Wine comes in three basic colours, according to Harry Eyres' amusing Bluff Your Way in Wine. The first, of course, is red, which we're told ranges from purple to light brown. Next comes white, which in fact is usually pale yellow. Then finally comes rosé, 'which is to be avoided at all costs,' Eyres writes.
When Jim Chatto was appointed chief winemaker at Mount Pleasant in the Hunter Valley in 2013, he trudged through kilometre after kilometre of its old vineyards in order to get to know the place. He already knew its history.
When winemaker Steve Lubiana left his home in the Riverland in search of a cool climate vineyard site, he didn't reckon on settling in Tasmania's Derwent Valley, 20 kilometres north of Hobart. He expected he'd end up in Western Australia's Margaret River, or South Australia's Adelaide Hills.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter is one of the world's most loved pieces of children's literature. The adventures of the mischievous young rabbit have always captivated Riversdale Estate's Wendy Roberts. As an impressionable schoolgirl, she marvelled at the artistic talent and Victorian sensibilities of the book's renowned creator.
"Is it difficult making wine?" someone once asked Clare Valley producer Dr John Wilson. "Not at all," came the blunt reply. "Any fool can make wine. The hard part is selling it. It requires a special sort of fool to sell wine."
Fast and furious. That's a ready summary of 2016's harvest season, according to Tasmania's winemaking fraternity. Fast and furious, and unusually compacted in terms of the time required for wine grapes to achieve full maturity and ripeness needed for winemaking.
Few cellar doors in Tasmania offer the quality of visitor experience that's provided when you stop by Home Hill, 35km south of Hobart. The facility not only boasts a well-appointed wine service area - with staff that are knowledgeable and friendly – it's barely a grape toss from the vineyard's award-winning restaurant.
Few times are more stressful in the life of a wine producer than the last couple of weeks before vintage. But there was no need for the owners of Granton's Derwent Estate to worry unduly about processing their 2015 crop. Everything was hunky-dory in the company's new straw-bale winery.
Three gold medals and two trophies, including the Chairman's Selection Trophy for Best Wine of Show. Those were the attention-grabbing results for Dawson & James Wines at the 2015 Tasmanian Wine Show judged in Hobart in January.
As a young bloke growing up on the family farm at Bangor in Tasmania's south-east, Matt Dunbabin learned early on that being a custodian of a property with two centuries of history can present all manner of opportunities and challenges.
