Riding high in the Huon
It's been 10 years since US author, film maker and inveterate traveller Bernie Harberts left a handwritten note fixed to the wall of Cygnet's Red Velvet Lounge. Paul Lipscombe remembers it well. "'Sailor Seeks Horse,' it said in large letters.
"'I would like to visit Tasmania – by horse or pony!'"
The offbeat plea for help still prompts a smile from the former Brit, now resident with his wife Gilli in Tasmania's Huon Valley.
"Harberts had circumnavigated the world and travelled back and forth across America by mule. He'd ended up just down the road, looking for a four-legged companion to carry him on a six-month journey around the State.
"It seems horses and ponies were in short supply. Bernie had to make do with a decrepit old push bike, purchased for $12 at the Huonville tip shop.
(Laughter.)
"When we finally settled on a name for our vineyard project in the Huon, Gilli and I thought 'Sailor Seeks Horse' felt just right for us. That mix of optimism and madness really resonated with us. You have to be a little bit crazy to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in a place that's right on the edge of possibility. But with great risk comes great reward."
Standing together, shoulder to shoulder – in the middle of winter – Gilli and Paul Lipscombe speak with shared passion and purpose. There's plenty to discuss as they reflect on their decade of cool climate viticulture in Tasmania.
"Life is about doing something you really want to do," Gilli says.
"It's about seizing the moment and just getting on with things."
Rugged up against the elements, the Lipscombes have spent recent months pruning their 8ha vineyard, located just outside Cradoc. With less than a dozen rows of Chardonnay still requiring their annual short back and sides, the couple can see light at the end of the tunnel. Come September 1, everything should be shipshape at Sailor Seeks Horse.
A new season beckons.
"We quit jobs in London in 2005 and bought the property here in 2010," Paul explains.
"It was already an established vineyard of 6.5ha, planted in 2005. The place had been dry farmed and managed on a shoestring budget. By the time we finally took up ownership, half the vines were dead and there were blackberries everywhere, many of them head high.
"The surviving vines were in a pretty sorry state and needed to be nursed back into full health. It was a long, slow process. To make matters worse, we had very little money to speak of."
The couple managed to keep their heads above water by taking jobs elsewhere in the industry. They'd begun their new lives in Tasmania in 2005, working for a large contract winemaker.
Eventually, Paul took on management of a new vineyard at Glaziers Bay while owner/winemaker Jim Chatto maintained his key company and consultant roles in the Hunter Valley and northern Tasmania.
From 2011 until 2019, Gilli displayed her own considerable winemaking talent at Terry and Rosemary Bennett's Home Hill Winery. The Ranelagh-based company won a string of local and national Pinot Noir awards with Lipscombe on the tools. Foremost among them was Home Hill's extraordinary achievement of winning the Jimmy Watson Trophy at the 2015 Melbourne Wine Awards.
In July 2016, Home Hill was a featured winery and guest presenter at the 30th International Pinot Noir Celebration held in Oregon, USA. The annual three-day event brings together a 'who's who' of the Pinot Noir world for its busy schedule of tastings, tours, seminars and gourmet cuisine.
Two years on, the Lipscombes enjoyed success in their own right as The Young Gun of Wine Winemakers Choice winners for 2018. According to awards founder Rory Kent, the annual competition describes the broad landscape of innovative Australian wine.
"It represents a truly diverse collection of the best and latest in Australia," he says.
Sailor Seeks Horse might be riding high in the saddle nowadays, but the quality-driven operation has had to overcome more than its fair share of hurdles. In 2019, the vineyard lost its entire wine grape crop to smoke taint as a result bushfire activity in nearby southern forests.
Prolonged cool, damp weather during the spring and early summer periods of 2019 and 2020 contributed to two back-to-back vintages of very high quality, low-yielding crops from the challenging Cradoc site.
"We just keep moving on," Paul Lipscombe muses.
"Our fingers are crossed for the 2022 vintage. We love it here. This is such a beautiful place. We wouldn't want to work anywhere else."
First published 15 August 2021: The Examiner
Last page update: January 2026