Patty's Pinot Closet publishes this newsletter on the enjoyment and appreciation of Pinot Noir. We welcome you to enjoy the newsletters and to share them with others. This, my eighth newsletter, covers Tasmanian Pinot Noirs from Australia. I tasted wine at wineries, wine festivals, and during very lovely dinners and lunches.

My husband, Jud and I attended Pinot Noir 2004 in Wellington, New Zealand in late January. One of the speakers, Dr. Richard Smart, called Pinot Noir the Petulant Princess and said "When she is good she is very, very good and when she is bad she is awful". When I was in High School I got a surreptitious look at my school records from kindergarten on. My fourth grade teacher had written exactly the same thing - no wonder I relate to Pinot Noir so much.

Many people are comparing Tasmania (and New Zealand) to Burgundy. Here's a few statistics for Frogmore Creek Vineyards just Northeast of Hobart, Tasmania and Burgundy that might interest you.

Tasmania Food and Wine

Recipes

Braised Quail with Red Grapes  I've researched a number of recipes for Quail and found that the most common seems to be Quail with Grapes, and white grapes at that. "The New Larousse Gastronomique", Elizabeth David's "French Provincial Cooking" and Fannie Merritt Farmer's "The Boston Cooking School Cook Book", all recommend wrapping the Quail breasts in grape leaves. For those of you with grape leaves please try it and let me know. Most of the recipes I researched (about 100) were quite complex and involved. I used red grapes instead of white and developed a simple Braised Quail with Red Grapes. You don't even have to peel the grapes as in many of the recipes. If anyone uses Pinot Noir grapes, please let me know. Hope you like it!

Many recipes using Pinot Noir are available at Patty's Pinot Closet Website.

Restaurants

Accommodations

Riverbank Cottages,  Launceston. Three delightful boutique, self contained cottages with superb views of the Tamar River in Launceston, Tasmania. Absolute privacy in luxury - we loved our cottage. Your hosts are Tony and Sue Walker- Tony is a well known Tasmanian food and wine writer and his site also offers a free gourmet guide directory to Tasmanian food, wine, vineyards and restaurants. Web Site

Salamanca Inn,  Hobart. Lovely hotel just steps from the waterfront and the Salamanca Market. Rooms are self-contained and very nice. Web Site

Wine & Food Art I've decided to add another facet to Patty's Pinot Closet Newsletter with the addition of a featured Artist of the Month. My first Artist of the Month is Sonoma artist Zoe Joyce Orth. Zoe Joyce Orth  Noted for her beautiful depictions of landscapes, gardens, and flowers which showcase her unique style of impressionistic oil painting and her lively use of color. Zoe combines places and things she sees and experiences in her extensive travels throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America in her paintings. When not traveling, Zoe, an avid gardener, has a constant source of inspiration in the lovely gardens that she nurtures at her home in Sonoma, CA. Web Site Zoe does not allow prints to be made of her pictures, but she will make a copy of any previous painting. Copies are not exactly the same. Zoe does accept commissions. I'm looking for artists whose work reflects the wine/vineyard environment to be represented on Patty's Pinot Closet Website. Please contact Jud.

Vineyard at Puissguin - Zoe Joyce Orth

Tasmanian Wine Festivals November 19-26 2004 -- Royal Hobart Wine Show, Hotel Chancellor and the Royal show grounds in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia November 26 2004 -- Royal Hobart Wine Show -- Public Tasting December 28 2004 - 3 January 2005 -- Taste of Tasmania. Hobart Waterfront for Tasmanian food and wine. January 17-21, 2005 -- Tasmanian Wine Show, Battery Point, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia Click Here for a complete list of Pinot Wine Festivals.

Pat at 2004 Tasmanian Wine Show

Tasmanian Pinot Noirs

Because of it's very Southerly location, Tasmania has a very cool climate that allows for the production of Pinot Noir. The First Fleet brought grape vines to Australia in 1788.

Tasmania contained 137 licensed wine producers in 2003. Of those 137 wineries, 46 operate cellar doors (tasting rooms). 168 individual vineyards cover 961 hectares (2,375 acres). In 2003 they produced 5198 tons of grapes. These growers carefully manage their canopies resulting in very dark, intense, tannic, richly flavorsome wines.

I found two people very important to the Tasmanian wine industry. The first, Dr. Andrew Pirie who founded Pipers Brook Vineyard, Tasmania's most successful wine producer. The second, Dr. Richard Smart who as a NZ Government Viticultural Scientist helped lay the technical foundations for an emerging, quality-oriented and internationally competitive wine industry. He co-authored "Sunlight Into Wine" the definitive book on canopy management and contributed to Jancis Robinson's "Oxford Companion to Wine". Dr. Smith believes the Southern Hemisphere makes better wine than the Northern Hemisphere because of the higher levels of UV radiation. He also believes they will continue to do this for the next 100 years!

Factoid  As I go to various meetings and lectures I am hearing wine makers talk about "Heat Units." They also use the term heat degree days (HDD) or growing degree days (GDD). In simple terms, they define heat units as the max temperature minus the minimum temperature divided by 2 with base temperature subtracted. In some cases they track actual daily temps to produce heat indexes and in some cases they use seasonal averages to compute the index. The University of California at Davis invented heat units and they can be used to track all kinds of crops as well as insects. Each crop or insect has a different base temperature. For wine the base temperature is ten degrees celsius (50 deg fahrenheit). As usual, its all a little more complicated than discussed here. If you want to know more, read Joy Walterfang's article in the May / June 2000 issue of WineState.

The numbers in the map are keyed to the paragraphs below.

Northern Tasmanian Wine Regions:

1. North West:  Hawley House near Port Sorell, built in 1878, planted their first Pinot Noir grapes after 1989. Soils in this area are Tertiary Sediments and their rainfall is 1200 mm (47 inches).

2. Tamar Valley:  Europeans settled the Tamar Valley in the late 1700's with a main crop of apples. Grape growing didn't begin until the 1990s. Grapes are planted on both sides of the Tamar and to the south of Launceston in an area called Relbia. We visited David & Jan Jenkinson at their Bundaleera Vineyard in Relbia. The four of us sat in their back yard and tasted their award winning wines. We then all jumped in their four-wheel drive and toured the vineyard. It was one of our most pleasant afternoons.

They get about about 700 mm (28 inches) a year and frosts are common. Grapes are grown on mostly gravelly, basalt on a heavy clay and ironstone base. Vineyards not on the estuary shoreline are grown on Jurassic Dolerite. A beautiful area to visit, they plant their grapevines amongst eucalyptus on hills sloping to the water producing full flavored and deeply colored Pinot Noir.

3. Pipers River:  Jean Miguet, a fifth generation wine-maker from Provence, planted illegal cuttings (including Pinot Noir) here in 1956 to start Providence Vineyards. By 1976 he still did not did have approval to produce and sell his wines. He sold grapes to other wineries until 1986 when Providence contracted to have their wines made for them. Dr. Andrew Pirie established Pipers Brook Vineyard, the largest winery in Northern Tasmania in 1974. The Belgium company Kreglinger bought Pipers Brook Vineyard in 2002.

At the latitude of around 41 degrees, the weather is relatively mild throughout the year. They have 8-10 hours of sunshine December through March and relatively high humidity. They get 625-750 mm (25-30 inches) of rain each year. They plant their grapes on deep red in color acidic, friable clay grading to clay with good drainage, and moderate to high nutrient status. Most vineyards don't need irrigation.

Southern Tasmanian Wine Regions:

4. East Coast:  Grape growing began here in 1979 when John Austwick planted Craigie Knowe Vineyard. Following Craigie Knowe in the 1980s, Freycinet, Spring Vale, and Apsley Gorge Vineyards planted their vines. The soils consist mostly of sandy clay loams over blocky heavy clays. Often called "Tasmania's Suncoast", they enjoy a mild climate with no winter frosts or fogs. Their annual rainfall of 500 mm (20 inches) and most vineyards irrigate their vines.

5. Coal River Valley:  Located northeast of Hobart, the Coal River Valley includes the towns of Cambridge, Richmond, Campania and Tea Tree. The Coal River Region receives 500-600 mm (20-24 inches) of rain annually and most vineyards need irrigation in order to successfully grow grapes. In the 1980s, the Coal River Irrigation Scheme provided that irrigation. Frosts occur an average of nine times a year in this area.

6. Derwent River Region:  This area surrounds Tasmania's capitol city, Hobart. Bartholomew Broughton first planted grapes here in 1821 and won Tasmania's first international award at the Paris Exhibition in 1848. Claudio Alcorso restarted winemaking here in 1958 when he founded Moorilla Wines. Cuttings from a vine mother-stock nursery in 1857 helped start the first vineyards in Australia's Victoria and Barossa Valley.

Wineries establish their vineyards on patches of dark black peaty alluvial soils. A temperate maritime climate exists in the Derwent and they get about 630 mm (25 inches) of rain a year. They receive about 2100 hours of sunshine annually and experience infrequent frosts.

7. Huon River Valley:  In 1799, Lieutenant Bligh in the Bounty visited Adventure Bay and planted apple trees. Some think this was the beginning of the fruit growing industry in Tasmania. At almost 50 South latitude, this area many similarities to the Champagne region of France. The owner's of Hartzview Vineyards collected two years of climatic data showing those similarities and in 1988 planted Pinot Noir vines.

With a cool temperate maritime climate, the Huon River Valley experiences only rare frosts. They get relatively uniform rain throughout the year that averages about 850 mm (33 inches).

D'Entrecastreaux:  Not on the map, but south of Hobart, a few wineries have recently started in this area.

All of the wines listed in the newsletters are listed on the website. Previous reviews did not contain links to the wineries, which have been added, if available. Where possible, prices listed below have been taken from the winery website or other retail sources and are included for relative comparison only. Your price may be different.

©2004 Patty's Pinot Closet. All Rights Reserved.