Susana Fernandez and Duncan Ferguson, Altaness.
Duncan Ferguson and Susana Fernandez are no slouches when it comes to winemaking.
It’s what you’d expect of a couple who’ve lived and worked in some of the world’s top wine-producing regions.
But talk with them about Altaness – their small artisan winery in Tasmania’s Huon Valley – and the conversation takes an unexpected path.
It’s not tools and techniques that are front-of-mind. It’s details of the lavish and precision care they devote to their 1.5ha vineyard south of Cygnet.
“You don’t need fancy gadgets to make good wine,” Ferguson explains.
“You need quality fruit before you need anything else.”
Indeed, so far as cool climate Tasmania is concerned, producing quality fruit is the only game in town. Every winemaker worth their salt will tell you that. Just stop and listen.
Ferguson and Fernandez figure among the 40-plus winemakers and vineyard operators with tales to tell – and wines to share – during Wine South’s Southern Open Vineyards Weekend. Full details here: openvineyards.wine
The event takes place from 28 February to 2 March, 2025.
It’s a unique, self-guided journey into Tasmanian wine. Participating producers can be found in the Coal River Valley, the Derwent Valley, the Huon Valley/D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Tasmania’s south east.
Vineyards furthest from Hobart – in the Huon/Channel and south east – account for more than half those with open invitations. Most represent an industry sector that is small-scale, family-owned and seldom seen. Many will have specially curated on-site tours, food and live entertainment.
“We started planting vines in 2016 but our vineyard is yet to be fully developed,” Ferguson continues.
“In the meantime, we’ve been able to access fruit from mature vineyards we work with in the region. We have a good reputation for the wines we’ve made since purchasing our property back in 2015.”
Amen to that.
Ferguson and Fernandez began their careers on the other side of the world. In 1997, they established the 4.5ha Cascabel Vineyard in South Australia’s McLaren Vale.
Its mix of Spanish and southern Rhone varieties brought early success. But only Tempranillo and Riesling purchased from the Eden Valley raised owner pulse-rates, says Madrid-born Fernandez.
“We wanted to produce savoury wines with perfume and elegance; handcrafted, minimally-handled wines reflecting true cool climate origins,” she explains.
“We sold up in 2015 and moved to the Huon to start again; to explore the exceptional possibilties this valley has to offer. We don’t have a problem producing small quantities of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir when we can create wines that have such purity, freshness and longevity. It’s inspiring.”
To visit this idyllic region is to discover Altaness has much in common with its peers.
Two decades ago, Queensland-born Max Marriott was destined for a career in mechanical and aerospace engineering. A 21st birthday present in the form of an airline ticket from his parents lured him to New Zealand instead.
“I fell in love with the place,” he recalls.
“After exploring its wine regions, I dropped out of my uni course and moved to Christchurch. Twin passions for wine and applied science resulted in a degree in viticulture and oenology from Lincoln University.”
Anim winemaker Max Marriott. Image courtesy Mark Smith.
Vineyard work at renowned Felton Road taught Marriott how to grow cool climate Pinot Noir, by addressing critical leaf canopy management. Vintage 2006 at Tamar Ridge Wines in northern Tasmania made hands-on winemaking a focus.
Marriott’s spell in the state was brief but provided valuable insights into its new and evolving possibilities of cool climate wine production.
With his degree completed, Marriott headed back to Pinot-centric central Otago. He soon found it was more than just red wine country. In 2009, Marriott and several industry partners embarked on an ambitious project to make small volumes of discretely different Central Otago Riesling, sourced from selected subregions.
Their Auburn wines wowed critics with distinctive, clear-cut expressions of the variety. Marriott says making Riesling from the same patches of dirt every year for six vintages helped foster a deep understanding of the complex connections that link site, season, grape and wine.
Vintages in Burgundy, the Mosel Valley and Oregon preceded Marriott’s arrival in Tasmania in 2017 with wife Siobahn. The couple’s Anim Wine operates two leased vineyards: Windrush at Kingston and Tinderbox further south.
Key management roles at Clarence House, Cambridge, add to a busy working week.
In 2021, Marriott crafted that estate’s winning entry in the 2022 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge. Its flagship wine from the following vintage is listed among Australia’s top Pinot Noir in the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion.
“My goal is growing great fruit at each of the three vineyards we lease, manage or oversee,” he explains.
“Anim is small and quality-driven. We farm the land organically; build soil condition and vitality; work hard to increase plant health. We’re making wines from the ground up; wines from fruit we’ve farmed ourselves and are truly unique and expressive of place.”
Visit the picturesque Huon/Channel during the two months that follow the Open Weekend and you’ll see picking bins still in use, long after those in the warmer Tamar Valley and Coal River Valley are done and dusted.
Huonville’s annual average rainfall is 750mm, well over Richmond’s 500mm in the Coal River Valley, some 65km away. The former’s mean January maximum is 23.6°C; the latter, a full degree warmer.
Award-winning Sailor Seeks Horse winemaker Gilli Lipscombe. Image courtesy Mark Smith.
“We put our nets on when we see Andrew Hanigan at Derwent Estate take his off,” muses Paul Lipscombe at Sailor Seeks Horse.
Now there’s a horse with a different tale. Weekend travellers will find it 15km south of Huonville.
Paul and Gilli Lipscombe met in London in 2005. Together, they took on new careers in wine, becoming modern-day gypsies as they worked their way around the world. Within a decade, the couple went from vineyard newbies to degree dux (Gilli) to makers of the coveted 2015 Jimmy Watson Trophy winner at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show.
Secure employment at Home Hill between 2011 and 2019 enabled them to put time and money into re-developing a moribund vineyard at Cradoc, left abandoned after establishment in 2005. Sailor Seeks Horse now produces some of the state’s best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. After 15 years of hard graft.
“The Huon Valley has a long growing season and is marginal in terms of ripening fruit,” Paul explains.
“There is no large company exposure here. It requires small growers of skill and determination to grow good fruit, and there’s a fair degree of financial risk to reach the heights the region can deliver.”
The valley thrived when apples there were flavour of the month. When the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1972, exports collapsed. Orchards were removed, land sub-divided, with few large plots left for future commercial investment.
Art Farm’s Sculpture Trail, open 7 days a week. Image courtesy Cassie Sullivan
“We won’t see the 100ha vineyard developments taking place in other regions, so we provide a point of difference.”
Five Bob’s Chris Read clearly recalls the region’s darkest days. He lived them, having been born there in the 1950s. He’s optimistic about the future of the Huon/Channel. A recently expanded 5ha vineyard stands testament to that.
Five Bob is the name of the working farm that is ‘pepper berry central’ for Read’s Diemen Pepper brand and on-site café, The Venue. The property also hosts Art Farm Birchs Bay, a not-for-profit that fosters engagement between community and the arts.
Read’s generous support enables Art Farm to host exhibitions and artist residency, art workshops and the beautifully conceived (often quirky) Sculpture Trail. The kid-friendly trail is open all year, taking in a cornucopia of local pleasures – native bush walks; cultivated gardens and orchards; kitchen herb and vegie plots that change with the seasons.
Five Bob wine is made under contract two kilometres away by genial Jonny Hughes. Mewstone’s state-of-the-art winery and welcoming vineyard cellar door enjoy panoramic views of the spectacular D’Entrecasteaux Channel. A steady stream of wine enthusiasts and visiting professionals make the site an emerging industry hub.
That stream becomes a torrent on Open Weekends, so book or ring ahead of arrival. It would be a pity to miss the carefully cellared magnums of early vintages specially set aside for tasting.
Wines, vines and dramatic views at Mewstone Wines.
Hughes doesn’t seek the limelight. It finds him.
In 2018, the NZ-trained winemaker from Tasmania’s north-west was declared Best New Act in Australia’s Annual Young Gun of Wine Awards. Acclaim continued in 2019 with the Halliday Wine Companion naming Mewstone as Australia’s Best New Winery, while Gourmet Traveller WINE added the mantle of Young Winemaker of the Year.
You don’t earn respect settling for second best.
The 5.4 ha vineyard at Flowerpot, first planted in 2011, had a makeover during 2024. Gone are the vines responsible for Mewstone’s popular estate-grown Syrah wines. They may have turned heads but failed to turn the profit needed to support meticulous viticulture.
Several clones of Pinot Noir went too.
“We’ve added varieties and clones we know through experience are moderately productive,” Hughes says. “Being small-scale is one thing; getting barely 1.0-1.5t/ha of fruit from a significant portion of the vineyard is not sustainable.”
Rivulet Wine’s Keira O’Brien will have space on Mewstone’s deck this year, pouring current releases and preview wines from Glaziers Bay.
The talented maker loves the Huon/Channel but is heading to warmer climes on Tasmania’s east coast, where she and partner Oliver Freeman are re-invigorating an established 2ha vineyard near Swansea.
Heed the signs, dear reader.
Whenever I am asked where would I go if I were to start winemaking again, the answer is Tasmania.”
– James Halliday AO, winemaker/author/critic.
This week’s wine reviews
2015 Henskens Rankin Vintage Brut $105
Frieda Henskens burst out of a sparkling wine bubble of anonymity to beat Arras and win two trophies at the 2019 Tasmanian Wine Show. The wine was a late-disgorged 8-year-old she had quietly and patiently matured prior to release.
It’s costly and nerve-wracking but done well delivers world-class quality. This is superb, too. 1830 bottles.
2024 Bangor Jimmy’s Hill Pinot Gris $34
Wines, vines and water are just the tip of the iceberg at Dunalley’s Bangor.
A genuine country welcome is supported by great staff, excellent restaurant fare and produce that is as local as the view in front of you. The 2024 Cool Climate Wine Show praised this trophy winner for its ‘balance and pitch perfect fruit.’ Bang on.
2024 Anim Pinot Blanc $50
Max Marriott is making impressive wines in minute quantities in the State’s south. Pinot Blanc has had little to say for itself so far in Tasmania, but this barrel-fermented white sings sweetly, like a little bird.
Mid-weight stone fruit notes are delivered in the smooth, beautifully rounded manner typical of the variety’s Gris cousin. Very nice indeed.
2023 Kate Hill Four Winds Estate Chardonnay $45
Four Winds Vineyard and its cosy cellar door are just north of Huonville in the picturesque Huon Valley. Mild summers and chilly late season mornings provide great growing conditions for top Chardonnay.
Deft making has given this release a European feel. It’s sleek and neatly textured, with a fine balance of fruit and quality oak.
2023 Bream Creek Pinot Noir $50
Bream Creek’s stylish but laidback cellar door overlooks Marion Bay in Tasmania’s South East. Dazzling location; dazzling Pinot. This is a juicy, red-fruited, eminently drinkable wine that’s yet to fully blossom.
Right now, it has 7 trophies to its credit, including an extraordinary trifecta at the prestigious 2024 Royal Sydney Wine Show. Seeing is believing.
