Cheers to Tasmania

For decades, the sparkling wines produced on this rugged Australian island have remained a closely guarded secret. Now they're winning awards-and luring travelers.

- Besha Rodell

THERE'S A CERTAIN quality to the light in Tasmania, an otherworldliness that's only enhanced by the striking scenery. Standing at the highest point of the estate Stefano Lubiana Wines (slw.com.au), looking over the vineyards that slope toward the river Derwent, I could see why Lubiana, a winemaker from South Australia, might have gambled on this spot 32 years ago. But it wasn't the glorious view, which stretches out in silvery majesty toward the capital city of Hobart, that brought him to the Derwent Valley. He was chasing a specific dream to make world-class sparkling wine and that required a very specific location.

"I was looking for a place with a cool climate but no frost, a variety of soils, and a long growing season," Lubiana told me. Having grown up in a winemaking family, whose ancestors were wine producers in Italy, he was one of the first to recognize that this island state off the southeastern coast of Australia had a climate and topography perfectly suited to his needs. Today, nearly 40 percent of the wine made there is sparkling, and recently that wine has begun to be recognized on the global stage.

In 2020, Decanter, one of Europe's most prestigious wine magazines, named the E. J. Carr Late Disgorged 2004 bottling from House of Arras (houseofarras.com.au), in northern Tasmania's Tamar Valley, as the top sparkling in its World Wine Awards, beating out many wines from Champagne and other well-established regions.