The Tamar Valley was a great food and wine destination long before Launceston was named a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2021. Indeed, it became home to the Tasmanian wine industry's first vineyard cellar door when Mark and Marion Semmens (pictured) began welcoming visitors to Marions Vineyard way back in 1983.
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.
As a former kitchen hand in a busy Hobart restaurant, Rod Ascui's move into his own small café on the site of Launceston's historic Ritchie's Flour Mill seemed just another career milestone back in 1984. Young, ambitious and streetwise, the new business owner set about cooking up a whole a bag of treats for the city's residents.
Daniel Kelleher admits he never set out to grow grapes and make wine. The small-scale cattle farmer from Premaydena was 10 years into a successful career in Melbourne when he decided he'd had enough of corporate life. Time to escape the rat race and pursue something more inspiring.
Running a vineyard is a bit like boxing reckoned East Coast wine pioneer, John Austwick. If you don't use your head as well as your hands, you're a goner. The Craigie Knowe founder sadly died three years ago, but his tongue-in-cheek advice is just as relevant today as it was when he first planted vines at Cranbrook in 1979.
What is it about Tasmania that inspires so many people to swap ordinary lives in the suburbs for the extraordinary challenges of cool-climate viticulture? Whatever it is, they're taking to grape-growing and winemaking in increasing numbers.
When Marty and Lisa Smith first established vines at their Cranbrook property on Tasmania's East Coast, Malbec seemed something of an oddball choice to plant alongside the usual industry suspects, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
After one of the most difficult growing seasons in the Tasmanian wine industry's 70-year history, local winemakers had something to celebrate this week with the release of results from the 2026 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge held last month.
When Launceston's Festivale returned to the City Park in 2023 after a two-year absence, supporters of the annual celebration of Tasmania food, beverage and entertainment were almost jumping for joy when details of its summer program were first released in September 2022.
Geoff Bull was a former newspaper photographer and abalone diver when he set about clearing 4ha of land outside Bicheno in 1979 to establish what would become East Coast Tasmania's Freycinet Vineyard. Early wine show successes with Pinot Noir soon had Bull referring to his ambitious developments as 'the Romanée-Conti of the south.'
