VINES AND WINES

There's no doubt about it. Tasmania's viticulture is small scale. Apart from the State's largest wine producers – Tamar Ridge Tasmania, Kreglinger Wine Estates, Hill Smith Family Estates and the Fogarty Wine Group – the majority of vineyard operations on the island are small to medium-sized family businesses. 

It is common practice for some vineyards to grow grapes for other companies as well as for their own premium Tasmanian wine labels.

So how large is the Tasmanian wine industry? Does anyone really know, given the rapid rate of expansion over the past 5 years?

Wine Tasmania – the industry's producer body – refuses to be drawn into issues related to planted area. It's all about the value of the industry, they say.

The national wine industry's peak body – Wine Australia – appears stuck in a time warp. 

Its Regional Snapshots of Tasmania have shown the State's total vineyard area is 2084ha –  for every annual snapshot published since January 2021. Five years during which the industry has experienced its largest ever phase of vineyard expansion. 

An industry that doesn't know its current state of play surely can't plan for its future.

It would be fairly safe to say that in 2025, Tasmania's total vineyard area exceeded 2400ha of vines. That's almost three times the planted area of the Mornington Peninsula, or five times that of Geelong – two of southern Australia's best known cool-climate wine regions. 

The entire State of Tasmania is a single GI. The island's wine industry is among the most diverse and the most de-centralised of any of the 65 GIs distributed across Australia.

Many Tasmanian vineyards are less than 5ha in area. Visitors dropping by a cellar door might easily find themselves shaking hands with the person who grew the grapes and made the wine.

Few tasting rooms are open all year round. Check details in Wine Trails Around Tasmania, published at winetasmania.com.au by Wine Tasmania.

A tasting fee may be charged by some cellar door operators. This is often refunded with the purchase of wines from the vineyard.

Tasmania is home to many of Australia's best cool climate wines. In particular, the State's Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir and bottle-fermented sparkling wines have national and international reputations for superb quality and elegant, cool-climate wine characteristics. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, leafy, light-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon wines helped lay the foundations for Tasmania's reputation as a producer of premium quality, European-style red wines. 

The 1982 Heemskerk Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, was included in the gold medal taste-off at the 1983 Royal Melbourne Wine Show to determine the winner of the event's prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy for Best Young Red Wine.

Today's Tasmanian wine industry has a predilection for Pinot Noir. Almost half the State's total vineyard area is planted to Burgundy's classic red grape.

No matter where you travel in Tasmania, you are never far from top quality, single vineyard Pinot Noir. 

Wines marketed by the State's smallest vineyards are often the most highly regarded. They owe their excellent quality to the highly-skilled expertise and experience of grape-growers and winemakers. Specialist contract winemaking operations based in the north, north-west and the south of the island are also highly regarded by consumers and industry professionals.

The Bordeaux-inspired red wines of Domaine A lead a tiny brigade of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot producers in Tasmania. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot harvests combined seldom account for more than one percent of the island's total wine grape harvest.

In 2011, Barossa Valley-born Nick Glaetzer created a shockwave of national wine industry responses to his success in winning the Royal Melbourne Wine Show's coveted Jimmy Watson Trophy. The wine was a Tasmanian grown and made Glaetzer-Dixon Mon Pere Shiraz. The Rhone Valley red variety has barely a toe-hold in Tasmanian vineyards but may become an important planting choice as adaptation to climate change takes on greater significance.

Chardonnay accounts for close to one quarter of the State's total wine grape harvest each year. Three other whites in total – Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling – account for another 25 percent. 

It is estimated that more than a third of Tasmania's Chardonnay and Pinot Noir harvests are directed to traditional method sparkling. Many large wine companies located on the Australian mainland in particular purchase Tasmanian Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for sparkling wine production.

Vineyards in North East Tasmania are widely respected for their key role in creating many of the country's best bottle-fermented wines. 

In 2025, Tasmanian sites collectively harvested more than 23,000 tonnes of wine grapes. This represented 1.2 percent of the national wine grape crush by volume. More than six percent by value.

The average value of a tonne of Tasmanian wine grapes in 2025 has been calculated at $3,924. 

This compares more than favourably with the national average of $604/tonne, and places the State at the head of 2025's top five Australian regions by wine grape value. The others in descending order are Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, Beechworth and Pyrenees.

The 2026 Halliday Wine Companion attributes 5-star ratings to Australia's best wineries. Tasmanian producers account for 33 of the publication's 493 wineries awarded 5-star ratings. Close to 7 percent. Clearly, Tasmania punches above it weight. 

By comparison, Western Australia's Great Southern – with around 3000ha of vines, almost certainly more than Tasmania – has just two 5-star wineries in the Companion's Best Wineries by Region.

Last page update: 20 February 2026