BACK PALATE

Why do some people still cellar wines when there's an abundance of styles, grape varieties and price points already available for purchase in an over-saturated worldwide market? What's the point?

Having visited Bream Creek's wonderful vineyard cellar door overlooking Marion Bay and Maria Island on a number of occasions, I've often been struck by the fact that this is such a modest development in terms of its footprint in the landscape. But as time has gone by, it seems to me there is good reason. Somewhere, owner Fred Peacock has...

Under Ella and Daniel Kelleher's ownership, Premaydena Hill on the Tasman Peninsula has evolved from a traditional farming enterprise - based around 100 black Angus cattle - to a skilfully managed tourism destination with a high degree of vertical integration in its on-farm operations. This current release white blend is grown, made and sold...

Wine South's annual Open Vineyard Weekend - and its 3-day Spring in the Vines event some months earlier - provide wine lovers with rare opportunities to discover new wines (and their makers) that are otherwise hard to find or unavailable beyond those specially organised and promoted wine touring weekends. Taking part might sometimes require the use...

Pinot Meunier accounts for almost exactly one-third of all plantings in Champagne. Slightly more than Chardonnay at 30 percent, but significantly less than Pinot Noir (38 percent). That noted, it's often been regarded as a far less important variety than its high-profile vineyard brethren (except in the Marne Valley, where late budburst makes it...

Samantha Connew's first wine connections to Tasmania date back to 2007 during her time at Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley. She made five vintages of Pinot Noir for the company, based upon fruit grown in the Huon Valley. Her move to Bay of Fires at Pipers River in 2012 provided much greater exposure to Tasmania's vineyards and the minutiae...

The Kreglinger Tasmanian sparkling wine lineage goes all the way back to 1995. You learn a lot over 30 years, and one thing this family company has never lost sight of over the decades is that prestige sparkling is precision made, using the best possible vineyard resources available. It's not a safety net intended to catch fruit that doesn't...

In the hands of many winemakers, Pinot Gris - aka Pinot Grigio - can produce very dull drinking indeed. That doesn't apply here. The wine's cool climate origins in northern Tasmania - at Relbia, just outside Launceston - have endowed it with rich ripe pear and white nectarine flavours. Weighing in at just 12.5% in alcohol, it sits very...

Vines on Nick Hayes and Saskia Jahn's property at Kettering were initially planted in 1997 by one of the State's first formally trained winemakers, Bruce Gilham. Vine age means a lot when you're talking Pinot Noir. Each year adds subtle layers of depth and complexity as vineyard terroir begins to shine through.

Gewürztraminer was the wild child of the Tasmanian wine industry in the 1980s and early 1990s. Long before orange wines and new-fangled lo-fi varietals and blends appeared in our wine glasses, this was the left-field variety to drink or cellar medium-term. Tasmanian-grown Gewürz didn't turn out all fat and flabby and OTT after its journey through...