Nine places you must stop on Tasmania’s Tasting Trail
By Jim Darby
“We’re a farming island. Tassie winemakers, we’re all farmers,” says Justin Arnold, of Ghost Rock Wines. His point being, good wine is made in the vineyard, and any farmer will tell you – the more you get it right in the paddock, the less you need do in the shed.
There’s plenty going right in the paddocks around here, in Tasmania’s north-west, as I amble along the Tasting Trail, a collection of 40-or-so producers and providers stretching from Hagley, about 30-kilometres west of Launceston, all the way to Smithton, almost at the island’s north-west tip.
“This, the north-west, is the food bowl of Tasmania – what better place to visit for food and wine?”
Difficult to argue as we sit on the sunny terrace of Ghost Rock’s restaurant, looking over the vines to the blanket of blue that is Bass Strait in the distance, “our great big air-conditioner,” as Arnold puts it.
On the terrace at Ghost Rock, Bass Strait in the distance.
He produces wine under two labels – Ghost Rock for the premium wines (including a sparkling that is the welcome glass at luxury lodge Saffire, no less) and Supernatural, “wines that go against all the traditions – no filtration, no additives, minimum-intervention”.
Something of a wine pioneer in these parts, the reinforcements have arrived for Ghost Rock. It’s a short drive from their cellar door and restaurant in Northdown to Eastford Creek Winery in Sassafras.
Here, Rob Nichols – a founder of the Nichols Poultry business, since bought by Tasfoods – has some land with that beautiful, chocolaty-brown, north-west soil perfect for potatoes. But there are also some slopes too rocky for spuds.
Outside the cellar door at Eastford Creek Vineyard.
Nichols isn’t the sitting still type, those mineral-rich hills now host the family’s vines – pinot noir, pinot gris, gewurtztraminer and more, put to purpose by winemaker Andrew Gaman, born and raised amid the Margaret River wineries of Western Australia; now very much a north-west Tasmania enthusiast.
The landscaping at Eastford Creek is extraordinary and from their cellar door they serve lunch Wednesday to Sunday as well as hosting events and weddings.
Sometimes the wineries already exist, and they come calling, like Meander Valley Vineyard, over near Deloraine.
“Nothing I currently do is what I used to do,” says Bron Dance. “It’s a tipped upside-down thing. Yes I moved to Tasmania, but I also moved from urban Melbourne to rural Tasmania.”
Bron Dance in the vineyard.
Here’s the scenario – mid-pandemic, Dance and her partner Jade Nicholls – he an accountant, she in marketing – realise they aren’t loving city life. They see a small winery for sale in Tasmania. “Let’s have a look. Let’s buy it.”
They’re the right combination – nothing needs marketing like a winery, especially one with accommodation and an eye for events – and for her yang, his yin has the rows in a straight line – on the books and in the vineyard.
They grow the usual Tasmanian cool climate line-up – pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot gris, but also have an unusual French-North American hybrid – baco noir; the only planting of it in Australia as far as they know. A rich red to savour at their smart shed of a cellar door.
And the transition? “Deloraine has a vibe,” says Dance. She may have left Melbourne behind, but that didn’t mean abandoning good coffee, and here she finds it, along with a country smile,“hey Bron – the usual?”
It’s an easy drive on to Railton, past forests, through sparkling green dairy country and alongside those huge pivot irrigators, like the arms of a giant insect; crops springing to life beneath them.
Railton is where Willie Simpson and Catherine Stark found a property with sheds aplenty, giving them a name and a location for their Seven Sheds Brewery. In a previous life, Simpson wrote about beer and spirits – “wine writers can get a bit serious, don’t you think?” Eventually, he thought he should tap into all that knowledge.
They keep it as local as they can, growing some of their own hops on site as well as using others grown in Tasmania. There’s even a group of Morris Dancers who occasionally visit to bless the crop – “actually, they’re a drinking club with a dancing problem,” Simpson says.
Seven Sheds’ WIllie Simpson.
Meanwhile – “what’s your favourite beer here Willie?”
“Oh, come on,” Simpson says, exasperated to choose a favourite child. “Okay, it’s the next one. Actually, let’s make it Kentish ale – we started on Kentish ale, a full-flavoured beer in the English style.”
For another Tasting Trail connection, they use Anvers’ fabled Fortuna No 4 chocolate in their Black Inca beer – and that, in turn, comes all the way from Peru.
If you thought chocolate came in a lolly bag, you need to head to Latrobe and have a chat with Igor Van Gerwen, who has been in the business since he was 12, first working weekends at the local patisserie in his native Belgium “and loving every minute of it”.
He took a job at a Devonport bakehouse and hasn’t looked back – here at his House of Anvers is a buzzing cafe (they host 200,000 people a year) and chocolate factory. Van Gerwen is obsessed with tradition and quality.
Igor Van Gerwen (centre) at his House of Anvers.
“Chocolate is like wine, in that you have grape varieties for different wines and we use different varieties of cacao.″ The holy grail is Fortuna No. 4, a bean from Peru and he’s one of only 34 chocolatiers in the world to have access to it.
“It makes the Grange Hermitage of chocolates,” he says, “it’s so complicated.”
A little further along the Trail, at Elizabeth Town, is the hugely popular Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Cafe – tables are full inside and on the terrace. There are picnickers out on the ground, kids climbing over the trees and swinging away in the playground.
Here, you’ll find all things raspberry – a raspberry latte or a raspberry lassi, or maybe a raspberry daiquiri to go with your raspberry pancakes and raspberry Belgian waffles. There’s jam and choc-dipped raspberries to take away, and of course, raspberries when they’re in season.
Thought you’d uncovered every use for the humble raspberry? Think again. Back on the Trail to Deloraine’s British Hotel, which has been serving beer since 1859. Here you might see the regulars outside in the sun or chatting away at the bar enjoying a beer with a distinct shade of pink.
The pub is now in the hands of brothers Tom and Evan Green. It’s here they brew their beer under the Little Green Men Brewing label – half a dozen varieties and one of them is the Pink Stuff brew.
“We did it once for a festival,” Tom says, “we never thought it would take off in a country pub, but we can’t take it off the list.” The raspberries that give the beer that colour and a hint of taste, they’re from Christmas Hills.
One more of the many connections along the Tasting Trail.
Five more Tasting Trail highlights
Joining the hunt at the Truffle Farm.
The Truffle Farm, Deloraine
As neat as a Versailles garden, here you’ll find two stunning orchards – English oaks for a summer truffle harvest and holly oaks for winter. As well as a shop selling all things truffle, at the right time of year, visitors can join in a truffle hunt alongside the farm dogs with lunch afterwards.
41 South Tasmania, Deloraine
Salmon farming is a tricky topic in Tasmania – at sea it is the state’s biggest primary producer, but there’s a major cost to the ecosystem. Up here, Ziggy Pyka keeps his fish in fresh water and that water is filtered through native wetlands to remove the organic waste. Delicious salmon and a cafe/deli onsite.
Ashgrove Dairy Door, Elizabeth Town
It started as a value-adding venture for some dairy farming families, now Ashgrove Farm cheese is sold across the nation. The smart Dairy Door sells all things dairy, as well as having a lunch and breakfast menu and you can watch the cheese making behind the glass.
Island State Brewing, Ulverstone
The beer is good, but wait for the food. Having spent four decades as a chef and founder of Michelin-star restaurants in Europe and the US, John McKnight has returned home to the north-west and drives the food and menu at this brilliant riverside venue.
Trail Graze
This is a mid-autumn festival (April 20 and 21 in 2024) all along the Trail, with live music, food and drink tasting events and a chance to meet the producers.
THE DETAILS
SAIL
The Spirit of Tasmania docks in the heart of the Tasting Trail, at Devonport – roll off the ship and you can be on the Trail in no time. See spiritoftasmania.com.au
STAY
The Novotel Devonport makes an excellent base for the Tasting Trail – book a room facing Bass Strait and look over the smartly landscaped riverfront to see the ships coming and going. The Asian fusion onsite restaurant Mr Good Guy is also recommended. Rooms from $195. 2 Best Street, Devonport. See all.accor.com
TOUR
The Tasting Trail is a self-guided adventure. Use its maps and website to put together any kind of itinerary. Check individual operators for opening hours. See tastingtrail.com.au
The writer travelled as a guest of the Tasting Trail, the Spirit of Tasmania and Novotel Devonport.
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