Wine stars

When Jacquie and Will Adkins (pictured) decided it was time to ditch the office and plant a vineyard devoted entirely to Pinot Noir, the former Tamar Ridge general manager recalls their plans came with an acknowledgement that it would be a long-term project.

The couple purchased land at Rowella in December 2014. In November 2015, they added 4ha of Pinot Noir to their 9.5ha greenfield site on Westwoods Road.

Westella's first wines were created during the 2018 vintage. Next came construction and opening of an award-winning new cellar door in January 2023.

And if you thought all that might have seemed long enough for one project, think again.

This quality-driven, small-scale operation has spent the past five years implementing a diverse range of best practice initiatives on the former Clairmarais Farm.

Last week brought welcome recognition from their industry peers at Wine Tasmania's annual Tassie Wine Stars event in the State's south.

Westella Vineyard was named the 2026 VinØ ('vin zero') Program's Most Improved Producer.

Coal River Valley producer Pooley Wines – led by company viticulturist Steve Ferguson – was announced 2026 VinØ Program Champion. (Ferguson is pictured below left with Wine Tasmania's Paul Smart.)

Previously named Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year by the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania – in 2012 and 2025 – Pooley Wines has been a VinØ Program Champion for five of the past seven years.

Wine Tasmania's VinØ Program was first introduced to members of the industry body back in 2015. Supported in part by the Tasmanian Government, it offers a carefully tailored best practice management program to help growers and winemakers measure, improve and report on their sustainability practices.

The program focuses on the following key areas of vineyard and winery management:

• The health of vineyard soils, a pre-condition for high-quality wine grapes
• Managing pest and disease pressures in an environmentally responsible manner
• Biodiversity, using natural flora and fauna to support land and vineyard health
• Measuring and minimising water use in vineyards
• Responsibly managing waste and recycling
• Looking after vineyard personnel and the broader community
• Understanding the key roles that members play in industry biosecurity
• Managing aspects in the winery to ensure efficiency, quality and responsibility
• Measuring, managing, reducing and mitigating carbon emissions, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality

The Adkinses joined the VinØ Program back in 2022 and were named Most Improved Producer the following year.

"It's a really good program," says Will Adkins.

"Jacquie and I spend hours and hours working alongside one another each week in the vineyard. It's really helpful to have a program that allows you to focus on such a diverse range of industry best practices.

"The program has been set up to allow you to benchmark yourself alongside key indicators as well as alongside your peers. We're really grateful that Wine Tasmania – and their technical and extension officer Paul Smart in particular – have committed such a wealth of resources to not only setting up the program but also to maintaining it.

"There's a vast amount of record-keeping and collation of information involved. I know Jacquie puts a huge of amount of effort into Westella's documentation and that adds up to a vast database organisationally when you take into account the number of producers taking part each year."

The couple say they've become especially mindful of their water management in recent vintages.

Long-range weather forecasts – as well as ongoing community concerns regarding climate change and likely impacts of the present El Niño phase – have prompted the couple to become more analytical in their approach to soil moisture and water stress across their vineyard.

"We've now installed soil moisture probes that allow us to measure and record our soil's water status at different depths," Adkins explains.

"We know this growing season is going to be hot and dry, so we're going to have to be really judicious about the way we manage our irrigation. Each year in the vineyard brings something different to challenge us, but having some really good data available gives you every opportunity of being able to stay ahead of the game."

Wine Tasmania notes just under half of Tasmania's vineyard area was managed under its VinØ Program in 2025-2026.

Another 35 percent of the industry is being managed sustainably under other external agencies, including Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, Australian Certified Organics and Demeter Biodynamic.

Last week's Tassie Wine Stars also highlighted the achievements of two key industry players.

Josef Chromy AO (above left) was inducted as a new Wine Tasmania Life Member in recognition of his significant and long-term contribution to the Tasmanian wine sector.

Home Hill Wines' Terry Bennett OAM (above right) was named the 2026 Wine Tasmania Legend for his significant and continuing contribution to Tasmanian wine, particularly in relation to Pinot Noir viticulture.

Chromy fled Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia (now Czechia) in 1950, arriving in northern Tasmania in 1951 as a 2o-year-old with nothing but optimism and a master butcher's diploma. Six years of hard graft at Goliath Cement on the North West Coast enabled him to accumulate savings to fund a move to Burnie with his new wife Alida.

Together, they established Continental Butchers.

By 1993, one small butchery had grown to become Blue Ribbon Meats, Tasmania's largest private employer. Its sale through a public float on the Australian Stock Exchange the following year brought the cashed up Chromy into the State's embryonic, cool-climate wine industry.

He formed the JAC Group and purchased Heemskerk Vineyard, makers of Jansz sparkling wine. The deal also included Rochecombe (Pipers River) and Loira Vineyards (Tamar Valley).

Their rationalisation into the Heemskerk Wine Group was as swift as it was shrewd. Almost overnight, Chromy became head of Tasmania's second largest wine company.

The wily entrepreneur soon began pulling further rabbits out of his butcher's hat. In 1998, he sold Rochecombe and Heemskerk to Pipers Brook Vineyard. But far from being out of the wine game, he planned further investments in the 100ha vineyard he'd established four years earlier at Kayena.

Tamar Ridge Wines' rapid emergence as a leading producer was marked by media acclaim and staggering wine show successes, thanks to the talents of former Moorilla Estate winemaker, Julian Alcorso. The hubbub eventually attracted the attention of Gunns Limited.

In 2003, the Tasmanian forestry giant made Chromy an offer that was too good to refuse. Within a month, the 72-year-old was hot on the trail of a new wine project.

A five-year-old vineyard at Relbia called Old Stornoway was purchased out of receivership. Chromy then spent four years transforming the 61ha site into Josef Chromy Wines, an industry showpiece with a state-of-the-art winery, attractive cellar door tasting room and bespoke vineyard restaurant.

A severely debilitating stroke suffered part way through the developments failed to curb the septuagenarian's abundant enthusiasm and commitment to Tasmania's emerging cool-climate wine industry.

Highly-skilled winemaking and site management by Hobart-born Jeremy Dineen brought newly created Josef Chromy Wines a veritable barrowload of awards during its first years of operation.

Dineen's 15-year tenure alongside the company's figurehead also brought overseas success. Foremost among them was the 2011 Josef Chromy Chardonnay being named Best International Chardonnay at the 2013 Decanter World Wine Awards.

As recently as June 2026, the 2019 Josef Chromy Finesse Brut was acknowledged with a Platinum award (97/100) at the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards, held in London.

Josef Chromy Wines was acquired by Warakirri Asset Management in 2022.

October 20206 sees Wine Tasmania's newest Life Member approaching his 96th birthday in early December, still actively involved as founding director of The JAC Group.

Home Hill Wines' Terry Bennett was born into a family of Huon Valley orchardists, but transitioned out of the industry when many of Tasmania's export markets collapsed following the establishment of the European Common Market in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1992, he and wife Rosemary (pictured above) planted six rows of Pinot Noir on their former orchard property at Ranelagh. By the end of the decade, the director of Bennett's Petroleum Supplies was also directing vineyard operations on his family's 4ha vineyard. Its first wines were created from the exceptional 1998 vintage.

August 2001 saw the opening of the Home Hill Wine Centre, a valley showpiece built of rammed earth and glass, interspersed with massive Tasmanian oak beams. Its award-winning restaurant, function centre, cellar door and on-site winery have remained wine tourism hotspots for more than a quarter of century.

Home Hill Pinot Noirs became prolific gold medal and trophy winners throughout the 2000s, thanks to significant ongoing commitment to intensive vineyard management and the expert consultant advice provided by renowned viticulturist Dr Richard Smart and Hunter Valley-based winemaker Jim Chatto.

Development of Home Hill's unique 'double header' vines proved very effective in bringing excess vegetative growth under control, elevating the vineyard's Pinot Noir wine quality to world-class.

In the watershed year of 2015, an extraordinary sequence of Home Hill wines produced by Gilli and Paul Lipscombe (Sailor Seeks Horse) won award after award. Their success began with three trophies at the 2015 Tasmanian Wine Show. It was the fourth Tasmanian event in a row where the family had won Best Tasmanian Pinot Noir, and the third in a row where they were named Tasmanian Pinot Noir Producer of the Year.

In September 2015, Home Hill's remarkable 2014 Kelly's Reserve Pinot Noir became the first Tasmanian Pinot Noir to be awarded the Melbourne Wine Awards' Jimmy Watson Trophy, Australia's most coveted red wine trophy. The wine also won the James Halliday Trophy as Australia's Best Pinot Noir.

Within weeks, the Royal Agricultural Show Society of Tasmania added its imprimatur to proceedings. It named Home Hill the 2015 winner of the Richard Langdon Trophy for the Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year.

A decade later, Home Hill proved it was still capable of ruling the Pinot Noir roost when its early-drinking Landslide label won no less than seven major wine show trophies around the country in 2025.

Terry Bennett's elevation to 2026 Wine Tasmania Legend puts him among esteemed industry company. Bream Creek Vineyard's Fred Peacock (2020) and Pressing Matters founder Greg Melick (2024) are the only two previous winners of the award, which recognises the extraordinary contributions of people who are still actively involved in the Tasmanian wine sector.

Last page update: 27 October 2026