Tasmanian Wineworks
There are few times more stressful in the life of a winemaker than the last couple of weeks before vintage. Right now, Jeremy Dineen is too busy adding the finishing touches to a new 800-tonne contract winemaking operation to get emotionally involved with the process. In typical no-nonsense, down-earth-fashion, it's full steam ahead.
The Tasmanian Wineworks winery at St Leonards – officially opened on Wednesday 12th February – is scheduled to be operational to process crops from the impending 2026 vintage. It will provide a production base for Dineen's contract winemaking services as well as home base for Haddow + Dineen and Broad Arrow Wines.
The acclaimed Haddow + Dineen brand was established in 2018 with long-time friend and Bruny Island artisan cheesemaker, Nick Haddow.
Broad Arrow Wines was formed the previous year with Spikey Bridge Vineyard owners Ros and Martin Rees, who are principals of Tasmanian Wineworks, along with Dineen.
The Reeses entered the Tasmanian wine industry in 2010 with the purchase of an established 6ha vineyard at Relbia. The site was planted in 2006 by Goaty Hill co-founders Markus Maislinger and Kristine Grant.
Now operating as Spikey Bridge, plantings there span 10ha of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris.
Recent months have played out with something of a sense of déjà vu for the former main man at Josef Chromy Wines. Back in July 2005, Dineen gave up a plum job in the Coal River Valley – working alongside Andrew Hood at Frogmore Creek Wines – to head north to take on the biggest challenge of his career.
His position of General Manager – as well as Chief Winemaker – put Dineen front and centre of a new $40m project then being undertaken by the Tamar Ridge Wines founder. The venture required breathing life into an established vineyard – Old Stornoway – recently purchased out of administration by the 74-year-old Chromy.
Then there was the planning, construction and commissioning of a state-of-the-art winery on the 61ha Relbia site, in addition to establishment of an attractive cellar door and bespoke vineyard restaurant and events centre.
Needless to say, the young bloke succeeded brilliantly.
Josef Chromy Wines was launched with considerable fanfare, ready for the winery's inaugural 2007 vintage. Dineen's project management skills had been sorely tested. The company founder spent much of 2006 recovering from a debilitating stroke. It almost took Chromy's life and had a marked effect on his speech.
Meanwhile, Dineen hit the ground running with his first Josef Chromy wines. The most critically acclaimed came from the most unexpected quarter. The 2007 Botrytis Riesling won the Trophy for Best Wine of Competition at the 2009 Sydney International Wine Competition. It was – and remains – the first sweet wine ever to win the coveted Sydney award.
The wine also won a Trophy at the 2008 Royal Melbourne Wine Show as well as a gold medal at the 2008 International Sweet Wine Challenge.
Dineen's fifth vintage on the Relbia site produced the 2011 Josef Chromy Chardonnay, named Best International Chardonnay at the 2013 Decanter World Wine Awards.
All that bodes well for Tasmanian Wineworks.
In addition to being a project partner, Martin Rees is a prominent Tasmanian business leader. He is also a director of St Lukes Health Ltd, a former KPMG Managing Partner, and the current Chair of Wine Tasmania, the industry's peak body.
This new venture evolved as a matter of necessity.
Early vintages of Broad Arrow wines were produced at Josef Chromy Wines. But when the industry flagship was acquired by the Endeavour Group in partnership with Warakirri Asset Management in April 2022, Dineen had to find other premises where he could continue his contract winemaking commitments.
Winemakers Peter Dredge and James Broinowski answered the call at Dr Island, a newly constructed winery space – launched in 2021 – being leased by the pair at Cambridge, not far from Hobart Airport. The processing and storage facility soon became a thriving hot house of innovative winemaking, with wines from around 15 client vineyards being produced there.
The facility operated very successfully as a key regional winemaking hub until a change in leasehold arrangements – including very significant rental increases – necessitated everyone using the Dr Island site to move to other premises to create their 2026 wines.
Dredge will soon spend part of his working week at the Tasmanian Wineworks premises.
Dineen says the unforeseen changes and ultimate departure from Cambridge was a watershed moment.
For small producers Ros and Martin Rees, it meant doing one of three things – finding someone other than Dineen to make their wines; developing their own small-scale winery at Spikey Bridge Vineyard; or taking on a new, large-scale contract winemaking partnership, where a large portion of the whole industry could be properly serviced.
They chose the latter.
Dineen recalls discussing the prospects of developing such a facility six or eight years ago but the Broad Arrow partners decided not to proceed with it.
"We thought, 'No, it's far too expensive. It just doesn't make sense.'
"We were very much aware that taking on such a project really needed to be large-scale. The numbers don't stack up unless you're processing 500 tonnes or more. What's changed this time around is that a suitable site became available for us to lease rather than purchase.
"More importantly, there are now many more vines in the ground, and plenty more are still going in. They'll require processing on the mainland or significant increases in current winemaking capacity here in the State."
This year's vintage at Tasmanian Wineworks will see somewhere around 800 tonnes of fruit being processed on the 2460sqm St Leonards site. It began its working life in the 1930s or 1940s as a timber mill. Future plans for carefully staged winery growth are likely to see processing capacity expand to around 3000 tonnes.
The old factory had great bones and required little in the way of structural adaptation to suit its new purpose.
"We had to cut in new drains, put in a new concrete slab, upgrade the electrics and install insulation, heating and cooling, but that's been pretty straightforward," Dineen adds.
"We really wanted to retain a lot of the charm and character of the existing building. It's really beautiful."
Small-batch winemaking will be the order of the day at the $5m facility. Red ferments will generally range between 3.5 tonnes and 6 tonnes. Whites will be anywhere from a few hundred litres to 24,000 litres.
The project had the good fortune of securing a significant amount of pre-loved winery tanks and paraphernalia from the Yarra Valley.
"It's not exactly what I'd buy if I was buying new stuff, but purchasing the whole lot saved us a fortune," Dineen admits.
The hi-tech goodies included several small pneumatic presses that have been supplemented by a new Scharfenberger Europress that arrived recently from Germany.
Other recent arrivals in time for vintage are renowned WA winemaker Luke Jolliffe and former Pernod Ricard winemaker, Paul Vedig.
This time last year, Vedig was already busy working the high quality, low-yielding 2025 vintage in the Barossa Valley. Prior to that, he spent four vintages at the historic, former Mildara Blass winery in Coonawarra, now operating privately as Jack Estate.
Like Tasmanian Wineworks, Jack Estate offers significant contract winemaking services in a state-of-the-work environment. Vedig won't be involved in processing anywhere near the volume taken on by the 12,000-tonne operation but his winemaking experiences in places as far flung as Germany and northern Italy will prove invaluable.
In 2019, Vedig worked at the small, family winery of Klaus Lentsch in the Southern Tyrol. Its small-batch winemaking is centred upon three cool climate vineyards growing eleven different grape varieties, all but two of which can be readily found in Tasmania.
Luke Jolliffe is a highly-regarded national wine show judge who devoted 18 years to the development of Margaret River's Stella Bella Wines. The company owns and operates five vineyards, and also purchases fruit from small contract growers. Its 40,000-case production encompasses all styles and market segments.
In 2023, the Huon Hooke-led Real Review rated Stella Bella Australia's eighth best winery.
The timing of Jolliffe's departure back in November was perfect. Stella Bella was shortlisted by the Halliday Wine Companion for its 2025 Best Value Winery award.
Jolliffe has just launched his own Jolif label. (Jolif is Old French for 'joyful and beautiful.') His new project will have a single focus, Margaret River Chardonnay.
In the meantime, Jolliffe will be a welcome vintage acquisition at Tasmanian Wineworks. He's judged at numerous wine shows in Tasmania, and indeed worked the 2013 vintage at Bay of Fires Wines at Pipers River.
Equally important is that Jolliffe is part of a rare breed that started his wine career as a formally trained viticulturist.
Clearly, there's little he doesn't know about vines and wines.
You can bet Jolliffe will be in popular demand. Dineen says Tasmanian Wineworks' clients are located at both ends of the State, from Rowella in the Tamar Valley to various sites in and around the Coal River Valley.
Last update: 17 February 2026