In 1986, The Fatal Shore by Australian author and art critic Robert Hughes, was published in the United States and the UK. A brooding, part novel and part historical tome: “The Epic of Australia’s Founding”, it delves into the dark history of Tasmania’s colonisation through the transportation of convicts to this remote and wild island.
The Coal River Valley lies over the Meehan Range East of Hobart and rolls down to the Southern Ocean; remote and wild are the images conjured up when visiting this pristine agrarian region, first farmed in the early 1800’s.
Accolades:
97/100 – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
96/100 – Huon Hooke, The Real Review
95/100 – Halliday Wine Companion
Vintage Note: The 2022 season in Tasmania started cold and wet, with delayed budburst and flowering due to cold weather. Plant growth was slow due to cool conditions all the way up until just prior to flowering, when some well-timed heat spurred the vines along. Flowering was late, but consistent, going though in two weeks. Lots of shoot and crop thinning was done throughout the season, as well as some extensive leaf plucking due to the cool conditions. It was a very mild summer with only two days over 33 degrees Celsius experienced at the vineyard, which meant a long and slow ripening. The grapes were picked late for our vineyard, coming in on 22nd of April.
Winemaking Notes: Hand picked, straight into a refrigerated container parked on the vineyard. The fruit is then immediately driven to Devonport and sailed across Bass Strait so we receive it into the winery the following morning. Fruit was destemmed and cold soaked for three – four days in open oak vats and open stainless steel fermenters. The MV6 (from the top of the hill) was fermented as whole bunches in an oak fermenter. Both parcels were matured in French oak – 25% new, 75% older – for eight months in 225L barriques D&J, Vicard and Taransaud. Racked to blend, no fining, no filtration. Bottled by gravity.
Alcohol: 13.5%
Variety: Pinot Noir
Region: Coal River Valley, Tasmania, Australia