Weekend to wander, ponder

What is it about growing grapes and making wine that inspires some people to swap ordinary lives for extraordinary challenges posed by cool-climate viticulture? If you've ever pondered such a question – or you'd like to broaden your Tasmanian wine repertoire – then the Northern Vineyards Open Weekend is just the thing for you.

Scheduled to be held at sites across the State's North, North East and North West, this two-day event on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st March will see 29 companies open their doors – and some of their best bottles – to tell the stories that lie behind our cool-climate vineyards.

Drop by Gravelly Beach's Stoney Rise, for example, and you'll hear why this 4ha vineyard looks a little different to the one that made the award-winning Rotherhythe wines of Steve and Shelagh Hyde back in the 1990s.

New owners Joe and Louise Holyman spent last winter and spring improving drainage on the site. They also have Chinese willows in place now to form the basis of a windbreak for their vineyard. But that's not all. The couple have removed almost a hectare of 18 year-old Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from the property they purchased from John Vincent back in June 2004.

The former property valuer bought the Gravelly Beach vineyard a decade ago, barely two days after wines under the Rotherhythe label took out a record number of trophies at the 1996 Tasmanian Regional Wine Show.

Vineyard founder and winemaker Dr Steve Hyde won four of the event's nine major trophies with his 1994 Rotherhythe Pinot Noir. The show was judged by visiting mainland wine critics James Halliday and Huon Hooke, along with renowned Clare Valley winemaker Tim Knappstein.

Commenting on Hyde's extraordinary success at the time, chairman of judges Halliday described the trophy-winning Pinot Noir as "a wine of the greatest power and complexity; a very strong and muscly wine, with lots and lots going for it."

A well-known and respected Launceston psychiatrist, Hyde and his wife Shelagh decided to seek a quieter life beyond vines and wines after establishing their Rotherhythe venture in the early 1980s.

Among the vines that now dot the former apple orchard are new Burgundy clones of Pinot Noir, including trial plantings of 10 different clones of the variety that Holyman acquired from the South Australian Vine Improvement Association.

Few producers would consider starting again from scratch, let alone on the scale evident here, but the Holymans are convinced they didn't have any choice in the matter. Successful cool-climate viticulture is all about maximizing opportunities, they say. 

They're convinced their vineyard's ultimate destiny lies with top quality Pinot Noir.

Its red Bordeaux grapes just had to go.

"Good wine isn't made by using a formula," says Holyman.

A former State cricketer who studied wine marketing at Roseworthy Agricultural College, Holyman founded his Stoney Rise Wine Company in 2000 with best mate Matt Lowe while working at Robe on South Australia's Limestone Coast.

"Good wine is made in the vineyard," he explains.

"This is a fantastic site for Pinot Noir. I reckon it's got huge potential."

Indeed, huge potential sums up the future of many of the vineyards that have their roots in the north of the State. Those along the banks of the Tamar River – like Stoney Rise – look to have Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling sewn up quite nicely. Those in the North East are already making some of the country's finest sparkling wines.

And the North West and Bass Strait islands?

Well, these are still early days. Go and find out for yourself.

Vineyards participating in the Northern Vineyards Open Weekend:

NORTH WEST COAST

Barringwood Park; Leven Valley Vineyard; Motton Terraces; Ringtail Ridge; Tavner's North West Winery; Wilmot Hills.

TAMAR VALLEY WINE ROUTE AND FLINDERS ISLAND

Bay of Fires; Brook Eden; Bundaleera; Clover Hill; Dalrymple; Delamere; Hillwood Vineyard; Iron Pot Bay; Jansz Tasmania; Jingler's Creek; Kelly's Creek; Moores Hill Estate; Strathlynn/Ninth Island Vineyard; Pipers Brook Vineyard; Providence; Rosevears Estate; Sharmans; Silk Hill; St Matthias; Stoney Rise; Tamar Ridge; Vintner's Nest; Unavale Vineyard, Flinders Island.

Steve Hyde poured last drinks at his vineyard cellar door back in mid-February 1996.

He and wife Shelagh had just won four trophies at the Tasmanian Regional Wine Show, and thought the time was ripe for a new life beyond Rotherhythe.

The change was as good as a holiday for Shelagh.

Steve, meanwhile, found the habits of a decade hard to shake off. He eventually composed musicals and about 600 songs, but still wanted the taste of something unusual.

What he found was released back in May as a self-published book called Pubs of Tasmania. 

Co-written with mathematics teacher and friend Howard Smith, its 296 pages suggest the pair used more than their mouths and their elbows to get the job done.

The authors visited a total of 307 pubs across Tasmania. They had a beer together in every one.

Next, the pair recorded and researched the highlights of their 7500km odyssey in search of beer's Holy Grail.

The book traces the fascinating evolution of pubs and drinking in the State over the past 200 years.

It provides all manner of digestible information on licensing laws, vineyards, breweries and distilleries. It also manages to unravel some of the complex fabric of our smoking and gaming practices. The changing fads and fashions of architecture and temperance are all given their historical and cultural perspectives. 

Beyond those are explanations of the social niceties of bar room conduct and six o'clock swills.

The pair's own anecdotal evidence is underpinned by some impressive statistical analysis and archival research.

Historical fact and social commentary are matched in equal proportion by liberal doses of fun and fancy. And reading between the lines, the authors put plenty of effort into judging the quality of the beers, lagers and ales presently on offer in Australia's 'Pleasure Isle.'

Hyde and Smith may well have Anglo-Celtic bloodlines, but the methodology they've used to compile their book is more closely aligned with an old Czech proverb:

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.

Steve Hyde and Howard Smith. Pubs of Tasmania. (Steve Hyde and Howard Smith, May 2005.) 

Log on to www.pubsoftasmania.com.au for details.

First published: The Examiner 17 March 2005 and 14 August 2005

Last page update: 31 August 2026