Vintage 2024

Tasmania's winegrowers breathed sighs of relief with the successful completion of the high quality 2024 wine vintage. It was a year in which the weather just couldn't make up its mind. Variable for the most part – especially at the outset – the conditions turned out to be more than favourable.

Crops this year display excellent fruit intensity and balanced natural acidity. 

Wines across the board will be very high in quality, with traditional method sparkling looking especially strong in Tasmania.

A little under 17,000 tonnes were harvested across the State in 2024. That amounted to a 1.2 percent share of Australia's total wine grape harvest.

Those 16,805 tonnes also represented a 35 percent improvement on the volume achieved in Tasmania in 2023.

Tasmanian winegrowers continue to receive good returns on their vineyard investments. Data recently released by Wine Australia shows that buyers in the domestic market paid an average price of $3,674 for a tonne of Tasmanian wine grapes. 

The national average this season provides a stark contrast. It was $613 per tonne.

That noted, the financial investments required to fund vineyard establishment and annual operating costs are very significant in Tasmania. A guide to growing wine grapes published way back in 1991 by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry stated that a minimum of $700,000 in equity would need to be invested in a 10ha vineyard and winery during the first five years of development if the venture were to be debt-free within 15 years.

Meanwhile, the median price for a typical home in the Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay in 1991 was $161,500.

Industry sources suggest vineyard establishment costs alone are now of the order of $70,000-$80,000 per hectare.

Spring 2023 began cool and showery across much of the State, resulting in uneven budburst on many sites. North East Tasmania and the Tamar Valley experienced periods of wind and rain through October and November, increasing early disease pressure but also replenishing soil moisture. 

Mean January temperatures - together with seasonal figures for Growing Degree Days - were well above average on sites in the Tamar Valley. Vintage came early - around three weeks earlier than normal at Grey Sands and Holm Oak - and picking was over and done with in a flash. Or so it seemed.

The North West also benefited from relatively settled conditions and enjoyed good flowering and fruit set across all varieties. Average maximum temperatures across the growing season were significantly above normal. A much drier autumn than usual in the North West brought forward picking dates by up to two weeks on some sites. 

Harvest itself was condensed into a handful of weeks, with fruit quality being exceptionally strong.

Growing and ripening seasons in the south of the State were generally slightly cooler and closer to average than those experienced in the north. Soil moisture in the Derwent Valley in particular fell away markedly as summer brought periodic heat spikes and was then followed by an autumn that brought much less rainfall than normal.

Coastal influences moderated ripening conditions in the Huon Valley/D'Entrecasteaux Channel and along the East Coast but temperatures remained slightly above long-term averages.

Vineyards in the south-east benefitted from a season that was significantly warmer and much drier than normal, albeit with periodic cold snaps to keep managers on their toes while planning spray schedules. Flowering and fruit set also varied markedly according to grape variety and block/vineyard location.

Always among Tasmania's driest districts, the Coal River Valley performed according to expectation this year.  Rain events over summer fell away markedly as harvest approached. February and March were both warm to very warm, but temperatures in April and May were much closer to average and slowed sugar accumulation among late-season varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon.

Somewhere around 38-40 percent of this year's Tasmanian harvest is expected to find its way into sparkling wine production.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay continue their positions of pre-eminence as the State's two most preferred wine varieties. The former is likely to account for around 47 percent of Tasmania's 2024 harvest, with Chardonnay accounting for 26 percent. The next three most productive varieties are Pinot Gris (around 9 percent of the total harvest), Sauvignon Blanc (around 6.5 percent) and Riesling (around 6 percent).

Vineyards in the Tamar Valley grew close to 35 percent of all Tasmanian fruit harvested in 2024. 

The Coal River Valley (23.5 percent) and North East Tasmania (18 percent) also made sizeable contributions to this year's winery throughput.

Last page update: August 2025