Step aside Yarra Valley and Coonawarra, Tasmania’s traditional dairy and potato heartland is muscling in on the wine scene — with a little help from climate change.
For more than 100 years, North-West Tasmania’s rolling green hills and chocolate soils have been home to some of the most profitable cattle and vegetable farms in the country.
With heavy-hitting neighbours like the East Coast, the Coal River Valley and the Tamar, the region is not usually the first to spring to mind when it comes to world-class drops.
But, with a steady rise in vineyards and cellar doors, a public appetite for crisp, cool-temperate wines, and a warming planet, North-West Tasmania is quickly carving out a niche as an up-and-coming destination.
Paddock pioneers
All over the world, growers have been pushing grapes into increasingly unlikely areas including the cold coast of southern England, the southernmost extreme of Norway, and along rivers in the Patagonian Desert.
Tasmanian vineyards have been following that pattern in the last couple of decades, spreading like weeds from the 200-year-old early vines of the Tamar Valley and springing up among the rain-soaked paddocks and stormy coastlines of the North-West.
Phil Dolan was among the first to plant a vineyard in the area, establishing his vines in the early 1990s in a riverside field at Kimberley, about 30 minutes south of Devonport.
“There were a few around, but not many,” he said.
“It’s totally different now — it’s getting quite good.”
Mr Dolan is convinced Tasmania grows the best cool-climate wines in the country, although he admits he is biased.
“I honestly believe that the best sparkling comes from this area,” he said.
“We should get a better name as time goes on.”
Mr Dolan mused about what Australia’s wine-growing regions would look like if we followed France’s strict laws that stipulate which grape varieties can be grown in certain regions in order to maintain quality control.
“If we lived under French laws you wouldn’t be able to grow chardonnay or pinot noir outside of Tassie,” he laughed.
New kids on the block
In the sunshine-drenched “food bowl” of Sassafras, 20 kilometres from Devonport, the Nichols family decided to plant about 8 hectares of vines in 2018, after a “few bottles of wine” at a family get-together.
Flanked by fields of cauliflowers and flocks of chickens, the vineyard has since grown to nearly 12ha and includes winemaking, bottling facilities, and a cellar door.
Winemaker, Andrew Gaman moved to the state from West Australia’s Margaret River where he spent years making wine, as well as in Europe and the United Kingdom.
“I’m a big, big fan of Tasmanian wines,” he said.
“[The North-West] is a sort of a new terroir for Tasmania. I think its wine has been undervalued and hasn’t been explored to its full potential … but it’s really starting to explode.”
Mr Gaman describes wines from the region as “bright and clear” thanks to naturally occurring high acidity and low sugar.
“I love the purity of the wines that we have up here,” he said.
“We have beautiful fruit and acid length, very delicate, but also powerful wines as well.”
Against the odds
About 200km west of the Nichols family in the tiny community of Marrawah, young farmer Stafford Heres planted his own small vineyard of sparkling grapes in 2015.
They grow against the odds among the chaotic power of the Roaring Forties, clinging to a hillside overlooking the Indian Ocean and yielding a small vintage each year.
More hobby than a commercial venture, Mr Heres’s operation is a “come-and-knock-on-the-door” operation.
He’s excited about the future of the industry in the region, particularly in the context of climate change.
“I’m lucky enough to sit on a couple of different committees and see some of the climate futures models that … the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture has modelled,” Mr Heres said.
“We see … annual rainfall deteriorating by 2050.
“I’m very optimistic that it will become a mecca wine region.
“I think now we’re starting to get a little bit more information around where climates are headed … you’ll see a lot more hectares of vineyard going in.”
Climate for more
North-West agronomist Ali Dugand has usually been more at home in a field of carrots but decided to study viticulture during COVID lockdowns.
She headed out to local vineyards to research her assignments, reaching out to as many growers as possible.
“I was quite surprised — in a good way,” she said.
“Ten years ago there was not a lot [of vineyards]. There was a handful of really popular ones that paved the way. That handful has grown to 30, 40 — more.
“They pop up everywhere, but they’re micro vineyards, not necessarily commercial.
Ms Dugand says the region’s conditions favour wine growing.
“In terms of climate, we’re lucky here because we’ve got this shallow water body that controls our temperature, so it’s very moderate,” she said.
“It’s cool enough to do the cooler wines … but it also allows a bit of an opportunity to play around.”
Wine grapes embracing change
Sassafras cellar door manager Nick Turner says the North-West Coast has always been one of the cooler regions of the state.
“But that’s going to work to our advantage,” he said.
“If the harvest date does keep coming forward due to that tiny shift in autumn temperatures rising each year, then we are going to be one of the last cool climate regions in the country.”
Mr Turner’s comments are supported by a world-first study into the future impacts of climate change on wine-growing regions from the University of Tasmania in 2020.
The study predicts South Australia’s Barossa Valley will become more like the Riverland is now, while Tasmania will resemble the current temperature of the Coonawarra in SA.
But, while grapes like shiraz and cabernet sauvignon have already begun ripening in southern and eastern vineyards, Mr Turner says the chilly waters of the Bass Strait might act as a temperature regulator for growers in his region.
“Who knows, maybe in 40, 50 years the North-West Coast might be making some of the best sparkling in the entire world,” he said.
“The Barossa, on the other hand, might be struggling by that stage.”
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