No paltry affair

As a young bloke growing up on the edge of Western Australia's Margaret River wine region, all Andrew Gaman wanted to do was to contribute to running his family's 11ha vineyard and winery. The idea of making cool climate wines in northern Tasmania never entered his head. 

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this State's embryonic wine industry accounted for less than one-third of one percent of the nation's total wine grape harvest.

But times change and so do personal circumstances. Nowadays resident in the Cradle Coast - along with wife Caroline and four young children - Gaman is the latest highly experienced industry professional to become totally enamoured with the wine potential of North West Tasmania.

"I'm a really strong believer in the future of this district," Gaman says.

"It's the smallest, most under-rated of all of Tasmania's subregions. It's almost been forgotten until recent times. I'm really determined to showcase how good this little place can be."

It's been six years since Gaman hitched his wagon to the Eastford Creek vineyard developments of Rob and Sue Nichols. Located at Sassafras - 20km southeast of Devonport - the couple are barely a grape toss from the production base of Nichols Poultry.

Rob Nichols was CEO and mastermind of the iconic Tasmanian agribusiness until 2016.

The former English immigrant began poultry production there back in 1988. By the time he sold Nichols Poultry to TasFoods nine years ago, the thriving family company was producing more than 60,000 chickens and turkeys a week.

Nichols' three decades of company leadership revealed a remarkable capacity for forward-thinking and innovation. In 2008, for example, he installed a Danish-built, 225 kW wind turbine on the production site. The first to be privately owned in mainland Tasmania, the state-of-the-art renewable energy technology trimmed around 50 percent from his company's annual operating costs. 

Today, the statuesque 33m structure remains a significant landmark in the district.

With the sale of his poultry business completed, Nichols began looking for new ways of adding value to Sassafras's rich undulating soils. The couple already had sufficient landholding in the district to begin conventional farming, based around four-year rotations of five crops.

"We began growing potatoes, wheat, poppies, peas and an annual cash crop of broccoli and cauliflower," Nichols explains.

"But we'd always had this one corner of land that was completely unfarmable. It's so stony. It's also quite steep in parts and always provided us with some real concerns in terms of drainage and irrigation."

Refreshed and energised by the success of his poultry exploits, Nichols pondered alternative uses for this troublesome plot of rocky ground. He was no wine expert, he says, but he was a keen admirer of the wines of nearby producers Ghost Rock and Barringwood Park.

Time spent researching his site's suitability for cool climate viticulture soon convinced Nichols it was worth investing in a small vineyard project. In 2018, 4ha of vines were planted. 

By early 2020, another 4ha were completed. Total plantings now stand at 12ha.

Nichols hasn't just been sitting around admiring the views. His very significant vineyard developments have been accompanied by a collection of equally impressive site developments. 

First came the successful relocation and re-purposing of existing farm buildings. They included a shepherd's hut and granary and pumpkin sheds believed to be 130 years old. Next came construction of a $350,000 vineyard cellar door. 

A large and sensitively refurbished barn located nearby was also brought back into service as a function room and wedding venue.

The usual suspects Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris make up the bulk of Eastford Creek's vineyard plantings. There's also a smattering of Gewürztraminer, Gamay and Pinot Meunier.

"The vines did spectacularly well, right from the outset," Nichols recalls.

"So much so that we were able to pick a small crop from them only 18 months after planting."

Nichols had been little more than halfway through the first stage of his vineyard project when Andrew Gaman came knocking on his front door. The former Western Australian winemaker had moved to North West Tasmania and was keen to develop his own contract winemaking business in the district. 

Today, Eastford Creek provides a home base for the former Young Australian Winemaker of the Year finalist.

Gaman says the property's small, well-equipped winery continues to be a work in progress, but he's very happy to have made his career move to Sassafras.

Contract viticulture and winemaking – together with key vineyard and wines roles at Eastford Creek – provide a very busy work schedule, especially as harvest draws near.

The State's challenging 2021 vintage was Gaman's second on the site and soon offered his new business its first reality check. In retrospect, it proved to be one of the busiest and most satisfying of Gaman's career.

"I've done 3,000-tonne vintages that were less demanding than that one," he admits.

"We only did around 26 or 27 tonnes in total. But we were really pleased with the quality of the fruit and the wines that were made. Equally important, it really helped to establish our winemaking presence here. We now have close to 10 client vineyards on our books. They're a mix of new and established vineyards in the district."

At this stage, Gaman says it looks like the winery will process close to 200-tonnes by the time the current vintage comes to an end.

The 2024-2025 seasons stand in stark contrast with those experienced en route to vintage 2024.

"We had a very wet winter and spring and then our rainfall fell away quite dramatically after December," Gaman says.

"Daytime temperatures really warmed up as well, with average November, December and January temperatures being between 0.5°C and 1.0°C above the long-term average. February was almost 1.5°C above average. Night-time temperatures really plummeted from around late December or early January. 

"It's way too early to make calls about the likely quality of this year's wines. But it's those cold night-time temperatures that make Tassie sparkling so fantastic, especially in the North West. They have a really positive effect in preserving the level of natural acidity you need to make those wines.

"The move into autumn this year also seemed to happen fairly early on. So we've seen a noticeable slow down in the rate of ripening in recent weeks. My data on this site shows that we've consistently been a week behind what our picking dates were last year."

Standby for 2025 wines with great colour, aroma and flavour.

Last page update: 26 May 2026