Gate keepers

It's been 10 years since award-winning winemaker Don Buchanan sadly succumbed to cancer at his Gold Coast home. Decades earlier, the Roseworthy College graduate became the talk of the town when he and his wife Judy and their two young children moved from the Barossa Valley to begin Buchanan Wines in the Tamar Valley.

The first vines were planted in 1985.

Buchanan wasn't just a winemaker. His family's farming background – and his years of study at Dookie Agricultural College prior to making wine – gave him a great understanding of what a good bit of vineyard dirt should look like.

Swinging Gate's Doug and Corrie Cox are living proof that Buchanan knew he was onto a good thing when he purchased land in the West Tamar. The couple have spent recent months celebrating the property's 40th birthday. 

There wasn't much to celebrate when the Coxes purchased the old Buchanan Vineyard back in 2014. Its founders had stayed almost a decade before accepting an offer too good to refuse and moving on to the Hunter Valley.

Two rapid changes in ownership in the late 1990s were followed by a long period of stability, when the vineyard operated as a small cog in the wheel of a much larger Tasmanian wine company.

"It became something of a hidden vineyard – almost out of sight – growing fruit that helped make some of the State's best-known wines," Doug Cox recalls.

"It had no label of its own. No cellar door. The fruit was sold to anyone that wanted it."

That accepted, Cox also knew the site between Loira and Sidmouth had great bones. The Buchanans had even managed it for a while under a biodynamic regime.

The 9.3ha vineyard comprised various selections of Chardonnay, Frontignac, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. By 2014, all were in need of significant re-development and rejuvenation. Cox's many years of experience in horticulture and the nursery industry made him ideally suited to plan and carry out what was required.

The couple devoted their first year of ownership to developing new vine architecture that would carry the vineyard forward into its next 30 or 40 years. Building soil health and biodiversity also became key priorities in order to promote strong vines that were capable of producing good yields of expressive fruit.

Introduction of new clonal selections was undertaken on the advice of world-renowned viticulturist and researcher, Dr Richard Smart.

Pinot Gris was added via an intensive grafting program carried out on a block of Sauvignon Blanc. 

Vintage 2015 rewarded the Coxes with a modest volume of high quality fruit. Vineyard yields virtually doubled in the following year.

Despite not having made wine commercially, Cox believed the embryonic family business would be best served by doing things differently from every other vineyard in the valley – and that included having winemaking take place on site and under his immediate care.

"We bought some equipment and made our first wines in 2015," he says.

"I found myself on a pretty steep learning curve that vintage. My years spent growing vineyard planting material at Woodlea Nursery meant that I already knew a lot of people in the industry. Many of them were very helpful in getting me started on my winemaking journey.

"I certainly asked a lot of questions and spent a lot of time reading and researching on the internet."

With on-trend wines like 'Pet Nat,' 'Skinny Gris' and 'Skinny Sauv' now being hand-crafted in his pocket-sized winery, Cox is almost certainly ahead of the curve.

His Amarone Style is one-of-kind within the Tasmanian context. The same can be said for the vineyard's Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc and dry, Alsace-inspired Frontignac.

The couple marked their first year of ownership by deciding to establish a cellar door in 2016. The virtual re-birth of the vineyard provided the impetus to start trading with new energy, including a new name for the business.

"Because the vineyard had had its gates shut to visitors for such a long time, we decided to call it Swinging Gate, our way of signalling that we were swinging the gates back open again," Cox explains.

A former machinery shed was given a new lease of life and became Swinging Gate's cellar door tasting room. Re-claimed chairs and tables – many of them brought together in rustic mix'n'match, shabby chic fashion – were spruced up and brought into service.

Today, the busy cellar door is open all-year round. Close to 80 percent of all wine produced at Swinging Gate is sold through cellar door patronage.

"There's nothing pretentious about what we have to offer here," explains the bloke who now probably spends more time with his visitors than with his assortment of winery paraphernalia. 

In early 2021, the Coxes added a little luxury to their tourism offering by entering into a collaboration with Domescapes Tasmania. The company specialises in boutique glamping accommodation.

Today, Swinging Gate plays host to three stylish geodesic domes that provide guests the ultimate in comfort and style. Guests enjoy not only the peace and tranquility of the unique vineyard setting, they are treated to the best of local fare and estate-grown wines.

The accommodation can be enjoyed year-round. The futuristic structures are equipped with well-insulated walls that complement heating and ventilation systems engineered to meet the demands of Tasmania's cool maritime climate.

Early 2021 also marked a milestone event in the life of the family company when the Coxes' daughter Hannah and her partner Ben Pearson made 200 cases of wine to establish their own Peco Wines business.

Subsequent vintages have seen the Peco portfolio expand from its Swinging Gate home base to include fruit sourced from the couple's own vineyard located nearby. In typical Cox fashion, the Peco Wines portfolio has grown rapidly during its brief history.

Eight wine products are currently available, albeit in tiny, hand-crafted production volumes.

They include an unusual iteration of 'Pet Nat' vintage sparkling Rosé that the couple call The Modern Monk. It's a wild-fermented blend of Sauvignon Blanc (93 percent) and Pinot Noir (7 percent).

Lovers of Pinot Gris with weight and texture are likely to be drawn to The Clay Pot. It's another wild-fermented product, given 28 days' skin contact. Extended maturation then takes place in an egg-shaped earthenware pot, modelled on a traditional Kvevri/Qvevri. The large, fragile vessels have been used by winemakers in the tiny country of Georgia for thousands of years.

Peco Wines worked with Hobart-based potter Isaac Patmore (Small Fires Studio) to design and manufacture their own bespoke version.

Don Buchanan welcomed innovation in winemaking. He would have been fascinated to see what has evolved from his family's 40-year-old Tasmanian wine project.

Last page update: December 2025