Hot wines from cool south

Tasmania's cool climate wine industry may be small but one of its strengths is that many of its key players have a high degree of public accessibility. Drop by all but the largest vineyard cellar doors and the chances are those hands with the tasting glass grew the grapes and made the wine as well. 

Rumour is there's more to Tassie Chardonnay and Pinot Noir than meets the eye.

The talk is not just one-way traffic. Growers and winemakers like to know what makes wine-buyers tick. 

Ten days ago, Paul and Gilli Lipscombe figured among the small handful of Tasmanian wine producers that played host to ten prominent wine buyers with significant distribution channels in the US. In a week's time, they'll be on home-turf in the Huon Valley, pouring Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for cellar door visitors as they lend support to Wine South's annual Southern Open Vineyards Weekend.

The event takes place from 28 February to 2 March, 2025. 

Participating producers - there are close to 40 of them - are located in the Coal River Valley, the Derwent Valley, the Huon Valley/D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Tasmania's South East. Full details can be found here: openvineyards.wine

Most taking part are sole operators or small-scale, family businesses. Few have the time and resources needed to build and run a financially viable tasting room alongside equally demanding winegrowing, winemaking and wine marketing activities. Low production volumes typically rule them out of conventional cellar door sales operations that might otherwise span an entire year.

The Lipscombes first met in London in 2005. Fed up with regular 9-5 jobs, they took on new careers in wine, becoming modern-day gypsies as they worked their way around the world. Within a decade, the couple went from industry newbies to degree dux (Gilli) and makers of the coveted 2015 Jimmy Watson Trophy winner at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show.

Secure employment at Home Hill between 2011 and 2019 enabled them to put time and money into re-developing a moribund vineyard at Cradoc. The site was left abandoned after establishment in 2005. Nowadays, Sailor Seeks Horse produces some of the State's best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. It's taken 15 years of hard graft.

Viticulture is challenging in these parts. Huonville's annual average rainfall is 750mm, well over Richmond's 500mm in the Coal River Valley, barely 65km away. The former's mean January maximum is 23.6°C; the latter is a whole degree warmer.

"The Huon has a long growing season and is pretty marginal in terms of ripening fruit," Paul explains. 

"We're usually putting our nets on when we see Andrew Hanigan at Derwent Estate taking his off. There is no large company exposure here. It requires small growers of skill and determination to grow good fruit, and there's a fair degree of financial risk in reaching the heights the region can deliver."

The Huon Valley and D'Entrecasteaux Channel thrived when apples there were flavour of the month. But when the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1972, exports collapsed shortly afterwards. Orchards were removed, land sub-divided. Few large plots were left for future commercial investment.

"We won't see the 100ha vineyard developments taking place in other wine regions. That provides us with a real point of difference."

Five Bob's Chris Read clearly recalls the south's darkest days. He grew up there in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, he's optimistic about the future of the Huon/Channel. His recently expanded 5ha vineyard at Birchs Bay stands testament to that.

Five Bob is the name of the working farm that is 'pepper berry central' for Read's Diemen Pepper venture. The property also hosts Art Farm Birchs Bay, a not-for-profit that fosters engagement between community and the arts.

Read's generous support enables Art Farm to host exhibitions and artist residency, art workshops and the beautifully conceived (often quirky) Sculpture Trail. The kid-friendly trail is open all year, taking in a cornucopia of local pleasures – native bush walks; cultivated gardens and orchards; kitchen herb and vegie plots that change with the seasons.

Five Bob wines are made under contract two kilometres away by genial Jonny Hughes at Mewstone Wines. The family-owned and operated facility can be found at the bucolic little hamlet of Flowerpot, overlooking the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

Mewstone's state-of-the-art winery and welcoming vineyard cellar door enjoy panoramic water and valley. A steady stream of wine enthusiasts and visiting professionals make the site an emerging industry hub.

That stream becomes a torrent on Open Weekends, so book or ring ahead of arrival. It would be a pity to miss the carefully cellared magnums of early vintages Mewstone will open for tasting.

Hughes doesn't seek the limelight. It finds him.

In 2018, the NZ-trained winemaker from Tasmania's North West was declared Best New Act in Australia's Annual Young Gun of Wine Awards. Acclaim continued in 2019 with the Halliday Wine Companion naming Mewstone as Australia's Best New Winery. Meanwhile, Gourmet Traveller WINE added the mantle of Young Winemaker of the Year.

You don't earn respect by settling for second best.

The 5.4 ha vineyard at Flowerpot - first planted in 2011 - had a makeover during 2024. Gone are the vines responsible for Mewstone's popular estate-grown Syrah. The wines may have turned heads but they failed to turn the profit the family needed to support meticulous hands-on viticulture.

Several clones of Pinot Noir went too.

"We've added varieties and clones we know through experience are moderately productive," Hughes says.

"Being small-scale is one thing; getting barely 1.0-1.5t/ha of fruit from a significant portion of the vineyard is not sustainable."

Rivulet Wine's Keira O'Brien will have space on Mewstone's deck this year, pouring current releases and preview wines from Glaziers Bay. The talented maker loves the Huon/Channel but is heading to warmer climes on Tasmania's East Coast. She and partner Oliver Freeman are re-invigorating an established 2ha vineyard near Swansea.

Heed the signs, dear reader. Things are heating up in the cool south.

First published 21 February 2025: tasmaniantimes.com

Last page update: 26 May 2026