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Cousins Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith (above) are not averse to taking a risk or two.
When they launched their first wine brand 35 years ago they opted to use sauvignon blanc as the headline act.
At that time sauvignon blanc was virtually unknown in the southern hemisphere.
The success of the Shaw + Smith brand has since paved the way for hundreds of Australian producers who followed in their footsteps and planted sauvignon blanc.
Thirteen years ago, considering creating a brand in Tasmania, they chose the Tolpuddle Vineyard in the Coal River Valley, originally planted by some of the savviest operators in the wine business.
The vineyard is on a gently sloping north-east site with soils that are light silica over sandstone: ideal for chardonnay and pinot noir.
The only problem was that Tolpuddle had initially been planted with chardonnay and pinot noir clones best suited to sparkling wine production, not the premium table wines for which Tolpuddle has become well known.
"The 2023 vintage got us to a point where we are full planted - and everything in the ground is as we want it ," says Tolpuddle national sales manager Tom Donegan, who hosted a 2023 vintage release tasting in Hobart last week, along with Pip Anderson, who will run the Tolpuddle tasting room when it opens adjacent to the vineyard in November.
The 2023 vintage was the coldest on record, but winemaker Adam Wadewitz and his team have worked some magic.
Both new releases reflect the work viticulturist Carlos Souris has been putting into the vineyard, including re-plants, grafts and extensions, while organic practices have been evolving over a decade or more.
The 2023 Chardonnay has marvellous tension and bright acidity, along with impressive cool-climate balance, while the 2023 Pinot Noir walks a tightrope of fruit and savoury characters and finishes with delicacy and elegance. .
Both share intense, complex fruit flavours, vibrancy and minerality.
Find out more at https://www.tolpuddlevineyard.com/ but be warned that stocks are getting low after only a couple of weeks of release.
Understandably so. If you are very lucky you might still find some in retail land.
The reason the pinot and chardonnay clones were selected as suitable for sparkling is that they were preferred as such by Tony Jordan a then partner in Tolpuddle with myself and Bill Casimaty. The fruit purchase contract for Tolpuddle was with Domaine Chandon [ Moet Hennessey ] of which Tony was the managing director
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