Around the World in Eighty Wines by Mike Veseth

Author:Mike Veseth [Veseth, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2017-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

The Wines

Penfolds Grange Bin 95 Shiraz, South Australia, Australia

Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz, Eden Valley, Australia

Chapter 11

Tasmania

Cool Is Hot

Our plane touched down at the Hobart airport and we pointed our rental Kia Sportage toward Richmond, a historic village on the Coal River. One of the town’s main attractions is an 1823 bridge built by penal laborers. We passed through town then up a long gravel road before turning up a long dirt-and-gravel driveway leading to Tara’s Farmstay, a farm right on the river where the proprietors, two agricultural scientists, raise sheep and cattle, plant row crops, and take in guests like us. They have a few vines, too, and make a little Pinot Noir for their own consumption. Sue loved the chance to feed a tiny lamb that came around one morning. We like to stay with growers and farmers when can, to get a sense of place that is hard to grasp from the lounge of the InterContinental Hotel, as nice as that can be.1

Tasmania is an off-the-beaten-path destination. You have to want to come here to get here today, which is ironic since it is so closely associated with its past as a convict settlement. Most of the early residents didn’t want to be here at all. Great Britain sent some of its most hardened criminals to serve time at Port Arthur. These days enthusiastic tourists and settlers come to Tasmania for the history (both Port Arthur and the coal mines district are UNESCO World Heritage sites) and the natural beauty. And, oh yes, they come for the wine. Tasmania may not be on your wine radar yet, but it soon will be. It is one of the hottest emerging wine regions on earth.

Wines to Die For

Tasmania is home to four distinct wine regions, one up north near Devonport, another down the Tamar Valley, a third scattered along the east coast, and the fourth down south near Hobart and Richmond, where we were based. Many noteworthy wines are made on the island—we were particularly impressed by the Freycinet Pinot Noir from the east coast. The Coal River Valley is home to more than fifteen wineries ranging from the humble to the elaborate. Frogmore Creek has a sleek, modern tasting room, for example, and a gourmet restaurant, too. And although they are hardly on the beaten track, Frogmore Creek was sold out of many of their wines when we visited, which suggests that wine tourism is thriving here. The Pinot Noir from Tolpuddle Vineyards, which we were unable to visit during our Coal River Valley excursion, was named one of the eleven best Pinot Noirs in the world outside of Burgundy by Decanter magazine’s Stephen Brook in 2016.2 It is a project of Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith, who make great wine in the Adelaide Hills but set up shop in Tasmania as well because they couldn’t resist the opportunity.

One of my favorite Tasmanian wines comes from a company called Jansz, its name inspired by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who discovered the island that now bears his name in 1642.

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