Award heralds new plans
"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."
That story brings a wry smile to winemakers like Rebecca Duffy.
There's wine in abundance at the Duffy family's Holm Oak Vineyard in the Tamar Valley. But there's more to operating a sustainable cellar door than simply offering winning wines.
Right now, Duffy has her head filled with all manner of plans for finding that elusive X-factor that makes some businesses more successful than others. On 5 April, she was named 2016 Tasmanian Rural Woman of the Year.
With the help of a $10,000 travel bursary, the Rowella winemaker and mother of two will visit selected wineries in Australia, the United States and possibly South Africa during the coming year.
The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation award is the pre-eminent award for women working in primary industries across the State.
The inaugural Rural Woman of the Year in 2015 was Glengarry's Carol Bracken. Five years earlier, she and her husband Nathan established Tamar Valley Hazelnuts on their 60ha property in the Tamar Valley. They later added processing and contract work to the business.
Duffy also understands the importance of added value.
Since she and her viticulturist husband Tim took on Holm Oak in 2006, total wine production has increased from around 1500 cases annually to 12,000 cases annually. That comes as a result of additional plantings (8ha) and leasehold arrangements covering another 6ha of vines.
Warm and generally favourable growing and ripening conditions this past year saw Holm Oak's wine grape production exceed 200 tonnes.
On-site developments include Tasmania's only Arneis, a dry white wine made from the Italian grape variety of the same name, commonly found in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy.
Holm Oak's new winery now has its own bottling line, rather than having the couple rely on contract bottling arrangements to fulfill their needs.
The cosy cellar door created by the Butler family – who established the original 6ha vineyard in 1983 – has been expanded into a larger, brighter and more welcoming tourism destination.
It was sorely needed. Tasmania's tourism and hospitality industry is booming at the moment.
During 2014-15, the State attracted close to 1.15 million visitors. That represents an 8 per cent increase on the previous year and appears to have set a new record for visitor numbers.
Industry and State Government sources say their target is to grow annual visitor numbers to 1.5 million by 2020. That will in turn generate visitor expenditure of around $2.5 billion per annum.
Direct tourism employment is expected to grow to around 20,000.
Duffy says the Tasmanian tourism industry as a whole is characterised by businesses just like Holm Oak – small scale operations, with less than 10 employees.
Workers under 30 years of age represent the largest age group in tourism and hospitality. Most of them are only casually employed, due to the seasonal nature of work in the industry in Tasmania.
Female employees represent more than half the workforce in Tasmanian tourism and hospitality. Indeed, the figure may well be closer to 60 percent.
"Given Tasmania's island location, we have massive opportunities to create some of the best world-class tourism experiences," Duffy says.
"We already know consumers want deeper wine experiences, with better understanding of wine and why wine tastes the way that it does. From a business perspective, selling direct to consumers has many advantages, including better profit margins and greater cash flow.
"This award will enable me to undertake a cellar door study tour to discover some really unique and dynamic cellar door experiences.
"A lot of cellar door experiences around Australia are just run-of-the-mill wine tastings.
"We need to provide something that's really different. Really compelling. Something that will give people a reason to come and visit us.
"Not just unique and interactive experiences at our own cellar door. I'd like to think we'd be able to encourage and inspire other producers across Tasmania to do the same."
Kendall Jackson in California's Sonoma County is already high on Duffy's 'to do' list this year.
The vineyard's Culinary Gardens span seven distinct garden spaces, including herb, pollinator and sensory gardens.
The Duffys have already made an impressive start on a sensory garden of their own in recent years. They're keen to broaden their horizons as well as their plantings.
First published: Tasmanian Farmer, April/May 2016
Last page update: 26 May 2026