There are 65 wine regions in Australia but few of them produce true cool climate wines. You can put that down to having growing seasons just long enough and mild enough to allow wine grapes like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to develop true expressions of their variety.
North West Tasmania has long been recognised as a small, quality-driven wine-growing district. It's too bad much of the praise comes from industry insiders. Wine judges, winemakers and wine media.
When Neil and Julieanne Snare established Winstead Vineyard 35 years ago, they planted just 50 vines of Pinot Noir. It wasn't meant to be a vineyard, they said. Those 50 vines were really just an unorthodox form of landscaping – their way of tidying up a five-acre lot they had cleared to build their home.
As a teenager growing up in the quiet rural setting of Tasmania's Jordan Valley, all Andrew Jones wanted to do was to find a steady job in the city and maintain his single-digit handicap on the local golf course.
When Matthias Utzinger left home to travel the highways and byways of Africa and Asia, few Swiss winemaking peers could have predicted a life-changing move to Tasmania and the creation of a small-scale wine business. It wasn't something the young bloke from Zurich ever considered himself.
There was a time when living and working off grid was regarded as the domain of hippies, dropouts and ne'er-do-wells; as much about self-sufficiency as being economically and environmentally sustainable. These days, two percent of all Australians live off grid, according to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
When vineyard founder John Austwick first planted vines at Craigie Knowe, passers-by shrugged their shoulders in disbelief. "You're mad, John," people told him. "Wine grapes will never grow here on the East Coast."
With the day's planting completed, Tara Edmondson stepped back to assess her team's handiwork. "This is a beautiful spot for a vineyard," the estate manager mused. "Close to the mountain; close to the river, with hedges and large trees around the perimeter. It'll need to some wind protection."
Making a fresh start with a new business initiative poses all manner of risks. But when Ricky Evans and Chanel Parratt chose April 2020 for the launch of their Havilah wine bar, they didn't figure that a State-wide lockdown and fears of a global pandemic would soon pose the biggest challenges of all.
Marco Lubiana is a man of few words. Relaxed and easy-going when it comes to conversation, the talented Tasmanian winemaker is never more forthright and articulate than when he's talking about food and wine, friends and family. It's a different matter entirely when it comes to labelling and packaging his beautifully crafted Huon Valley wines.
