Community trauma sorted

The air is filled with rich aromas of dark chocolate and ripe berries – raspberries, cherries, blackberry and kirsch. They hang in the atmosphere and mingle with the spicy fragrance of sawn timber and dusty oak. Nothing can match the distinctive smells of a busy winery as vintage gets underway, says winemaker Max Marriott (pictured). 

Their effects can be quite intoxicating, and that's before so much as a single drop of Pinot Noir has been fermented and turned into wine.

There's no escaping the adrenalin rush that arrives with each new vintage, even for seasoned campaigners like Marriott. It's the business end of the wine-growing year, the moment of truth for all those involved in the growing and making of cool climate wine.

"I'd worked around 15 vintages but 2020 was like no other I'd seen or experienced before," admits the man from Anim Wine.

"The threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and then the aftermath of Tasmania's border closures on March 30th were quite surreal. We had many friends and colleagues in and around Hobart who were immediately impacted, forced to shut their doors, their businesses and livelihoods in jeopardy."

Conscious of the emotional and mental toll all this was having at the time, Marriott says he and his wife Siobhan began scratching their heads, looking for ways to inject some positivity and normality into a situation that was anything but normal.

"We were trying to think of ways we could bring the community together, especially given lockdown had coincided with harvest," he continues.

Looking back this week at what transpired all those months ago, Marriott is both amazed and delighted he was able to pull off what has since become known as Hobart 27.

It's a truly unique vintage of single vineyard Pinot Noir, inspired by one of the most powerful women in the world of wine, a Burgundy grower-winemaker by the name of Lalou Bize-Leroy.

Marriott says his French wine hero uses a quite distinctive and peculiarly arduous method of processing Pinot Noir for her illustrious Domaine Leroy Richebourg label.

"She has an immense team of sorters who proceed to snip individual berries off each cluster of Pinot Noir fruit, leaving intact just a small portion of the pedicel (or stalk) that connected it to the bunch," Marriott explains.

"She likes the resulting tannin expression in the finished wine. Her Richebourg sells for thousands of dollars a bottle."

One hundred bottles of Anim Hobart 27 were released for sale on July 1. 

This is one wild-fermented wine that puts a new spin on the word 'wild.'

Sourced from Clarence House Estate, located between Rokeby and Cambridge, it was created in similar, painstaking fashion to that used by Madame Bize-Leroy, Marriott says. 

Literally handcrafted, this rare 2020 vintage of Hobart 27 Pinot Noir sells for $270. Per bottle.

"We were planning to make just 225 litres of the wine – enough to fill a single barrique – but once a few people heard of the venture, we found there was enough interest and labour available to fill a 300-litre hogshead," Marriott says.

"We actually had to go back to the vineyard and handpick a small amount of additional Pinot for the wine. It takes its name from the 27 different people in and around Hobart that were involved in its creation."

Marriott is lavish in his praise for the commitment and patience shown by those that devoted untold hours of intricate sorting and snipping of bunches and berries for Hobart 27. Gladly, he's also very proud of the quality of the resulting wine, too, describing it as a truly precious thing with gorgeous texture and finely woven tannin structure.

The talented winemaker and 2021 nominee for the national award of Young Gun of Wine makes no attempt to hide the wonder and amusement that accompanied his project from far out of left-field.

"There's a fine line between genius and madness and I'm not sure where I stand on that count," Marriott muses.

"The idea of dropping off to various addresses around Hobart one, two or three buckets of Pinot Noir so that those interested could snip away at them each evening in their slippers and pyjamas certainly seems a bit bizarre. The fact that we'd come back later with a ute and flat-bed trailer to collect each bucket of snipped berries – at night, in the middle of vintage – just added to craziness of the whole thing.

"But we did it. It was an amazing achievement. I don't think many participants quite knew what they were in for when they volunteered to take part.

"To show what was planned, I sent out a time-lapse video to those taking part, demonstrating how the work was to be done.

"Of course, my snipping on the video only took a few seconds. In reality, the processing of a whole bucket of Pinot Noir bunches probably took each person many hours. I'm sure a lot of them were well and truly over it by the time they finished."

Gladly, their efforts have been duly rewarded.

Marriott says one third of the wine he bottled earlier this year has been reserved for Hobart 27 participants. Each person is due to receive their three bottles in a special, presentation gift pack in coming weeks. Another third will be offered for sale to venues of those involved in the undertaking, while the third and final component comprises this week's hundred-bottle release.

"Around 30 additional bottles have been set aside for future fundraisers and charity auctions," Marriott notes.

The wine is destined to have many more admirers than purchasers, with its simple but attractive front label carrying a watermark of the extremely rare Tasmanian yellow waratah. A cleverly integrated bit of graphic design illustrates the street addresses of the project's 27 participants, along with the city of Hobart that provided its centre point.

It's a special bit of packaging for a collaborative, community-based initiative, one that's destined never to be replicated.

"Hobart 27 is very much a time capsule wine, a keepsake from a very special moment for a small bunch of people," Marriott says.

"Meanwhile, our family's Anim Wine remains true to its origins. It's about growing great fruit from each of the three vineyards we lease, manage or oversee. The emphasis is on farming the land organically; on building soil condition and vitality in order to increase plant health.

"We're making wines from the ground up; wines that are the product of fruit we've farmed ourselves and that are truly unique and expressive of their site."

First published 21 July 2021: tasmaniantimes.com

Last page update: 26 May 2026