Very pale, clear yellow in colour. An unexpected lightly sweet perfume. And on the palate also an unexpected tartness, an astringent, long mouthful that remains intriguing. Son of a Bull is the wine's title, but not in text, only via the image. An intriguing, surprising wine in an often predictable field of Tasmanian wine. "Lower Turners Marsh is a rural locality in the local government areas of Launceston and George Town in the Launceston and North-east regions of Tasmania."
Fruit sourced from the Tamar Valley, Tasmania. But Pooley Wines is "located on the outskirts of the historic Richmond township in the heart of the Coal River Valley" Gewürztraminer is grown by a few more Tasmanian wineries. The Pooley is a clear, pale lemon like the usual colour of Chenin Blanc. In perfume and on the palate it is like a clean, white cotton. A dry Gewürztraminer. In 2025, Peppers Silo, Launceston, had it by the glass in the cafe. The wait staff generously asked me if I wanted to try it, uncertain as they were that it was a dry white.
colour: bronze pink
perfumez; light rose
palate: sophisticated, dry, complex
Gosh, Ghost Rock's P3 2023 Rose is all tomato-y. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Colour: light tomato. Aroma: just-ripe tomato. Palate: just-ripe tomato. P3 stands for a trio of grape varieties beginning with the appellation Pinot: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Meunier.
It's big-ish in mouthful, so depends on what you like.
My best Tasmanian Roses are Small Wonders (used to be Goaty Hill) and Gala, neither of which are over-whelming, but pitched at the right level of love-ability.
Eastford Creek's non-vintage (a mixture of annual pickings = 2021-2023) sparkling rose is very pale pink that deepens while pouring into the glass, but nevertheless remains pale in colour. Its aroma is marshmallow-y, and/or fairy-flossy. It is salmon-y on the satisfying long though light palate.
(Please also see my post below this post: Thursday, January 16, 2025 Eastford Creek Vineyard Tasmania Pinot Gris 2024.)
Ok, so Tasmania appears to be doing, unbeknown to moi, the combo grape variety wine, when I thought Tasmanian was all about predictable varieties such as Chardonnay, Riesling, Sav Blanc and Pinto Noir. But, no, it does Gewurz, Pinot Blanc, Gamay and, wait for it, Chenin Blanc. See my post below that notes a not-dissimilar mix: Atom 2022 Entropic White: Gewuztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Gris.
This bottle invests in a quirky print maker, Kate Piekutowski, whom I've come across on Instagram.
So it's light gold in colour. It has a perfume of pear and jube (possibly red). On the palate, it is surprisingly full-ish and actually not sweet (on a second tasting with a day or so in between), thank the goddesses. A little too sharp on the end palate for such a mix. But wait, maybe waiting even more, the end palate is between savoury and sweet and seems finely balanced.
The branding IS CONFUSING (yes, all caps deliberate) because I looked up Tupelo and could not find a devoted website under that name, which turns out to be Stargazer, which you have to look for on the back label of the bottle. I am sure it has an explanation - but wait, there is another mixed variety wine with a different subtitle/name - but I was too tired to look for such.
This Atom wine is a lovely, pale-golden yellow in colour. Salty in perfume. Long palate, that is high syrupy in the middle and rich and lemony at the end. Savoury with a hint of sweetness. Atom wines are based in the south of Tasmania, at Lindisfarne is a suburb of the capital of Tasmania Hobart's Eastern Shore,
Gala Rose, along with Small Wonders Rose, are two of the best among Tasmanian Roses. Tasmanian Roses are usually Pinot Noir based ... 'cause PR does so well in a cool climate. In colour and perfume, the Gala is shy, and a light but on-the-border-of- showy pink in colour, and in perfume, something of sea-water and an unperfumed rose that's about to have a perfume, or wishes longingly that it did. On the initial palate, it is fullish, and ends very drily. And after swallowing it down comes the knowing that it's a lovely elegant, sophisticated wine, with a sense of mature and assured making.
Eastford Creeks 2024 Pinot Gris is rustic, light-bronze golden with a pink tinge. A pink tinge is always good in a Pinot Gris. And this is no exception. Think Zendaya's (why go for a single name?) dress at the Golden Globes 2025 but less copper/tangerine. In perfume it is peachy and on the palate fruity too, perhaps apricot, with a lightly backgrounded spice such as cinnamon or nutmeg or Chinese five-spice. It's a dry PG with a sophisticated and elegant palate. https://eastfordcreek.com.au/ I often stop here on a Friday for a glass of wine on my way home to Shearwater from a writers' group in Deloraine, Tasmania. And everything is interesting: the outlook, weather, wine choice.
Though I love the Small Wonder Rose, the Riesling was not great. Much too sharp perhaps, no depth. Tamar Valley.
Coal River Valley, Southern Tasmania. The Chardy is perhaps too lemony for my taste. But Nocton is the first to make a Chenin Blanc in Tasmania.
Surprisingly good, given I am used to Clare Valley Riesling., and given that Devil's Corner can be run-of-the-mill.
A very peachy sparkling in perfume and on the palate and in its colour. Coal River Valley near Cambridge. A blend of selected vintages: hence no year on the bottle. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. https://www.fogarty.wine/products/strelley-farm-nv-sparkling-rose
Meander
Valley Wines
Driving
into Meander, the township, I understood why the father of proprietor of Cedar
Cottage Meander, Sarah Williams, believed he had discovered paradise in 1976.
The valley is a floor of green fields hugged by the Great Western Tiers
descending like wide, graded steps across the horizon, below a soft mid-blue
sky. Sarah, too, understands that the valley is a beautiful place. She grew up
there, so her roots are in the soil. Meander has a sense of serenity, breathing
space—and magic.
Meander Valley itself is 3,821 sq km in
extent, from urban areas of Launceston to world heritage areas of wilderness. It’s
above the heart of Tasmania, extending into the north where the Meander Valley
LGA ends and Latrobe LGA begins. The Pallittorre and Punnilerpanner peoples are
the Indigenous owners. Within the two LGAs are the ‘short walks capital’ of northern Tasmania, a Tasting
Trail, and, because of its milk- and dark-chocolate soil, the food bowl of
Tasmania: dairy, truffles, land-farmed salmon, molluscs, crustaceans, fish,
beef, lamb, vegetables, fruit—and grape vines. Tasmanian is in the South-Eastern-Australia wine
zone, and, as a whole, is a region, while within it are sub-regions which the
North-West is. Thus says the Meander Valley Wines’ website says: ‘Tasmanian
wines are all about sub-region and micro-climate’.
Meander Valley Wines (Red Hills) is a 16-minute
drive from Meander township. All of its wine bottles have luminescent-yellow tops,
much like the current revival of 1970’s psychedelic fashion. Its distinctive,
minimalist labels, with vertical text, sans image, and empathetic or
affecting colours—musk pink for Sparkling Rose, pale mauve for Pinot Noir and
teal for Pinot Gris—make the wine easy to recognise amid a discordancy of
bottles on crowded bottle-shop and wine-bar shelves. That neon-bright yellow of
the bottle tops is picked up in lettering: the A in Meander and V in Valley and
Vineyard (a smart choice, since the consonant A is among the strong sounds in those
words).
The Sparkling Rosé is a surprising combination of
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Its colour is a tenderly beautiful ballet-slipper
pink, reminding me of my alma mater, the University of Sydney’s Library with
its copper- or bronze-clad wall/s tinged pink from exposure/age.
The Sparkling is very dry, but still has body and
complexity, with a passing whisper of strawberry sweetness as you drink it down.
The aroma is salmon and musk. Recommended for discerning sparkling drinkers: this
is one of Tasmania’s best; it sits in a well-judged balance of elegance and sophisticated
pleasure. I was shifted to the memory of being in my local, childhood grocery
shop with its glass-box lolly counter full of toffee umbrellas, musk sticks and
the pink among liquorice allsorts.
The Pinot Gris is silver-yellow
in colour with a ballet-pink undertone. The perfume is as if you were smelling cool,
flat satin. The palate is reminiscent of a light Semillon, which I always think
of as an adult grape, taking some seniority of experience to understand and appreciate.
Some bitter orange, some passionfruit. Not lush, but neither is it severe. It’s
like playing a game that demands some brain power but also engages, like Monopoly
perhaps.
ThePinot Noir, in colour, is a clear, light ruby-red like a jewel, typical of
Pinot Noir, and one of the most enticing attributes of this grape. Who could
not admire, who would not love this come-hither colour?
On
being opened for some time, the wine develops a pepper in its perfume much like
a Barossa Shiraz. The palate says ‘young’, but there’s something solid about
this Pinot too, like learning your times-tables with a love of symmetry and
pattern. So maybe not luscious, but as with lines, so acceptable. It’s like organic
cotton, or even muslin at a stretch. Ultimately it reminds me of a sandy beach.
