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Feature Region Tasmania

Temptation Island

We’ll admit it. Tasmania is one of the collective favourite places for the Sometimes Always team. Besides sounding too much like a travel campaign talking about the remarkable scenery, food and wine (and other beverages) nestled within it, we think it just distills down to one core principle – authenticity.

Tasmania is inundated with its own rich produce, yet perhaps none more so than wine. We challenge you to find a ‘bad’ Tasmanian wine. If they exist, we haven’t found them.

Why is this? Well, we have some theories. Tasmania is a relatively new wine region. Yes, yes, Tasmania was actually the first place in Australia to plant vineyards and grow vines (a decade earlier than the Hunter Valley), yet during the second half of the 1800s, the vineyards largely died off or were replaced by apple orchards.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that wine returned to Tasmania and has found huge success as one of Australia’s most unique cool climate wine regions. Cool climate friendly varieties thrive in Tasmania – none more so than chardonnay and pinot noir, which have become the tentpoles of the region. The fact you are reading this on this site would mean we don’t need to explain to you the importance of chardonnay and pinot noir to the wine industry.|

Although Tasmania is a ‘small’ island, the topography and soil types are diverse and suited to viticulture. Both the climate and soil is prime for vineyards, meaning that the resulting grapes often have an ability to express each site’s uniqueness. This concept of terroir is the end goal of most premium winemakers – you want to be able to taste where a wine is from. Tasmanian wines have this in abundance.

A Case For Recognition

It may be shocking but Tasmania produces only 0.2% of Australian wine grapes, yet makes one-tenth of the nation’s premium wines. As an island, it punches above its weight and is a legitimate asset to the Australian wine industry as a whole. Alongside the rise in awareness and ever growing appreciation of Tasmanian wine, discussion has slowly been simmering in support establishment of individual GI’s (Geographical Indications) to acknowledge the diversity of terroir seen right across the island. Regions such as Derwent Valley, Coal River Valley, Tamar Valley and The North East being just a few that are widely respected for producing exceptional wine with distinct characteristics.

All these reasons – and more – have captured the interest of winemakers from both the mainland and abroad and drawn them into the island’s enigmatic pull. Tasmania is now home to some of the most applauded and exciting winemakers in the nation. These winemakers, like Stargazer’s Sam Connew, Dr Edge and Meadowbank’s Peter Dredge, Glaetzer-Dixon’s Nick Glaetzer and Ghost Rock’s Justin Arnold, just to name a few, are some of our favourite producers who are committed to the island and continually blow us away with the wines they produce.

Given the relative scarcity of grapes and therefore low production yields, producers who settle in Tasmania often will do so to hone their craft and express something truly different and unique. These are authentic producers – not searching for fame or thousands of visitors spilling into their cellar door every year – they do it for the wine. Their wines are limited, yet special. The cost of a Tassie wine is justified – they are in high demand and hard to come by. They never last as long as we’d like and leave us wanting more. They are the real deal and unashamedly Tasmanian.

EXPLORE THE WINE OF TASMANIA

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