After a year of toil, Tassie grape growers poised for special vintage

YOU may have noticed a fair bit of activity in Tasmania’s vineyards and wineries over the past few weeks.

The 2018 wine grape vintage is in full swing and this is when the efforts of the past 12 months come to fruition and we can pick our wine grapes and get them safely into our wineries to be crafted into bottles of outstanding Tasmanian wine.

Growing grapes and making wine in Tasmania is a capital and labour intensive pursuit, which comes with many risks and challenges.

As with any agricultural pursuit, mother nature is a powerful force.

Wind, frost, rain or lack of rain, hot or cold weather at different times of the year can have a big impact on wine grapes, particularly on the quantity of wine produced in any single year, usually more so than the quality.

Pests and disease can create pressure, and smoke from fires can have a negative impact. Frost alarms alert growers to turn on frost-prevention fans or sprinklers in the middle of the night and many Tassie vineyards are harvested and pruned by hand, adding to the significant labour involved.

The volume of wine grapes harvested can vary by 50 per cent year on year, but vineyard management needs to be an effort of 100 per cent, regardless of varying volumes.

The naturally cool climate here provides a longer ripening period than most other regions around the nation. This means grapes stay on the vines longer, slowly and steadily ripening and allowing development of intense flavour and structure, producing wines that are made to enjoy with food and that will age and mature well. This longer ripening also adds to the challenge and risk in managing vineyards, but is rewarded by the striking quality of wine it creates.

And that’s before we’ve reached the winery, where the grapes need to be carefully pressed, fermented and crafted into premium wines by their talented makers — a mix of art and science. Many wineries will often operate at 24/7 over vintage and you’re likely to find winemakers running on fumes at this time of the year.

Many wines will then be aged, some over years, before being bottled and labelled. Equipment used in the vineyard and winery, as well as things like glass bottles, need to be shipped here and the wine is then shipped interstate and overseas.

Close to 100 cellar doors operate on the island, giving an opportunity for wine lovers to meet people behind each wine, hear their stories and taste their wine. Across the Tasmanian wine sector, there are more than 2000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The hardworking growers, makers, cellar door managers and all involved in the sector, including me, are here in Tasmania because we believe this island is among the best places in the world to produce outstanding wine. And we’re not alone.

High quality wines from Tasmanian vineyards have

unique characteristics that cannot be replicated.

We are still quite small as a wine region, but well and truly in demand. Close to 300,000 people visited a cellar door during their stay in Tasmania over the past year, more than one in five visitors to Tassie. These visitors spent about $2570 per person compared with $1780 per person across all visitors to Tasmania.

The average bottle of a Tasmanian wine is more than double the rest of the country, our wine exports are close to triple the Australian average and our wine grapes are valued at more than six times the rest of the country.

The Tasmanian wine sector plays an important role to the island, through vineyards, wineries, cellar door and visitor offerings, associated regional employment and through our strong wine reputation and brand.

In each of these areas, the sector has been growing strongly for many years, and in stark contrast to other Australian wine regions.

This season, the lead-up to the 2018 Tasmanian vintage has been quite warm and we have started picking grapes a little earlier than normal.

The vintage continues over a period of a few months, as different vineyard sites around the island and different grape varieties ripen in their own time ready to be picked.

You can expect to see continuing vintage activity over the coming weeks and will be able to taste for yourself wines from the 2018 vintage as they start to be released in the coming months and years.

Early reports suggest this is going to be a cracker, with great quality as well as good volumes. Not many in the hardworking wine community will enjoy a break over Easter, but enjoy yours — perhaps with a glass of something Tasmanian. Enjoy responsibly.

We are still quite small as a wine region, but well and truly in demand.