Size no guarantee of performance
Size is no guarantee of performance. The Biblical story of David and Goliath provided proof of that. It's pretty much the same in the wine world. Tasmania's emerging wine industry might well be a small one - with many producers having tiny land holdings - but already there are labels with big reputations.
Few reputations or wines are bigger on the local scene than those of the East Coast's Freycinet Vineyard.
It doesn't seem to matter what performance indicators you use - wine show awards, media reviews, sales figures, or peer approval. Wines from Geoff and Sue Bull's 8 ha site near Bicheno always rate highly.
"I never dreamed we'd be doing so well," said owner Geoff Bull, who held the winemaking reins until daughter Lindy and her partner Claudio Radenti joined the venture in 1992.
Red or white, Pinot or Chardonnay, the wines of Freycinet Vineyard have a consistency about them that's hard to fault. And, like the man responsible for their evolution, what you see is what you get.
That surely has been a key factor in the vineyard's successes during the past five years or so. It isn't hard to understand. Well-made wines that reliably deliver flavour and satisfaction in proportion to their price-tags can be a bit thin on the ground at times.
For many consumers, Freycinet wines offer a safe Tasmanian harbour. Their generosity places them in familiar territory, closer in style to those produced by better known mainland vineyards.
Few would doubt the East Coast basks in the splendour of summer sunshine.
Roughly 100 m above sea level and 20 km from the Tasman Sea, Freycinet Vineyard enjoys a long ripening season. The terrain is basin-like for the most part; essentially a Roman amphitheatre, but on a grand scale.
The property's first 4ha of vines were planted in 1980. They are managed on what is becoming a familiar sight across Tasmania, the modified-lyre vine trellis.
"I became convinced of the benefits of the lyre system after attending an industry workshop led by Heemskerk's Graham Wiltshire," Bull said.
"The system was developed in France by Professor Alain Carbonneau. He was looking to produce better quality fruit while also providing an easier method of pruning than is traditionally being used in the industry there. It works well."
Abundant heat and light and prudent vine management enable Freycinet wines to develop tremendous varietal characteristics. They come with oceans of fruit flavour and a depth of colour and extract totally unexpected from a climate as cool as Tasmania's.
"I love people coming in to say, 'Why is your Chardonnay so different?'" Bull muses.
"My answer is, 'You haven't been paying enough.'"
A rich and concentrated wine, despite being grown in the cooler parts of the vineyard, the 1993 Freycinet Vineyard Chardonnay ($22) recently topped a national small makers' competition in Canberra, organised by Winewise Magazine.
It was no lucky strike. The vineyard's Chardonnays have been placed in the top handful in similar events before. The 1993 wine won a gold medal at the 1995 Tasmanian Regional Wine Show only last month. Already enriched with the complex flavours of fruit and oak, it's a dazzling star of the future
With the approach of vintage 1995, Claudio Radenti says the vineyard expects to harvest 43 tonnes of fruit in all.
Rapidly increasing demand for Freycinet wines saw last year's releases sell out nationally within four months. A programme of vineyard expansion is currently under way.
First published 23 March 1995: The Advocate