George Town > Launceston
Since our last two nights’ accommodation was on the west bank of the Tamar, we decided to head back to Launceston by tracking clockwise around the Tamar Valley Wine Route, a decision that was prompted by a slightly higher number of wineries with a five star rating in James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2008.
The first of them was our first port of call - Bay of Fires at Piper River, where the first wine on offer was the current vintage of Arras (rated 96 by Halliday) - not a bad way to start a tasting tour! The riesling was outstanding, though, again, I could have happily walked away with a dozen assorted bottles if we weren’t subject to constraints associated with baggage limits.
At our next stop we were introduced to a possible solution to that problem - buy a couple of bottles and place them in a box, then keep filling the box and the last winery on your itinerary will send it to your home address. In hindsight this was an option we could have chosen, but I have severe doubts that I would have been able to keep it down to one box. There’s also the small matter of freight to the mainland, which at thirty-something dollars a box is not to be sneezed at. ...
Stop Number Two was Dalrymple Vineyards in Piper’s Brook Road, where, once again, everything was good and the pinot noir was excellent . We left with a bottle of the 2006 Pinot which ended up in the clutches of the Cox Combo as thanks for the parking facilities they provided in Mackay.
Just down the road from Dalrymple we turned off to the right and followed a circuitous path which eventually brought us to the cellar door at Piper’s Brook, which was also a suitable venue for lunch. The chardonnay and pinot noir rated highly, though I didn't mind the pinot grigio either.
After a substantial lunch we followed the road through the vines to Jansz Tasmania, dedicated to producing sparkling wine and they do it rather well. They offer freight free delivery throughout Australia for half a dozen bottles. They’re part of the Yalumba group so the packaging indicated Angaston in South Australia (rather than Tasmania) as the point of departure for the half-dozen Premium Non-Vintage Brut Cuvee that found their way to our doorstep. We’ll be back for more...
Once we’d found our way back to the highway the next stop was Brook Eden, one of the coolest sites on the island, a delightful spot overlooking some nice wetlands, home to several peacocks, a Jack Russell named Chilli and wines that prompted me to sign up for their Vintage Club. That involves agreeing to buy a 6-bottle tasting pack of Brook Eden wine each year at a discounted price (which more or less offsets the cost of freight). The pinot noir and riesling were (again) outstanding and, personally, I’d rate it alongside Pfeiffer’s in Rutherglen as a winery I’ve taken a particular shine to, though that’s not to disparage any of the others we visited in any way.
Every one was excellent. It’s just that I thought Brook Eden was particularly excellent.
Regardless of excellence, after five wineries in the space of a couple of hours the palate tends to become a little jaded and so although the prospect of visiting a lavender farm doesn’t exactly fill me with unalloyed delight, I didn’t mind the detour associated with calling into Bridestowe Lavender Farm and Madam positively loved it.
From there we headed back towards the wine route and made a slight detour at Lilydale to visit Providence, the oldest vineyard in Tasmania. The cellar door is an agent for a number of other small Tasmanian wineries, and though you can only taste the Providence range, they do ship freight free by the dozen anywhere in Australia - a service I’m planning on utilising in the not too distant future.
We had a minor hiccough when it came to finding our accommodation for the next two nights as Murphy’s Law struck. In the street directory the street in question was located precisely on the junction of two facing pages, and in reality it was just around a blind corner with absolutely no indication that it was coming up, but we were able to loop back to it and establish a couple of landmarks that saved us from overshooting the corner for the rest of the stay.

The cottage at Protea Hill has spectacular views across the Tamar Valley, and after a brief excursion in search of dinner we found ourselves sitting on the veranda and enjoying the Providence Riesling we’d purchased at the last stop on the wine trail and watching the rain squalls moving up the river valley.