Having established that there wouldn’t be any Moo Brew heading north the Casual Reader might have suspected something in the way of a dummy spit, but we stayed to sample the wares of Tasmania’s second oldest winery, which dates back to 1958, comfortably before the current owner and MONA head honcho David Walsh was born. It also rates as a 5 Star establishment in Mr Halliday’s ubiquitous Wine Companion, so we were always likely to be fronting up for the wine, regardless of art galleries and micro-breweries.
The vineyard was established by former textile merchant Claudio Alcorso, who’d got out of Mussolini’s Italy in the 1930s, and established himself as a patron of the arts once his successful textile business took off and he’d got his vines into the ground. When family issues and insolvency forced Moorilla into receivership, Walsh and his consortium bought the estate for $2.53 million in 1995. Subsequent redevelopment saw production shrink (an 80% decrease, down to around 90 tonnes of grapes sourced from Moorilla plantings and a subsidiary vineyard (St Matthias in the Tamar Valley).
As far as the wine side of things is concerned there’s a clear distinction between two separate ranges, which, of course, is another reason to sample the ranges. If traditional techniques and styles are your go, you’ll find inspiration in the Muse Series, whereas if you’re interested in New World innovation and emerging wine styles you’ll find the Praxis Series more up your alley.
The Praxis Range includes most of the usual Apple Isle suspects, with a Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay in the whites, but the pick of them was a Sauvignon, crisply balanced with an intriguing complexity and very food friendly. Picking a bottle to carry away with us was a pretty straightforward matter. I could quite happily have put together a pretty impressive mixed dozen if I’d been inclined to. The Pinot Noirs in both ranges were impressive as well, and they do a Syrah and a Cab Merlot in the Muse range as well, but from the moment we tried it there wasn’t much doubt what we’d be taking with us as a single bottle.
From there it was back to the gallery, and since I’d piked citing sensory overload somewhere towards the top (it’s difficult to know exactly where you are in such circumstances) it seemed logical to start at the top and work down to something familiar.