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Visiting the Vineyards of Tasmania
By MARLOWE HOODSeptember 5, 2008
There's one problem with Tasmania's cool-clime wines: What little there is tends to get drunk very close to home.
So the question for wine lovers is, are Tassie wines worth a trip?
Though Australia's southernmost inhabited outpost is a long, costly distance from almost anywhere, those who are as enchanted by landscapes and artisans as by the wines they produce should certainly consider heading south.
Mitro Hood
Frogmore Creek's Tony Scherer
Tasmania's wine industry is new even by Australian standards. In the 1970s, Andrew Pirie, armed with a degree in soil science from the University of Sydney, had a light-bulb moment during a year-long tour of France's wine regions. "I noticed that the most expensive wines were grown in the cooler regions -- Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne," he recalled.
At the time, Australia's wine focus was on warmer areas, but Mr. Pirie returned home determined to find the best microclimates for Europe's signature cool-clime varietals: Pinot Noir in red, and Chardonnay and Riesling in white.
His search unexpectedly led to Tasmania's Tamar Valley, where he and his brother put his ideas to the test. Tasmania's handful of producers mostly followed suit -- giving up on Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz, ill-suited to an island where the daily high temperature during the warmest months averages 24 degrees Celsius.
The Piries were joined by a steady trickle of newcomers. But Tasmania still accounts for only about one quarter of 1% of Australia's wine production, and only about 15% of that tiny sliver finds its way abroad. Hence the travel imperative. So here's a quick guide to what's notable in Tasmania's three major wine regions.
Greater Hobart
The area surrounding the state capital has at least half a dozen vineyards and wineries worth visiting.
With vineyards cascading toward the Derwent River, Stefano "Steve" Lubiano was one of a handful of winemakers working in Tasmania through the 1990s. The family's grape-growing roots go back to his grandfather, who ran two wineries in Trieste, Italy, before emigrating to Australia in the early 1950s.
It's all good at the Lubiano spread, but the 2005 vintage of his top Pinot -- while a bit pricey by local standards -- could humiliate any number of Grand Cru Burgundies costing twice as much. Even a recorked bottle of "Sasso" that knocked about the trunk of a rental car for three days (sorry, Steve) was pure spice and cherries when finally drunk.
Native Tasmanian Fred Peacock, who began his career in the late '70s running experimental grape plots for the state, now owns the picture-postcard Bream Creek vineyards, which overlook Marion Bay on Tasmania's east coast. Its wines are available at an utterly charming countryside bed-and-breakfast called Potter's Croft, and in Hobart. Maybe it's because Mr. Peacock sweet-talks his vines, but grapes they produce make wines that sing in near-perfect harmony, with a dark cherry-and-spice 2005 Pinot and a citrusy 2007 Sauvignon blanc leading the choir.
Other wineries nearby merit a detour. Home Hill's award-winning wines include a 2005 Pinot dripping with red fruit, and an even more intense 2006, both available in the winery's stunning "in-the-vines" restaurant. Tony Scherer's organic Frogmore Creek and his recently acquired Hood Wines in the Coal Valley are a must, both for the man and his wines. Show-stoppers include both a sweet and a dry 2006 Reisling, and a 2005 Chardonnay that balances power and finesse. You probably won't get it, but ask Tony for a bottle of his "wild yeast" 2006 Pinot -- a truly great wine produced by an act of defiance; using wild yeast is controversial, both because it can fail and because it can spread to other batches of fermenting grape juice. Moorilla, gambling millionaire David Walsh's $50 million fantasy-in-progress, isn't just a winery -- it's a brewery, ultra-trendy restaurant and a private museum. After a slow, decade-long slide, Tasmania's oldest active winery is also once again making top-flight wines.
East Coast
This ravishingly beautiful region has a handful of notable wineries. Freycinet Vineyard's Claudio Radenti and Lindy Bull produce a haunting Chardonnay, full of delicate and elegant fruit, on 10 hectares nestled in a narrow valley a couple of kilometers from the sea. A few kilometers up the road is the family-run Spring Vale Vineyards, where sheep and grain are giving way to rows of vines. A big-bodied Pinot and a rose-petal and lychee Gewurztraminer headline the list.
But a little farther north, in the tiny fishing town of Bicheno, is arguably the single best reason for a wine lover to go to Tasmania: Brian Franklin's Apsley Gorge winery, tucked away in a former fish-processing plant battered by sea. (If you have come this far, you must try the fresh Tassie lobster and oysters, served with butter and a baguette.)
Mr. Franklin and his wines, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, are off the grid -- not in the guide books, absent from competitions. But they could just be the best that Tasmania has to offer. In his late 40s, Mr. Franklin looks like what he was -- an abalone diver who hauled up as much as 1,500 kilos a day for export to Japan and China. That was after the degree in architecture, and before the start of his love affair with Burgundy.
"I was brought up on big Shiraz and BBQ," he says. But over the course of annual pilgrimages since 2000 to Burgundy, where he helps his good friend Philippe Charlopin select the grapes for Mr. Charlopin's $200 wines, Mr. Franklin has become an ardent champion of terroir and French methods, giving up the standard procedures of New World winemaking. "I am the extreme in Tasmania," he says. "I have stopped using fertilizer and irrigating, to force the roots deep into the rocky soil; I don't use any artificial yeasts, added tannins or enzymes."
Greater Launceston
Plans by timber company Gunns Ltd. to build a pulp mill along the Tamar River estuary have most of Tasmania's winemakers concerned. Those in the area fret about its impact on their immediate environment, and others worry about its impact on Tassie's "clean, green" image. Gunns is a winery powerhouse itself, having recently bought several, including Tamar Ridge Estates, which pulls together vineyards and wineries accounting for nearly 40% of the island's production. Indeed, the controversy has engulfed the pioneering Mr. Pirie too -- now Tamar Ridge's CEO, he has staked his reputation on promises that the mill will be environmentally neutral.
In the meantime, as head winemaker for Tamar Ridge, Mr. Pirie has some excellent bottles in his portfolio, including the eponymous Pirie Estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnays. Among many noteworthy wineries grouped in a horseshoe around Launceston are Providence (a standout Chardonnay) and Brook Eden Vineyard (a great Pinot).
Along a valley just a few minutes drive to the east, Tasmania yields some of Australia's best sparkling wines, with the same mix of varietals that makes France's Champagne the bubbly benchmark. Half the Champagne-style bottles on Australian wine guru James Halliday's short-list of the country's finest come from here. Start with Arras, from Bay of Fires Winery -- owned by Hardy's, the Australian division of giant Constellation Brands. But don't stop there: nearby Clover Hill and Jansz make outstanding fizzy too.
--Marlowe Hood is a Paris-based writer.
By MARLOWE HOODSeptember 5, 2008
There's one problem with Tasmania's cool-clime wines: What little there is tends to get drunk very close to home.
So the question for wine lovers is, are Tassie wines worth a trip?
Though Australia's southernmost inhabited outpost is a long, costly distance from almost anywhere, those who are as enchanted by landscapes and artisans as by the wines they produce should certainly consider heading south.
Mitro Hood
Frogmore Creek's Tony Scherer
Tasmania's wine industry is new even by Australian standards. In the 1970s, Andrew Pirie, armed with a degree in soil science from the University of Sydney, had a light-bulb moment during a year-long tour of France's wine regions. "I noticed that the most expensive wines were grown in the cooler regions -- Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne," he recalled.
At the time, Australia's wine focus was on warmer areas, but Mr. Pirie returned home determined to find the best microclimates for Europe's signature cool-clime varietals: Pinot Noir in red, and Chardonnay and Riesling in white.
His search unexpectedly led to Tasmania's Tamar Valley, where he and his brother put his ideas to the test. Tasmania's handful of producers mostly followed suit -- giving up on Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz, ill-suited to an island where the daily high temperature during the warmest months averages 24 degrees Celsius.
The Piries were joined by a steady trickle of newcomers. But Tasmania still accounts for only about one quarter of 1% of Australia's wine production, and only about 15% of that tiny sliver finds its way abroad. Hence the travel imperative. So here's a quick guide to what's notable in Tasmania's three major wine regions.
Greater Hobart
The area surrounding the state capital has at least half a dozen vineyards and wineries worth visiting.
With vineyards cascading toward the Derwent River, Stefano "Steve" Lubiano was one of a handful of winemakers working in Tasmania through the 1990s. The family's grape-growing roots go back to his grandfather, who ran two wineries in Trieste, Italy, before emigrating to Australia in the early 1950s.
It's all good at the Lubiano spread, but the 2005 vintage of his top Pinot -- while a bit pricey by local standards -- could humiliate any number of Grand Cru Burgundies costing twice as much. Even a recorked bottle of "Sasso" that knocked about the trunk of a rental car for three days (sorry, Steve) was pure spice and cherries when finally drunk.
Native Tasmanian Fred Peacock, who began his career in the late '70s running experimental grape plots for the state, now owns the picture-postcard Bream Creek vineyards, which overlook Marion Bay on Tasmania's east coast. Its wines are available at an utterly charming countryside bed-and-breakfast called Potter's Croft, and in Hobart. Maybe it's because Mr. Peacock sweet-talks his vines, but grapes they produce make wines that sing in near-perfect harmony, with a dark cherry-and-spice 2005 Pinot and a citrusy 2007 Sauvignon blanc leading the choir.
Other wineries nearby merit a detour. Home Hill's award-winning wines include a 2005 Pinot dripping with red fruit, and an even more intense 2006, both available in the winery's stunning "in-the-vines" restaurant. Tony Scherer's organic Frogmore Creek and his recently acquired Hood Wines in the Coal Valley are a must, both for the man and his wines. Show-stoppers include both a sweet and a dry 2006 Reisling, and a 2005 Chardonnay that balances power and finesse. You probably won't get it, but ask Tony for a bottle of his "wild yeast" 2006 Pinot -- a truly great wine produced by an act of defiance; using wild yeast is controversial, both because it can fail and because it can spread to other batches of fermenting grape juice. Moorilla, gambling millionaire David Walsh's $50 million fantasy-in-progress, isn't just a winery -- it's a brewery, ultra-trendy restaurant and a private museum. After a slow, decade-long slide, Tasmania's oldest active winery is also once again making top-flight wines.
East Coast
This ravishingly beautiful region has a handful of notable wineries. Freycinet Vineyard's Claudio Radenti and Lindy Bull produce a haunting Chardonnay, full of delicate and elegant fruit, on 10 hectares nestled in a narrow valley a couple of kilometers from the sea. A few kilometers up the road is the family-run Spring Vale Vineyards, where sheep and grain are giving way to rows of vines. A big-bodied Pinot and a rose-petal and lychee Gewurztraminer headline the list.
But a little farther north, in the tiny fishing town of Bicheno, is arguably the single best reason for a wine lover to go to Tasmania: Brian Franklin's Apsley Gorge winery, tucked away in a former fish-processing plant battered by sea. (If you have come this far, you must try the fresh Tassie lobster and oysters, served with butter and a baguette.)
Mr. Franklin and his wines, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, are off the grid -- not in the guide books, absent from competitions. But they could just be the best that Tasmania has to offer. In his late 40s, Mr. Franklin looks like what he was -- an abalone diver who hauled up as much as 1,500 kilos a day for export to Japan and China. That was after the degree in architecture, and before the start of his love affair with Burgundy.
"I was brought up on big Shiraz and BBQ," he says. But over the course of annual pilgrimages since 2000 to Burgundy, where he helps his good friend Philippe Charlopin select the grapes for Mr. Charlopin's $200 wines, Mr. Franklin has become an ardent champion of terroir and French methods, giving up the standard procedures of New World winemaking. "I am the extreme in Tasmania," he says. "I have stopped using fertilizer and irrigating, to force the roots deep into the rocky soil; I don't use any artificial yeasts, added tannins or enzymes."
Greater Launceston
Plans by timber company Gunns Ltd. to build a pulp mill along the Tamar River estuary have most of Tasmania's winemakers concerned. Those in the area fret about its impact on their immediate environment, and others worry about its impact on Tassie's "clean, green" image. Gunns is a winery powerhouse itself, having recently bought several, including Tamar Ridge Estates, which pulls together vineyards and wineries accounting for nearly 40% of the island's production. Indeed, the controversy has engulfed the pioneering Mr. Pirie too -- now Tamar Ridge's CEO, he has staked his reputation on promises that the mill will be environmentally neutral.
In the meantime, as head winemaker for Tamar Ridge, Mr. Pirie has some excellent bottles in his portfolio, including the eponymous Pirie Estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnays. Among many noteworthy wineries grouped in a horseshoe around Launceston are Providence (a standout Chardonnay) and Brook Eden Vineyard (a great Pinot).
Along a valley just a few minutes drive to the east, Tasmania yields some of Australia's best sparkling wines, with the same mix of varietals that makes France's Champagne the bubbly benchmark. Half the Champagne-style bottles on Australian wine guru James Halliday's short-list of the country's finest come from here. Start with Arras, from Bay of Fires Winery -- owned by Hardy's, the Australian division of giant Constellation Brands. But don't stop there: nearby Clover Hill and Jansz make outstanding fizzy too.
--Marlowe Hood is a Paris-based writer.
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