Rocking Cradle Coast
Vineyards are renowned for transforming people's lives. One minute they're just sticks and ploughed earth, and the next thing you know they're a maze of shoots and leaves, with grapes galore. And that's the fun part, say Ghost Rock owners Alicia Peardon and Justin Arnold.
Then comes harvest and the hard slog of making and selling the wines.
It's a good thing the couple already knew a fair bit about marketing and business management when they took over the reins of Colin and Cate Arnold's 3ha vineyard on the Cradle Coast in North West Tasmania earlier this year.
The family's 15-year Ghost Rock project had had an inauspicious start, to say the least. It began in 2001, when Colin and Cate purchased a small hobby vineyard called Patrick Creek at Springfield Park, outside Port Sorell. Not only did the Devonport printing business operators change the name of their acquisition, within a few years they abandoned the challenging site altogether.
They moved two kilometres west - towards Northdown - and started again. This time, they set about establishing a 2ha vineyard on a green field site on Port Sorell Road.
Ghost Rock 2.0, if you like, put the embryonic wine business on the main thoroughfare connecting the seaside towns of Shearwater and Port Sorell with nearby Devonport. Construction and opening of an attractive cellar door tasting room on the family's Clairdown Vineyard in April 2006 then pitched the Arnold family into a whole new world of wine tourism.
"When I finished school, Ghost Rock was pretty much a hobby for Mum and Dad," Justin Arnold recalls.
"There was really nothing for me to do in the business. I was heavily involved in sport and fitness at the time. Eventually, I moved into sports marketing and management. With a Masters degree in marketing under my belt, I began work in Melbourne with a big multi-national marketing and advertising company. But as Mum and Dad expanded their vineyard and grew their wine tourism business, my interest in wine science grew with it."
In the Noughties, the one-time Tassie Mariner and AFL footballer chose to enter a new field of play - winemaking. Arnold completed his Masters degree in Wine Technology and Viticulture at the University of Melbourne. He followed that with a year's winemaking in Western Australia's Margaret River.
Three additional years at the Yarra Valley's iconic Coldstream Hills - and a short stint in the US wine region of Los Carneros - gave Arnold the confidence and skills he needed for a bold new wine project of his own.
"My first vintage in Tassie was 2010," he recalls.
"I've done every vintage since."
In early 2015, the prodigal son and his life partner made Tasmania their permanent home. They had good reason. During the preceding year, Ghost Rock's founders had set about developing a business succession plan to enable the talented 35-year-old winemaker to establish and operate North West Tasmania's first commercial winery.
The subsequent multi-million dollar development has been augmented by the creation of a food and wine interpretation centre called Hundred Acres, with Alicia Peardon at the helm. The centre opened in June 2015.
Its stylish, contemporary design is the brainchild of Launceston-based Samuel Haberle and his multi-disciplinary studio, S. Group.
Peardon says the centre is a natural extension of the family's existing vineyard and winemaking operations. The opportunity to create a new focus on food will be a way of value-adding to the business, while also providing memorable wine tourism experiences for visitors coming to the North West Coast.
"Essentially, we'll be presenting a soil-to-bottle and paddock-to-plate program, with the interpretation centre offering workshops hosted by our executive chef, or by guest chefs specially engaged to conduct workshops here of a practical, hands-on nature," she explains.
The former CEO of Jamie Oliver's Australian-based Ministry of Food is not the least bit fazed by her new role in the family business. Peardon grew up on a farm in Western Victoria. Hard work has been a way-of-life far as long as she can remember. Indeed, the fiercely independent youngster learned to ride a horse before she could walk on her own.
"Hundred Acres will keep us pretty busy through regular use as a venue for workshops, corporate events and weddings," Peardon adds.
"We'll source much of our produce from local suppliers and producers. In fact, we plan to take visitors out to meet some of them. They'll find out what they do and hopefully even pick some produce themselves. Visiting farms and vineyards can help people re-connect with the land.
"We think that's important."