When Tasmania's House of Arras reeled in Decanter magazine's top sparkling award late last year, shortly after a 2018 Tasmanian chardonnay by Tolpuddle was awarded champion white at the International Wine Challenge, Australia's southernmost state inked itself indelibly on the world map of prestige wine.
Michael Hill Smith, joint manager of Tolpuddle in the Coal River Valley near Hobart, is quick to deflect attention from viticultural wizardry to the blessings of a cool climate, something few other Australian wine regions enjoy.
"Tasmania is cold but can also be quite dry, producing wines that couple a bracing line of acid with amazing fruit and flavour intensity," he says. "The best wines are both distinctive and exhilarating."
Thanks to its mild summers and long autumn days, Tasmanian viticulture is developing a strong global reputation for sparkling wine as well as Burgundy-style pinot noir and chardonnay; there is much excitement about the prospect of cool-climate Rhone-style shiraz, which Tasmanian winemakers – like New Zealanders – refer to by its French name of syrah.
The closest thing to a cool-climate Tasmanian pinot noir may, in fact, be a Central Otago or Marlborough pinot. Kiwi-born and University of Canterbury-educated Samantha Connew is owner and winemaker at the boutique brand Stargazer, in the Coal River Valley. She points out that Tasmania and New Zealand's South Island share the influence of a crisp maritime climate.
Connew, who has made wine in the New South Wales Hunter Valley and in South Australia's McLaren Vale, recalls that relocating to Tasmania in 2013 was "like coming home – from both a lifestyle point of view and a grape growing point of view. Tassie for me is a perfect combination of Australia and New Zealand."
She suspects a unique quality of Tasmanian geology – an underlay of Jurassic dolerite rock – explains the high calcium levels in the Coal River Valley. "This contributes to grapes with thicker skins and a longer ripening period – like New Zealand."
Sheralee Davies, chief executive officer of Wine Tasmania, says the island's southern summer sun is tempered not by altitude – as is the case with supposedly cool-climate wine regions around the nation's capital of Canberra – but by latitude.
"Our grapes hang on the vines longer as a result and we harvest from February through to April and May," says Davies. "This brings greater risks, as they are exposed to mother nature that much longer than many other wine regions, but it pays off in the great quality of the wine."
The quality of Tasmanian wine has a clear commercial pay-off. Only seven per cent of Australian wines are sold above $A15 a bottle; not one Tasmanian wine is sold below $15.
When talented young Swiss winemaker Matthias Utzinger established his eponymous label in 2017, he was struck by the similarities with the wine-growing regions of his homeland. He and his Tasmanian-born wife Lauren have settled on an 18-hectare Tamar Valley vineyard in the island's north where they have plantings of pinot noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and syrah.
Utzinger also stresses the capacity of long ripening periods to produce balanced and aromatic wines: "Switzerland, Alsace, New Zealand, Germany and some cooler-climate regions in the United States all prove that point, and for me are the ones whose wine styles influence me the most."
Tasmania may not produce typically big, bold Australian reds. But, in a warming world, it seems increasingly as if the cooler the climate, the brighter the future.
The island's diverse terroir and compact size makes it easy to explore the island's winemaking regions. Plot a course along four wine trails covering many of the island's wineries and a range of cellar doors, from restored convict-built barns to steel-and-glass architectural statements.
Feast and Forage
The distance from paddock (or ocean) to plate is never far, writes Alice Hansen.
Farmhouse feasting on a tall ship. Tasting salty shucked goodness straight from the oyster farmer's hand. There's nothing ordinary about the food or the farmers in Tasmania. Here's a tasting flight of off-trail treasures and hands-on experiences for food lovers.
Sirocco South foraging tours
A foraging tour with Mic Giuliani might lead to wild asparagus in a seaside meadow, or lunch in a forest "dining room". What looks like a nondescript coastal patch outside Hobart becomes, with Giuliani's keen eye, a bounty of native edibles. Each forage is followed by a six-course outdoor feast - with local wines,of course.
Tasmanian Truffles
Henry Terry was there when his father harvested Australia's first black truffle on a chilly winter afternoon in 1999 at the family's farm in north-west Tasmania, beneath the escarpments of the Great Western Tiers. He and his sister, Anna, have wooed fans with a regular stall at Salamanca Market in Hobart where they served everything from truffle salt and honey to truffle ice-cream on summer days. Guests on a tour of their Tasmanian Truffles farm are led by the expert nose of family Labrador and chief hunter Douglas. Follow the hunt with lunch and a truffle tasting.
Mount Gnomon Farm
Also in the north west is Mount Gnomon Farm with its "secret life of pigs" farm tour. Head out with owner Guy Robertson to meet his heritage-breed pigs and explore his 1000-tree cider orchard, kitchen gardens, new barn and on-site restaurant.
Provenance Kitchen
Head further west to the fishing village of Stanley for a cooking class at Provenance Kitchen, with tuition and the resulting four-course meal held in a restored convict-era barn at Highfield Historic Site, and a farm tour to source ingredients.
Fat Pig Farm
In the Huon Valley in the south, TV personality Matthew Evans, aka the Gourmet Farmer, runs Fat Pig Farm, an innovative mixed farm, cooking school and lunch venue. He runs farm tours and workshops, long farmhouse lunches on Fridays and, in the nearby town of Franklin, he sets sail with small groups aboard the Scandinavian tall ship, the Yukon, for free-range floating picnics.
Bruny Island Long Weekend
This glamping, walking and foodie experience transports guests from mainland Tassie to much-loved Bruny Island for three days of feasting in wild surrounds – and we all know how good oysters taste fresh from the ocean. Don't have a long weekend free? There are plenty of seafood shacks along the east coast, including Melshell Oyster Shack, Freycinet Marine Farm and the Lobster Shack Tasmania.