Anyone who visited Tasmania’s drought-ravaged east coast last August will remember all too clearly the wringing of hands and the gnashing of teeth that accompanied winegrower predictions of their forthcoming seasons in the vineyard.

For many producers, only the drenching rains of September 2019 averted what looked like becoming a potentially disastrous journey to vintage 2020.

What a difference a year can make. That’s the message now being echoed by wine producers up and down the coast.

On the face of it, Priory Ridge’s David Llewellyn has every reason to be optimistic about the immediate future of intensive viticulture in this part of the state. His vineyard rain gauge has already topped 550mm this year. That’s 120mm more than the 6ha site outside St Helens received during the whole of 2019.

So it’s not more rain the former ALP member of (state) Parliament is hoping to see when he looks out over the region’s picturesque landscapes at the moment. It’s cellar door visitors he and his wife Julie really need now.

East coast visitor numbers had been booming until March 2020. Visitor estimates published by Tourism Tasmania show that since 2016 the region’s Great Eastern Drive Touring Route has been among the state’s top three tourist destinations. Annual visitor numbers have often exceeded 300,000.

While all business activity in Tasmania has been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Priory Ridge Wines has felt the tourism downturn more than many, especially when compared with industry peers located near the large urban centres of Hobart and Launceston.

“Our cellar door visitors have been around 40 percent overseas visitors, 40 percent interstate visitors and only 20 percent Tasmanian,” Lewellyn says.

“In recent years, the popularity of the new mountain-biking trails in and around Derby has really helped us add visitor numbers to those we’ve been seeing from east coast tourism operators,” adds Julie.

Peaks and troughs go with the territory, it seems.

When the couple bought their 20ha property at auction in 2002, it marked a new beginning for the former Tarpot Farm that had been in Julie’s family for more than a century.

“We didn’t plant our first lot of vines until 2008,” says the former Tasmanian Minister for Primary Industries, Water and Energy.
“In the meantime, we installed data-loggers across the property, conducted soil tests and took advice from renowned viticulturist Dr Richard Smart.

“We found out this is the only vineyard in Tasmania that is planted on Devonian granite-based soils. Although our climate and geography are different, that puts us on a similar footing to some vineyards in Germany, for example. It’s really interesting.”

After a wet summer in 2011 and a low-yielding 2012 harvest, Priory Ridge hit pay-dirt the following vintage when the vineyard’s barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc topped its category at the 2013 Wine of the Year Awards conducted by Winestate Magazine. The South Australian-based publication typically evaluates around 10,000 wines in 12 different categories each year. Winning wines come from all parts of Australia and New Zealand.

“I don’t suppose we should have been surprised, really,” Llewellyn admits.

“Richard Smart’s assessment of the site almost a decade earlier noted we have a very similar microclimate to that of Blenheim in New Zealand. That’s been the home of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc since the 1980s.”

When a cellar door tasting room was added to Priory Ridge, both local and family history provided it with all manner of unique focal points with which to engage its visitors.

David Llewellyn was born and raised only 40km away at nearby St Marys. As a St Helens local who grew up in the district, Julie has become the curator of a wonderful collection of memorabilia marking the pioneering endeavours of the families who settled these parts during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The late John Clifford was a distant family forebear. As an 18-year-old English convict, he was sentenced to 10 years’ transportation for stealing a mare valued at £8, the property of Wimbledon blacksmith John Hayter. The former stable groom was one of 77 prisoners that survived the wreck of the convict ship The Waterloo off Cape Town in August 1842.

“Women and children were among the 189 convicts, passengers, soldiers and seamen that lost their lives when the ship went down,” Julie explains. “John Clifford eventually completed his voyage to Van Diemens Land. He later became a coachman at Ross. He married Mary Viney from Campbell Town and they moved to St Helens in the 1850s.

“In 1860, the couple and their children settled at Priory, three miles from St Helens. They were among the district’s founding families. Cliffford spent more than half his life living here at Tarpot Farm. At the time of his death in 1919, he was over 100 years old, perhaps the oldest person then living on Tasmania’s east coast.”

Rich wines, rich history… what more can you expect from a cellar door visit?

Priory Ridge is open Saturday and Sunday, from 11.00AM – 4.00PM. Other days by appointment.

Winning Hartz and mind

Hartzview Vineyard’s cellar door at Gardners Bay south of Hobart temporarily closed for business on March 22, no thanks to COVID-19.

This month, co-owner Robert Patterson OAM received good news of a much-anticipated nature, albeit well beyond the reach of the wine business he and his wife Anthea began back in 1988.

Nowadays retired from the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel he held in the Australian Army Reserve, Patterson is to be awarded the Australian Service Medal in recognition of his overseas deployment during peacekeeping operations in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, in 1998. The decision comes 18 months after the former Sydneysider was awarded an Order of Australia medal (OAM) in the 2019 Australia Day Honours List ‘for service to science, particularly the environment and health.’

Last week’s announcement by the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal came on the same day the advisory body deemed the heroic actions of World War Two sailor Teddy Sheean should be honoured with a Victoria Cross for gallantry. Patterson had been advised previously he was ineligible for his service award. It appears Australian Defence Force officials could not confirm his deployment had been for at least 30 days – a necessary precondition for granting the medal.

The Gardners Bay couple have invested blood, sweat and tears in making their 3ha Hartzview Vineyard a significant local attraction in the tiny, embryonic Huon and Channel wine district. Each worked second and third jobs as they raised vines and a young family during the 1980s and 1990s.

Anthea studied wine marketing at Adelaide’s Roseworthy College while her husband juggled full-time health work – along with part time commitments to the Australian Army Reserve and formal studies in winemaking and viticulture at NSW’s Charles Sturt University.

In September 2004, Patterson showcased an environmentally friendly sewerage system he devised himself on the popular ABC TV program The Inventors. He didn’t win any prizes but revealed himself as the consummate innovator, free thinker and workaholic.
Past and present members of the Australian Defence Forces are eligible for significant, wide-ranging discounts across the Hartzview website. Log on for details. #supportlocal

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Hobart’s Mark Smith wrote his first weekly wine column back in 1994. Now more than 1700 features and 25 years later, he continues to chart the successes of Tasmania’s small scale, cool climate wine industry with regular contributions to some of Australia’s leading industry publications.

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PICK OF THE CROP

Mark gives you his honest opinions about the best wines available right now from Tasmania’s wine makers.

 

2017 Holm Oak Sparkling Rosé $50

Pinot Noir thrives in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley. The region’s warm temperatures and bright sunshine are a dream for makers of red table wine but provide a challenge for those looking to make sparkling Rosé with elegance and finesse. Bec Duffy jumped at the offer of a parcel of northwest coast fruit in 2017 and has been rewarded with a neatly crafted Pinot Noir Chardonnay blend. Varietal strawberry aromas offer a prelude to gentle red berry flavours that are as light as a feather on the palate. Serve with Tasmanian smoked trout or enjoy on its own. www.holmoakvineyards.com.au

 

 

2018 Grey Sands Pinot Blanc $45

Grey Sands outside Exeter in Tasmania’s beautiful Tamar Valley has been a home to vines since 1989. This is one of only a handful of sites in the State where visitors will find Pinot Blanc rubbing shoulders with better known Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. The 2018 is an intriguing wine – tending white nectarine in flavour but with greengage nuances and a little bit of grip derived from grape skin tannins. It evolves very nicely in the glass in typically Grey Sands fashion. These are wines for head and heart as well as palate. www.greysands.com.au

 

 

2019 Delamere Estate Pinot Noir $55

Delamere produces wonderful sparkling and Chardonnay table wine from the rich red soils of northeast Tasmania. Its Pinot Noir has been less consistent over the years, but recent releases indicate the variety is moving out of the shadows cast by sibling wines. Re-jigged viticulture, new plantings and subtle changes to winemaking have all resulted in significant increments in wine quality since this decade’s early teens. The 2019 release is a lovely wine, a lighter middleweight on the palate that displays very attractive raspberry and cherry fruit with knock-out fragrance. Long on flavour and very refined. www.delamerevineyards.com.au

 

 

2018 Priory Ridge Pinot Noir $35

Priory Ridge Vineyard outside St Helens is being very capably developed by former Tasmanian politician David Llewellyn. His engineer’s approach to viticulture really has the place ticking along now, despite the vagaries of the seasons. This new Pinot is a booming wine – for me, too much of a good thing, thanks to winemaker Brian Franklin insisting fruit flavours should be generous and ultra-ripe at harvest. Shiraz drinkers will love its bold mix of plum and spice notes, but it really needs a good slab of rare beef or venison to show its best in the glass. www.prioryridgewines.com

 

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