Craigow a cut above

Wine has long been recognised for its therapeutic qualities. Its prescription in today's medicine might be a little less common than in Hippocrates' day, but a strong connection between wine and doctors still exists nevertheless. Proof is not hard to find. 

In Australia, for instance, around 60percent of all wine grapes processed each vintage is done by companies founded by doctors. Something like 150 medicos have helped establish vineyards around the country during the past 200 years. Recently added to that growing list is the name of prominent Hobart surgeon, Dr Barry Edwards. 

"Just for a hobby, I planted 700 vines here," Edwards says, recalling his first steps into viticulture at the historic Craigow property in the Coal River Valley. 

"It was really just for fun. But you've only got to plant more than a dozen vines and you get taken in. I was totally rapt in it. The next year, I planted 16,000 vines." 

That was 1987-1988. For the past three years, Edwards and his wife Cathy have been supplying Southcorp Wines with Pinot Noir for its premium sparkling wine portfolio. Southcorp is the parent company behind Penfolds, Seppelt and Lindemans, some of the country's best-known and most loved wine brands.

Vintage 1995 has just seen the harvesting and processing of 43 tonnes of Craigow fruit, all of it in pristine condition. Dispatched to the mainland in the form of juice ready for wine-making, it's a classic case of sending coals to Newcastle, Edwards says.

"If you talk to the Penfolds people, they're just rapt in the quality of the fruit coming out of Tasmania. These grapes go into their premium sparkling wines... They're being bought so they can basically improve their wine quality." 

Barry and Cathy Edwards bought their Richmond Road property in 1981. 

It was once part of a larger and more important mixed farming property, established more than 170 years ago by well-to-do colonial physician, James Murdoch. 

The good doctor was born in Craigow, Scotland, in 1785. He emigrated to Hobart Town in 1822, along with wife Grace and two young sons. Back then, Van Diemen's Land was a bustling settlement with a population of less than 8000 inhabitants. 

Within weeks of arrival, Dr Murdoch set up a midwifery practice in Liverpool St. Next came a land grant of some 800 acres between Cambridge and Richmond and the establishment of a successful farming operation. Edwards says the property in its heyday became home to its farm labourers. They took up residence in as many as 10 small cottages on Murdoch land. 

Craigow also supported a thriving local community with its own bakery, dairy and blacksmith's shop. 

Murdoch family records reveal James Murdoch grew wheat at Craigow to make his own flour; obtained salt from the Pittwater region nearby, and even produced his own morphine from poppies he grew on site. 

Sometime during the late 1820s or early 1830s, Murdoch also took on brief ownership of Paradise Farm at Risdon. In addition to growing opium poppies and other pharmaceutical plants, the property also grew vines - a variety called `black cluster'. Tasmanian winegrowers today would know it as Pinot Noir.

Craigow's recent renaissance has been little short of remarkable. 

Busy professionals they may be, Barry and Cathy Edwards are not work-shy. Nowadays, the couple maintain a vineyard comprising some 20,000 vines. Around half of them are Chardonnay, Riesling and Gewürztraminer,  planted to provide some much needed cash-flow. 

Currently on the market is a stylish and deeply flavoured 1993 Craigow Pinot Noir ($17), the first wine to bear its own estate-grown label. Sourced from the Edwards's original 700 vines, it was made nearby by contract winemaker Andrew Hood. The wine's bold varietal characteristics clearly underscore the Coal River Valley's capacity to produce attractive dry red wines from its current plantings. 

Whether or not still table wines become Craigow's stock-in-trade is yet to be decided. Barry Edwards says his largest customer knows only too well there's the potential for major changes to take place in the future. 

"They know the day may come when we say, 'Look, we're going our own way.' 

"That may not be the way they want us to go, but in the meantime, they're happy... very happy."

First published 8 June 1995: The Advocate