Craigie Knowe-how

Spend a few days on Tasmania's East Coast and you could be excused for thinking wine grapes have only a tenuous foothold on its dramatic landscapes. Apart from the Bull family's award-winning Freycinet Vineyard, the Gunns-owned Coombend Estate, and Spring Vale outside Swansea, most of the 17 vineyards scattered there have little public persona.

Numerous tourists return home oblivious of successful operators like Apsley Gorge Vineyard, Bishop's Rock and Kelvedon Estate. Many pass by Cranbrook's Craigie Knowe, unaware it's the region's oldest commercial vineyard, and the source of some of Tasmania's best Cabernet Sauvignon.

But that doesn't seem to worry owner John Austwick. He's not one for blowing his own trumpet. Besides, welcoming relatively small numbers of visitors allows him to maximise opportunities for doing what he loves doing best - growing grapes and making wine.

"This is tough, hard country," he says of the stony, 'terra rosa' soils that lie beneath his 5ha vineyard.

The site was first planted in 1979. He says he chose it initially because this part of the East Coast is the sunniest part of Tasmania. He also knew that German immigrants had successfully grown wine grapes near Swansea back in the 1840s.

"It's a great location for grape-growing," he adds. 

"You've got to make vines suffer a little to make good wine. Good wine starts in the vineyard."

Rigorous hand-pruning and maintaining low vineyard crop levels around 2.5t/ha is Austwick's contribution to his partnership with nature and the elements.

The former Hobart dentist recently retired from his practice and now lives and works full-time on his Cranbrook property. He doesn't profess to have qualifications in winemaking or viticulture, he says. It hardly matters when you adopt such straightforward, down-to-earth practices.

"Red wine isn't terribly hard to make," he muses.

"I just base my philosophy - and a lot of what I do - on what the French have been doing for hundreds of years. You've got to take notice of them, you know. They still make the best wines in the world."

John's penchant for reds - and almost all wines Gallic - is reflected in his vine selections. The Bordeaux varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot take up most of his landholding. The remainder is given over to small parcels of Pinot Noir and Riesling.

"When I first started here, everyone used to say to me, `You're mad, John, grapes will never grow on the East Coast.'

"I was seen as a bit of an eccentric. But not any more," he adds, with a wry smile.

A lot of top-quality wine has come and gone since Craigie Knowe's first crop yielded just 11 bottles back in 1983. 

Few vintages will have looked as promising so early on in their winemaking phase as the barrels of red now quietly maturing in the property's rustic, slab-hut winery. This 2005 cabernet blend - which will amount to almost 500 cases in a year's time - already looks stunning.

Good or not, its maker isn't about to predict its ultimate quality. He'd rather defer to time and nature. It's that down-to-earth approach again. That's the essence of Austwick's Craigie know-how. 

Besides, he says, it takes about three lifetimes to become a successful vigneron. He's not wasting a minute pondering the imponderable.

"I reckon the best wine I've ever had is the one I've got in the glass at the moment."

First published 27 July 2005: The Examiner