TAMAR VALLEY
Tasmania’s scenic Tamar Valley is a picture of rolling hills, winding roads and river bends. Scattered throughout, a host of talented winemakers are taking advantage of the region’s incredibly diverse terroir.
These talented winemakers are taking advantage of the region’s diverse terroir.
Online dating brought Bec and Tim together. Fate, too, if you buy into that kind of thing. Either way, the meeting resulted in marriage, two children, and a Tamar Valley winery worth putting on your radar.
Rebecca Duffy, commonly known as Bec and once known – on the internet, at least – as ‘Wine Girl’, is the winemaker at Holm Oak, a boutique family-run vineyard in Rowella, on the western bank of the Tamar River. Bec’s husband, Tim Duffy, is the vineyard’s viticulturist. He is a third-generation grape grower and an agronomist, so you can perhaps see why the first date between ‘I’m a Galaxy Man’ and ‘Wine Girl’ in 2007 went so well.
The wine is going well, too. The result of a minimalist approach, Holm Oak’s catalogue is full of light, balanced, flavourful wines with a natural acidity that is generally reflective of Tamar Valley vino.
Born on King Island and educated in Launceston, Bec studied winemaking at the University of Adelaide before gaining vast experience across Australia and in California. She returned to the Tamar Valley in 2006 and, when Holm Oak came on the market, thought the idea of her own vineyard “sounded like fun”. “I just thought the opportunity to have my own place would be exciting. I didn’t realise how much work it was going to be,” she laughs.
“I was really naive when I first started, but I’m glad for that, because if I knew then what I know now, I might not have done it. Now that we’ve been doing it for 15 years, we’ve managed to build a successful business. It has been worth it.”
Stretching 60km north from Launceston to Bass Strait, the Tamar Valley is a picturesque province with a food and wine scene to rival the country’s best. It is a cool-climate region where chardonnay, pinot noir and sparkling are ubiquitous, and excellent rieslings, sauvignon blancs and pinot gris are also easy to find. A smattering of lesser-known varieties, such as gewürztraminer and arneis, are grown here, too.
Winemaker Jeremy Dineen says the region’s diversity is also evident within the varieties.
“If you start inland around Evendale and White Hills and Relbia you get lovely bright, vibrant red fruits, and bright acidity in your pinot [noir], and as you move 50 or 60
kilometres up the river … you start to get a riper fruit flavour,” he explains. “There’s no quality judgement there. You have great quality at both ends of the valley and everywhere in between, but just differences in style. That’s the fantastic thing about having a region that is a valley dominated by a river. You do see a huge variation from one end to the other.”
A doyenne of Tasmanian wine, Dineen led the winemaking team at Josef Chromy from 2005 until breaking away in December to give his own label a shot. Run from a single vineyard in Yorktown, Haddow + Dineen is a collaboration between Dineen and long-time friend Nick Haddow. The two are nicely paired – Dineen, an industry stalwart and Haddow, the founder of Bruny Island Cheese Co – and their ‘maximumconsideration’ approach is leading to exceptional wines.
“It’s not rocket science,” says a self-effacing Dineen. “You get good grapes, you squeeze them, stick them in a barrel and let it ferment, and then you stick it in a bottle. You’ve just got to have the right fruit to start with and look after it carefully along the way.”
Dineen retains a “deep attachment” to Josef Chromy Wines, a brand he helped build from scratch, and that includes an attachment to the label’s namesake. A luminary of Tasmania’s food and wine industry, Josef Chromy’s contribution dates back to 1951 when he arrived in Australia after fleeing war-torn Czechoslovakia. Twenty years old, penniless and without a word of English, Chromy went about building a new life. And build he did.
His first venture, Blue Ribbon Meat Products, was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1993. With the money, Chromy bought his first vineyard, Rochecombe (now Bay of Fires), the following year.
“I could see that the fledgling Tasmanian wine industry, like the meat industry before it, was undergoing rationalisation,” he says. “My experience was in creating scale, quality, yield and new markets, and I wanted to put this experience to good use.” Before launching his eponymous label, Chromy resurrected the vineyards that have gone on to become Jansz and Heemskerk, and established Tamar Ridge.
A bona fide workhorse, Chromy celebrated his 90th birthday in December, yet retirement isn’t in his sights: “I didn’t put my feet up then and I don’t intend to put my feet up now.” As well as property development, Chromy’s family group of companies is involved in numerous tourism ventures. Chromy himself, who was named Tasmanian Tourism Champion in 2017, says the marriage between wine and tourism is a dream fit for the Apple Isle.
“I love that there are so many facets to the Tasmanian wine industry, and that because of our small scale, wine and tourism are so intrinsically linked,” he says. “When you visit Tasmanian cellar doors, it is an open and genuine invitation to see what we do, how we do it and why we choose to make wines in this beautiful part of the world,” adds Chromy.
When it comes to Tamar Valley cellar doors, one of the premium experiences can be found at family owned and run Stoney Rise in Gravelly Beach.
Dubbed the ‘cellar door of the future’, the estate’s new venue features a generous selection of Australian and international wines alongside the house label, and the design is a treat. Courtesy of Tasmanian architects Cumulus Studio, the cellar door has been constructed using locally sourced materials and the rich palette – deep reds, rich greens – connects to the overall wine narrative. “We want
“I LOVE THAT THERE ARE SO MANY FACETS TO THE TASMANIAN WINE INDUSTRY.” JOSEF CHROMY
visitors to our home tasting our wines alongside some of our favourites from around the world,” explains Stoney Rise winemaker Joe Holyman. “In that sense, we’re welcoming you into your favourite new wine bar rather than the expected cellar door.”
It’s a far cry from the Stoney Rise of a few years back, when I first met Holyman. Then, he was calf-deep in a vat of grapes, in the middle of a large shed, in the middle of the estate’s 16 hectares. The vineyard had no cellar door to speak of, but we did purchase a few bottles, which he fetched from a pallet in the corner.
Cellar door or no, Holyman’s wines have been consistently noteworthy over this time.
There are three ranges: No Clothes, Stoney Rise and Holyman, and although he does them well, the winemaker isn’t solely committed to Tamar’s star varieties.
In fact, Stoney Rise was the first vineyard in Australia to grow grüner veltliner (2004) and is the only Tasmanian producer making trousseau. Holyman believes his lack of formal studies has allowed him to take more risks as a winemaker.
“I haven’t had the training as such, so I’m very good at giving stuff a go,” he says.
“Instead of wondering whether something will work, I’m of the opinion that you just try it, and if it doesn’t, you worry about it later.”
It’s been a successful strategy to date. The state-of-the-art cellar door is a hit. So too, his foray into Austrian varieties – his grüner veltliner rarely makes it beyond the cellar door. It’s as good a reason as any to drop in … to Stoney Rise, and the entire Tamar Valley.