Tasmania

The wines coming out of this unique island state today are fresh, complex and lively. Their quality is testament to the winemakers who spotted its potential in the 1980s, overcoming serious climatic challenges to produce some exemplary wines

- DAVID SLY

Australia’s island state of Tasmania has long been earmarked as a wine region of great potential, largely for the distinctive quality of its pristine cool-climate fruit. Now there is proof on the table of potential realised. Popping open the House of Arras’ 2001 Blanc de Blancs, you can only marvel at the freshness and vitality of a 20-year-old wine just entering maturity. Extraordinary grapes have been caressed and framed masterfully in the winery in a way not seen on the Australian mainland, nor rarely elsewhere in the world.

LEARNING PROCESS

It has been a slow journey to reach this point. From the 1980s, boutique growers began planting the right grape varieties in the right sites, with a particular focus on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. But early efforts were often clumsy, as winemakers struggled to properly harness the intensity of unusually persistent acidity in the grapes and the island’s maddeningly fluctuating vintage conditions.

It’s a tricky landscape for growers to read. The temperature is seriously cold here – a daily average of 9°C in some parts – and the next landfall beyond Australia’s southernmost point is Antarctica.

But Tasmania is also dry, with the eastern span of vineyards lying in the rain shadow of a range of mountains that splits the isle. All this promotes slow flavour development in the fruit and an extraordinary acid line that ensures complexity while retaining freshness.