As a teenager used to life outdoors on a northern Tasmanian sheep farm, Peter Caldwell might have been expected to run a mile from any part-time job involving routine tasks and attention to detail.
Laying the foundations for a successful wine business takes much more than a good bit of vineyard dirt and a state-of-the-art winery facility. It requires vision, passion and tenacious spirit. These are the human elements that make the wine world go around.
Cessnock, Mudgee, Rutherglen, Clare, Coonawarra and Tanunda. Six centres of renown in Australia's eastern wine states. Hot, dry, grape-growing country. Spot the odd one out?
Wine producers can say what they like about site selection, vineyard management and sustainable winemaking, when it comes to deciding when to harvest their precious crops, nature has the final word.
With 20 Tasmanian vintages behind her, Delamere Vineyard co-owner and co-winemaker Fran Austin thought she'd seen it all – the bumper years and the lean years; the early harvests and the late ones, and even the downright contrary ones like 2004.
Of all the developments that have taken place in the global wine industry over the past 30 years, none has been more apparent than the trend towards easy-drinking, user-friendly wines. Today's consumers need no longer wait years for red wines to provide smooth-as-silk drinking pleasure.
These are nervous times for the State's 200 or so producers of Tasmanian wine. With vineyard harvesting now likely to extend well into April and possibly May on many sites, barely a day passes without growers casting skyward looks or muttering incantations to the weather gods.
Mewstone's Jonny Hughes can count on the fingers of one hand the number of perfect vintages he's seen since he finished his winemaking degree back in 2002. That's the reason he's not about to push the panic button if this year's harvest at his 3.6ha site overlooking the D'Entrecasteaux Channel doesn't get under way until the first week or...
Prominent Hobart barrister and Master Judge of Wine Greg Melick AO says he spent 15 years searching for a suitable vineyard site in southern Tasmania. When he finally purchased his 14ha property at Tea Tree in 2002 it turned out to be a wise move.
Few places on the planet produce world-class Pinot Noir table wines. The fusspot variety with its small dark berries and tightly packed conical bunches is renowned for being choosy about where it puts down roots.
