. Summer drought is more of a problem than wet weather during ripening and harvest. Water for irrigation is reasonably available and widely used.

Tassie wine is easy to understand, too. There’s no baffling proliferation of regional and sub-regional names. Most labels just say ‘Tasmania’. When the Geographic Indications (GI) legislation was drawn up, Tasmania sensibly opted to gazette just one region, comprising the entire island. Champagne has a single appellation and so does Tasmania.

But in practical terms the state can be divided into three sectors: northern, southern and eastern. In the north, Tamar Valley and Pipers River are well established, with Relbia (near Launceston) becoming more significant. The north coast has a smattering of tiny vineyards. The south has the well-established regions of Derwent Valley, Coal River Valley and Huon Valley, while the East Coast region runs from Bream Creek in the south up to St Helen’s, and includes the major centres of Swansea and Bicheno.

Broadly speaking, Pipers River has a humid climate whose dampness can pose problems (aggravated by high-vigour red volcanic soils); Tamar and central Tasmania have the hottest sites, and the Huon is the coolest region, while the Derwent and Coal Valleys have a good combination of cool temperatures, mild humidity and soils of moderate vigour. The East Coast has perhaps the best combination of temperature and dry weather at the critical times, although irrigation water is less readily available.

Tasmania’s modern wine industry began in the early-1960s when Moorilla Estate was planted by the Alcorso family. Among the mistakes made, Cabernet Sauvignon was widely planted; there is little remaining today. Paradoxically, Shiraz is making a minor comeback: Moorilla, Waterton and Glaetzer-Dixon have all made startlingly good spicy, mid-bodied but deliciously ripe Shiraz this century. But this shouldn’t distract from the main game, which is fragrant, light-bodied Pinot Noir, elegant, grapefruity Chardonnay, structured sparkling wines and some of Australia’s most refined and aromatic Rieslings. Some observers puzzle why Tasmania produces so little interesting Sauvignon Blanc, when Marlborough appears to be so closely related (the 42° South parallel runs through both Marlborough and central Tasmania). But Tasmania’s soils, climates and geological history are very different to anything in New Zealand.

There are 112 producers, most of them tiny, and a multitude of brands. It’s not surprising then, that Tasmania exports very little: only 0.13% of Australia’s total. Very few of the island’s wines even make it across Bass Strait to the mainland markets: the wines are mainly sold direct to visitors and through Tasmania’s restaurants and retail outlets. In researching this article, I contacted 40 of the top producers and found only 10 export to the UK.

The major players are Brown Brothers, Kreglinger, the Hill Smith family with Jansz and Dalrymple, Moorilla Estate which has added the Mona art museum to its vineyard, winery, restaurant and brewery complex; the Taltarni– owned Clover Hill; Frogmore Creek which is also a notable contract winemaker; Josef Chromy; and the Accolade-owned former Hardy’s Bay of Fires winery and associated Arras brand. Heemskerk is now just a brand owned by Treasury Wine Estates, but the wines – both sparkling and still – are outstanding. Neither Treasury nor Accolade own any vineyards in Tasmania but their presence is important.

Dr Andrew Pirie is a pioneer who founded Pipers Brook Vineyard in 1974, and has 40 years’ experience in Tasmanian wine. Now, establishing his new vineyard and brand Apogee, he ‘remains passionate about the cool climate wine potential of Tasmania’. So do many other people. The wines are exciting, they’re improving year by year, and the future looks rosy for the Apple Isle.

Tasmania: know your vintages

2013 A very good warm, dry year that should favour Pinot Noir. Rieslings are aromatic and powerful

2012 Excellent season. Chardonnay and Riesling are outstanding and Pinot Noir lush and imposing

2011 Wet vintage. Whites very good in a lighter style, but Pinot Noirs are patchy

2010 Very successful year all round, especially reds

2009 Cool, late vintage of high quality but low yields

2008 Warm, dry year – an outstanding Pinot Noir vintage

Author, judge and educator, Australia’s Huon Hooke has been writing about wine for more than 30 years

Written by Huon Hooke

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This island state has less than 1% of Australia’s vineyards and just 0.1% of wine is exported, but that hasn’t muffled the huge buzz surrounding its cool-climate potential. Huon Hooke finds very good things come in small packages...

Six Tasmanian wine producers to watch

Pressing Matters

This 7ha vineyard was established in 2002 at Middle Tea Tree in the Coal Valley by Hobart barrister Greg Melick. He planted only Riesling and Pinot Noir, thereby doggedly declaring his personal preferences. Since the first vintage, 2007, the Rieslings – at four sweetness levels declared on labels as R0, R9, R69 and R139 – have been prolific award winners in Australian wine shows. The Pinot Noir is getting there more slowly. All are vinified by highly influential custom-crush winery Winemaking Tasmania.

Riversdale Estate

Established in the Cambridge district of the Coal Valley in 1991, under the shadow of a giant radio telescope, this meticulously managed vineyard with water frontage is owned by Hobart lawyer Ian Roberts. There are 20ha of vines and a large olive grove. The wines are made in the Barossa Valley at Cellarmasters, which buys a proportion of the grapes for its own wines. The Crater Chardonnay is a pure, hauntingly perfumed iteration of Tasmanian finesse, and a multiple trophy winner. Pinot and Riesling also impress.

Josef Chromy

Enterprising Czech migrant Joe Chromy has owned three successful winemaking ventures, this latest eponymous one having 60ha of vines at Relbia, south of Launceston. A modern winery, restaurant, cellar-door sales and function centre are all thriving. The main varieties are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the latter a DWWA 2013 International Trophy winner. Sparkling wines, Riesling and fumé-style Sauvignon Blanc are all successful – the wine style idiosyncratic within the Tasmanian gamut; more mineral rather than fruity.

Freycinet Vineyard

The Bull family fortuitously chose a bowl-shaped sun-trap site for its 9ha vineyard planted in 1980, near Bicheno on the central East Coast. The relatively warm and dry climate enables remarkable year-to-year consistency of quality in Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Winemaker Claudio Radenti married the owners’ daughter Lindy, hence continuity of direction has been a key advantage. Both are trained winemakers. Freycinet’s Pinot Noir achieves greater flavour depth, colour and structure more consistently and earlier than other Tasmanian wineries.

Arras/Bay of Fires

Arras is the premium sparkling wine brand of Accolade, formerly Hardy’s. The Grand Vintage spends 10 years on its lees and the EJ Carr Late Disgorged Vintage (named after the winemaker) is left for 12 years. Since becoming purely Tasmanian in the late 1990s, Arras makes Australia’s leading bubblies. Derwent Valley and East Coast are Ed Carr’s favoured regions, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir the grapes. Bay of Fires and Eddystone Point are the Tasmanian table-wine brands, vinified in the company’s Pipers River winery but sourced throughout the island. Riesling, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir all excel.

Tamar Ridge/Devil’s Corner

Brown Brothers’ purchase of Tamar Ridge in 2010 was the biggest investment yet in Tasmanian wine; the company sees its future in this island state. Sub-brands include Pirie and Devil’s Corner: the latter has since become the focus of a major push for volume at the A$20 (£11) price point – Devil’s Corner Riesling is outstanding value. Tamar Ridge dry and sweet botrytised Rieslings have been exceptional, and Tamar Ridge Reserve Pinot Noir was often superb in pre-Brown days. The takeover dust is still settling but a luscious, profound A$65 (£36) Devil’s Corner Mt Amos Pinot Noir 2012 is an exciting harbinger.

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This island state has less than 1% of Australia’s vineyards and just 0.1% of wine is exported, but that hasn’t muffled the huge buzz surrounding its cool-climate potential. Huon Hooke finds very good things come in small packages...

Huon Hooke’s top 10 Tasmanian wines

Clover Hill, Vintage Brut, Pipers River 2008

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Toasty, bready bouquet with lots of yeast and bottle-aged character. Vibrant in the mouth: very complex with layers of flavour, intensity and drive. Clean, dry finish.

Price: £25.99 Alliance Wine, Carruthers & Kent

Drink 2014-2017

Alc 12.5%

Jansz, Vintage Cuvée, Pipers River 2007

18.25/20pts (94/100pts)

Lemon and honey aromas with bready, toasty and nutty overtones. Complex and subtle, refined and attractive with a delicate and beautifully proportioned palate.

Price: £21.99 Flagship Wines, Fraziers, Free Run Juice, Highbury Vintners, Reserve Wines, SH Jones, Slurp

Drink 2014-2017

Alc 12%

Heemskerk, Chardonnay 2012

19.25/20pts (97/100pts)

Shy, restrained aroma hinting at malt, flowers and honey. Delicate, refined and restrained palate of great intensity, line and length, holding a lot in reserve. A great wine of class and finesse.

Price: £27.50 (2011, in bond) Laithwaite’s

Drink 2014–2022

Alc 13%

Tolpuddle, Chardonnay, Coal Valley 2012

19/20pts (96/100pts)

Very restrained in all respects. The bouquet has great subtlety and harmony, with elements of creamy lees notes, cashew and white peach. Tremendously fine and long, with seamless acidity. Lovely.

Price: £45-£59 Halifax Wine Co, Harvey Nichols, Hedonism, No2 Pound Street, Oz Wines

Drink 2014-2020

Alc 13%

Bay of Fires, Riesling 2013

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Very fresh, bright floral and struck-flint mineral aromas. Delicate in the mouth, fresh and taut, delivering a lot of fruit flavour. Superb, and will reward cellaring.

Price: N/A UK bayoffireswines.com.au

Drink 2014–2033

Alc 12.5%

Dawson & James, Chardonnay, Derwent Valley 2011

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Oak aromas of smoky bacon plus grapefruit and toast. Discreet and subtle yet has great length. Finely poised and balanced, building intensity along the palate.

Price: £46.99 Liberty Wines

Drink 2014-2020

Alc 12.7%

Domaine A, Lady A Fumé Blanc, Coal Valley 2010

18.25/20pts (94/100pts)

Rich, powerful oaky bouquet, with concentrated, sweetly ripe fruit. A ‘worked’ wine, made in the cellar: barrel- fermented, long, focused and powerful, needing time.

Price: £69.99 Alliance Wine

Drink 2014-2020

Alc 14%

Home Hill, Kelly’s Reserve Pinot Noir, Huon Valley 2012

19/20pts (96/100pts)

Bright and youthful all round: red cherry, spice and coconut aromas; clean and vibrant. Elegant medium- weight palate, of succulent, sweet fruit – utterly delicious. Will be long-lived.

Price: N/A UK homehillwines.com.au

Drink 2014-2027

Alc 13.8%

Freycinet Vineyard, Pinot Noir, East Coast 2012

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Discreet, dark cherry, violet and blueberry aromas, with a little note of undergrowth. A powerful Pinot of wonderful flavour: tight, firm and full in the mouth with density and gravitas.

Price: £45.83 (2008) Noel Young

Drink 2014-2027

Alc 13.5%

Pooley, Butcher’s Hill Pinot Noir, Coal Valley 2012

18.5/20pts (95/100pts)

Spicy, ripe, dark cherry fruit aromas and attractive supporting oak. A stylish wine that is full and flavoursome, elegant and balanced, with good structure and texture. Rich, satisfying finish.

Price: N/A UK pooleywines.com.au

Drink 2014-2024

Alc 13.5%

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Watch our exclusive interview with Dr Andrew Pirie talking about the developing wine scene in Tasmania and how the region has changed for winemakers in the region over the last few years.

Tasmania is suffering its fifth day of bush fires, which broke out on Thursday in the midst of a heat wave. One vineyard has lost three quarters of its plantings.

The Tasmania Fire Service downgraded two major fires, with calmer conditions bringing a much-needed reprieve for crews. However, worsening fire weather is expected later in the week.

Fires have isolated communities, hampering efforts to search effected areas. No deaths have been reported, though more than 100 buildings have been destroyed.

Sheralee Davies, CEO of Wine Tasmania, told Decanter.com ‘the severe bushfires have been a terrible start to the new year and the danger is not yet over, with fires still burning and concern about missing people.’

Davies is aware of two vineyards being affected: Yaxley Vineyard, which has lost three-quarters of its plantings, and Sugarloaf Ridge which has had some vines burnt.

Both have also suffered other damage to buildings, equipment, and water tanks. Yaxley was able to save a shed housing $AUS60,000 worth of wine.

‘It is fortunate that it is still early in the season, as fruit is only pea-size and best advice indicates smoke taint risk is highest at veraison. We are following up further advice and information to provide to growers in the coming days.’

Jeremy Dineen, winemaker at Josef Chromy Winery, said there had been no direct impact on his vines but said wineries in the Derwent Valley had made some enquiries about the possibility of acquiring fruit as ‘people are nervous about smoke-tainted grapes’.

Andrew Hanigan at Derwent Estate Wines, however, told Decanter.com that at the southern end of the valley there was little danger of grapes being affected by smoke.

‘I of course as a matter of QA will be sampling and checking my grapes for taint but do not believe it will be an issue at all as we are quite a long way away from the fire zone. The fire was further up the Derwent Valley and we are a long way south.’

Dineen expects that worst affected will be Bream Creek next to the damaged town of Dunalley, Cape Bernier, Meadowbank in the Derwent Valley, along with the aforementioned Yaxley.

Winemaker Andrew Pirie, formerly of Pipers Brook and Tamar Ridge, said the north of Tasmania had not been affected.

‘The pictured rainfall averages illustrate why the south is more prone to dry summer. The fire-affected areas tend this year to be in zones with less than 800mm average rain in the south and east of the state,’ he said.

On the mainland, Australian premier Julia Gillard has urged people to take all safety precautions as Southeast Australia continues to battle what firefighters are describing as the worst-ever bushfires, with more than 100 fires raging across the region, of which 20 are deemed to be out of control, according to reports.

Written by David Furer, and Adam Lechmere

Summer was the second wettest on record for Australia as a whole. It would be a relief to report a faint light winking in the darkness. Maybe I can – from way down south...

Exuberance and optimism count as virtues in Australia, and the country’s thriving economy means that good-luck stories continue to outnumber the hard-luck versions. This is particularly true if your career has anything to do with digging large holes in desolate places, dragging out tonnes of iron ore, bauxite, manganese, zinc and uranium, and dumping them into slow boats to China.

Those serving wine at the party, by contrast, have looked unusually hang-dog over the last few years – and the spectacularly wet, cool, disease-ridden 2011 harvest piled on the misery. Summer was the second wettest on record for Australia as a whole. Not only did the lachrymose skies fail to ripen fruit, but the disease problems slashed production in many of the country’s greatest vineyards (while keeping bulk production depressingly high). It would be a relief to report a faint light winking in the darkness. Maybe I can – from way down south.

Victoria had its wettest summer ever, Western Australia its second wettest (though the major wine regions got off lightly) and South Australia its third wettest. In Tasmania, by contrast, it was only the seventeenth wettest. Phew!

The acquisitions trail has mostly run cold over the last year or two, but not in Tasmania. Last August, Brown Brothers bought Tamar Ridge Estates from the controversial forestry company Gunns, while at the beginning of this month Martin Shaw and Michael Hill-Smith MW splashed out ‘an undisclosed sum’ for the mature Tolpuddle Vineyard. (One of the Tolpuddle owners was Green Point pioneer Tony Jordan, who has recently been combing China itself for propitious sparkling vineyard sites on behalf of LVMH – building and planting starts soon at Ningxia.)

Brown Bros is rumoured to have got a very good price from Gunns (around half the original investment), and the purchase averted a grape surplus in Tasmania; the company has, moreover, subsequently put the Rosevears estate and its large restaurant back on the market, with the ever-entrepreneurial Josef Chromy said to be interested.

Tolpuddle was different. It’s a fine Coal Valley site producing top-quality sparkling-wine fruit – but to turn it to best account in the current market meant making and marketing a Tolpuddle wine, something that the owning consortium didn’t want to do. Shaw and Hill-Smith had been cannily prowling the island (“I thought something was up,” Claudio Radenti of Freycinet told me, “when they visited us a while back and asked probing viticultural questions”), and made a well-timed offer. Both sales are excellent news for Tasmania.

Much else is happening, too. In the East of the island, there are three promising new ventures, including one from David Llewellyn, the State’s former Deputy Premier, working with Brian Franklin of Apsley Gorge. Down in the south, professional gambler David Walsh’s ‘sex and death’ art collection housed at Morilla (which he also owns) has been a huge success, with most visitors needing a stiff glass of Gewurztraminer after viewing the exhibits. One of my favourite Tasmanian Estates, that of Stefano Lubiana, has just planted more Pinot – as well as Nebbiolo, the aim being to make a Valtellina-like sparkler.

I recently caught up with the 2009 vintage of the Chardonnay which Claudio Radenti at Freycinet makes for the Wine Society in the UK (“the Society’s Exhibition Tasmanian Chardonnay”, priced at £13.95 a bottle) and I found it hard in truth to imagine a better demonstration of what the island can offer: clean, refreshing, pungent and mouthwatering, yet creamy, close-textured and stylishly balanced, too. A perfect blind-tasting poser for your friends.

In 2010, Tasmania produced just 1 per cent of Australia’s wine; indeed the ‘big island’ dropped or left unpicked about nine times as many grapes as Tasmania harvested in 2009. You don’t need one of David Walsh’s gambling algorithms to work out in which direction those percentages will drift in the future.

Written by Andrew Jefford

Australian cool climate wine producer Shaw + Smith has moved south to buy one of Tasmania's most prized estates: the Tolpuddle Vineyard in the Coal River Valley.

From the 2012 vintage, the Adelaide Hills producer is set to make single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the 20-hectare vineyard – wines the company hopes will be ‘among the very best, most expressive vineyard designated wines in Tasmania and Australia’.

The vineyard takes its name from the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who were transported to the island for forming an agricultural union. Leader George Loveless lived and worked on the estate.

‘We did a road trip from the north of Tasmania to the south, and quite simply this vineyard was the most impressive we saw,’ said Michael Hill Smith MW, who runs Shaw + Smith with cousin Martin Shaw.

Exclusively planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the Tolpuddle Vineyard was established in 1988 by the Casimaty family, Tony Jordan and viticulturist Gary Crittenden.

Written by Richard Woodard

Tasmania lies 150 miles off the south-east coast of Australia, but in terms of winemaking, it’s always been light years away from the mainland’s booming industry. That could all be about to change, as STEPHEN BROOK speaks to Dr Richard Smart .

Dr Richard Smart stands on a windswept hillside, digging into the black clay soil. He plunges a fledgling vine into the hole. One down, around 750,000 to go. The man in question is renowned viticulturalist Dr Richard Smart, and he is planting a new vineyard in Tasmania with the latest clones of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. For Tasmania, this is an extraordinary development. This remote island boasts some 180 labels, but grows only 1,000 hectares of vines. This new, 150-hectare vineyard, White Hills, and others being planted by the Tamar Ridge winery, will dramatically increase the area under vine.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/brown-bros-buys-tamar-ridge-estates-51939/

‘The goal,’ says Dr Richard Smart, ‘is to produce the best Sauvignon and Pinot in Australia, and I believe we can do it. What’s more, we can do it without very low yields.’

This is a typically robust statement from the man who has been responsible for vineyard development at Tamar Ridge since 2003. Smart explains that the White Hills vineyard is on the same latitude as Marlborough in New Zealand, and that both islands enjoy similar ocean currents and climatic conditions.

‘New Zealand is our model,’ Dr Richard Smart explains. ‘Its wine industry is extremely successful, and there’s no reason why we can’t do as well. But the industry here is too fragmented. We need large vineyards and well-equipped wineries.’

Indeed, at a tasting organised near Hobart the previous day, growers arrived clutching bottles. Their wines were of high quality, but they are being made in tiny quantities on estates that are often no more than a single hectare in size.

Present at this tasting was Andrew Hood. It was he who had made most of the wines I was tasting, and most of the rest had been vinified by Julian Alcorso, the island’s other leading contract winemaker. It would be false to suggest that Hood or Alcorso are producing a series of identical wines, but inevitably there are similarities of style from each oenologist. Their experience at least ensures that the overall quality of the wines for which they are responsible is high. Having visited some Tasmanian wineries five years ago that, being polite, I would call rustic, their influence on quality is surely benign.

Tasmania’s best wines fall into four categories: sparkling wine, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Certain regions, such as Coal River Valley, can produce, in most vintages, passable and sometimes excellent Cabernet Sauvignon, but that is likely to remain the exception rather than the rule. Peter Althaus’s Domaine A remains the leading producer of Bordeaux-style wines – not just his costly Cabernet, but a barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc that is surely the best on Tasmania. Dalrymple in the Tamar Valley region also releases dependably racy Sauvignon Blanc.

Tasmania’s wine regions are dispersed, with a handful, such as the Derwent, Coal River and Huon valleys, close to Hobart; the Tamar Valley north of Launceston in the north of the island; and a handful of good wineries, such as Freycinet and Spring Vale, on the east coast. Microclimates tend to be localised and influenced by proximity to the ocean, so it is difficult to generalise about which area is best for which variety. Pinot Noir and Riesling seem to flourish almost everywhere. Most of the best sparkling wines hail from the Tamar Valley.

Despite the suitability of the distinctly cool Tasmanian climate for Pinot Noir, most producers acknowledge there is still a long way to go. There are too many variables – site, density, clonal selection – yet to be fully explored. If Tasmanian Pinot Noir is among Australia’s finest, there may well be some spectacular wines emerging ten years from now, when all those variables are better understood.

The island’s best bet at present is sparkling wine. Bay of Fires produces a rich, if slightly earthy, Chardonnay-dominated blend called Arras. Clover Hills’ vintage wines, aged three years on the lees, are yeasty, lemony and bracing. Other than the excellent but pricy vintages from Pirie and Kreglinger, Tasmania’s best fizzes are from Jansz, which is owned by Yalumba. The vintage releases have a citric tanginess similar to the Clover Hill cuvées, while the 1996 Late Disgorged is more toasty.

If the dramatic expansion of Tamar Ridge winery is the most newsworthy of Tasmania’s vineyard developments, it is not the only one. Pipers Brook, the vineyard and winery founded by Dr Andrew Pirie, was bought a few years ago by the Belgian Kreglinger company. Pirie left the company in fairly acrimonious circumstances, but his assistant, René Bezemer, stays on, ensuring a degree of continuity, and quality remains high.

Pirie, meanwhile, is not sitting idly by. He has leased the Rosevears winery in Tamar Valley, making both the wines for that label and his own range, shortly to be released under the Pirie label. At Pipers Brook, he had developed the Ninth Island range of simple but finely crafted wines issued at a lower price.

https://www.decanter.com/interviews/video-interview-dr-andrew-pirie-pirie-wines-tasmania-18599/

He is continuing this approach with his Pirie South label, which shows how tasty an unoaked Pinot Noir can be. Meanwhile, more complex wines will be released under the Pirie label, and barrel samples of the 2004 vintage show promise.

And there’s another promising development, this time in the Coal Valley, where Californian Tony Scherer has set up Frogmore Creek, an organic property that is also flirting with biodynamism. The ubiquitous Andrew Hood is the winemaker, and the 2002 Pinot Noir Reserve is easily in the top tier of Tasmanian Pinots. An even larger vineyard in Coal Valley, the 45-hectare Roslyn estate, is being developed with advice from Peter Althaus.

This all adds up to a sea change within the island. While tiny boutique wineries continue to proliferate, there is more commercial realism in the gradual development of larger, economically viable vineyards and wineries. Dr Richard Smart is probably right: if Tasmanian wines are to be more than curiosities, they need to be produced on a large scale, without losing their typicity. In five years, we could be hearing a lot more of, and drinking a lot more, wines from Tasmania.

WINERIES TO WATCH

Craigow, Coal River

Some of Tasmania’s top Rieslings come from this waterside estate.

Domaine A, Coal River

Peter Althaus focuses on Bordeaux varieties. Some Cabernets don’t escape herbaceousness, but vintages such as 1998 and 2000 are highly successful.

Frogmore Creek, Coal River

It’s early days for this expanding estate, but first releases of Pinot Noir have been both succulent and flamboyant.

Jansz, Pipers River

A sparkling-wine specialist, offering dependable non-vintage, plus more exciting cuvées.

Moorilla, Derwent Valley

A Tasmanian classic, Moorilla is still among Australia’s best Pinot producers, and the Riesling is rich but not flabby.

Pipers Brook, Pipers River

Fine Chardonnay and botrytised Riesling. But Pinot Noir, produced

in up to four bottlings, is the star.

Providence, Pipers River

Providence’s Pinot Noir is right up there with the island’s finest.

Stefano Lubiana, Derwent Valley

Renowned for its sparkling wine, but

its still wines are even better: oaky, cherryish Merlot, weighty, concentrated Pinot Noir, and firm, dry Rieslings.

Tamar Ridge, Tamar Valley

Sound and dependable rather than exciting wines but, if Richard Smart

is right, quality is about to soar.