Tree change success
Prominent Hobart barrister and Master Judge of Wine Greg Melick AO says he spent 15 years searching for a suitable vineyard site in southern Tasmania. When he finally purchased his 14ha property at Tea Tree in 2002 it turned out to be a wise move.
Back in January 2020, the retired Army Reserve Major-General who became National President of the RSL in June 2019 was the toast of the Tasmanian Wine Show. Melick's 7ha Pressing Matters vineyard was named winner of the Trophy for Most Successful Exhibitor. His diverse selection of Riesling and Pinot Noir entries also won trophies for Best Riesling, Best Sweet Wine and Reserve Champion Wine of the Show.
Three months earlier, Pressing Matters' 2017 Pinot Noir was awarded The James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir at the prestigious 2019 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards. The wine's justifiably proud owner notes it was also short-listed for the Jimmy Watson Trophy, perhaps the country's best known and most fiercely contested wine award.
"January's show took our tally of trophies to more than 30," Melick recalls.
"We've also won over 100 gold medals in competition, despite opting out of the show system for five years before re-entering in 2018."
The passionate Riesling and Pinot Noir producer has every right to be chuffed about Pressing Matters' history of outstanding show success. But right now, Melick's mind is fully occupied with future wine production. This week sees next door neighbours Brenda and Peter Bosworth vacating their 40-year-old Morningside Vineyard to enable Melick and an unnamed Sydney business partner to take full control of the small but significant wine operation.
The 3ha vineyard on Middle Tea Tree Road began in 1980. Together, the Bosworths pioneered winemaking in the tiny hamlet outside Brighton. The only venture similar in the near vicinity was that of George and Priscilla Park's Stoney Vineyard, established outside Campania in 1973. A decade after the Bosworths planted their Riesling, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon vines, Swiss immigrant Peter Althaus purchased Stoney Vineyard and made the inaugural vintage of his celebrated Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon.
Peter Bosworth admits he swam against the tide of conventional thinking during Morningside's earliest years.
"When we were planting Pinot Noir, most people in the industry were planting Cabernet because it was the thing to do in those days," he muses.
"We put in quite a lot of Pinot, so we've been very lucky to be able to enjoy the benefits of having really good fruit from 40-year-old vines."
As Morningside's former owners move into bittersweet retirement in Hobart some 30 kilometres away, Melick reflects on the Bosworths' ground-breaking exploits.
"My wife Michelle and I always liked the Riesling and Pinot Noir that Bos made, and that was what brought Tea Tree to our attention 20 years ago," Melick explains.
"I'm an admirer of the traditional European wine styles of Mosel and Burgundy. I've always wanted to make Rieslings that were low in alcohol and Germanic in style. And I've been collecting and drinking French Burgundy for longer than I can remember. I told Brenda and Bos that if the farm next door ever came up for sale they should let us know – and they did. The rest is history."
Melick says the small-scale nature of wine production around Tea Tree has seen it become a part of the nearby Coal River Valley wine route. In reality, the districts are geographically and geologically quite different.
Tolpuddle Vineyard on Back Tea Tree Road, for example, is only 12km south of Morningside and Pressing Matters. Its soils are light silica over sandstone, encouraging vines there to grow with moderate vigour across the seasons.
"Pressing Matters and Morningside are on a north-east, frost-free slope, overlooking Middle Tea Tree Road," Melick observes.
"Our vineyards are adjoined. Both are low in vigour and in yield as well. Soils there have about a metre of black cracking clay on top of a limestone base. Limestone is free-draining, and in Europe that's been critical to the success of the Mosel Valley and Burgundy. The vineyards opposite us don't have that limestone substrate. Travel a kilometre or two down the road and you strike problems with frost.
"Tea Tree has great potential for grape-growing. But you do need access to a reliable water supply to compensate for our naturally low rainfall. Pressing Matters and Morningside meet that brief."
Melick says he and his business partner are pleased to be able to continue to develop the legacy bestowed upon them by Morningside's founders. Equally important will be the valuable opportunities Tea Tree's newest wine venture will have to explore the rich bounty their 40-year-old vines will deliver them from now on.
First published 20 March 2020: tasmaniantimes.com