As a child growing up in Northern Australia my knowledge of Tasmania was very little, except that apples came from there, if you had an apple from Tasmania it was the best there was getting around and Tasmania was known as the “Apple Isle”. Stepping forward in time by 30 years, I was invited to attend a ‘tasting of tasmania’ function, not being one to knock back anything that is free especially if it involves wine, cheese, and beer I decided to attend, so started my affair with Tasmania and the produce that it has.

An interesting fact I learnt recently after spending afternoon with the wine makers of my region, they gleefully pointed out to me that Tasmania sits at approximately 41-42 degrees latitude which is further from the equator of any Australian wine region, so what I said, no having clue, winemakers tend to have a language all of their own. I was then asked what did I consider to be the most famous wine region in the world and my response was Bordeaux. These charming gentlemen went on to say that Bordeaux sits at approximately 45 degrees, they now where talking in a language that I could understand, I am not suggesting for one minute that the wine in Tasmania is in this league, but the industry is very young and the local winemakers believe that the climates are very similar, and hopefully in time whatever is in the air in Bordeaux may be in the air in Tasmania, but who knows what the future will hold for any wine region, perhaps the opportunity to produce some true European style reds.

After I stood up from rolling around the ground with laughter, I was reminded of another wine that was considered to be poor and generally rubbish when it was produced, that wine – Penfolds Grange Hermitage turned out to be ok.

So those winelovers not from Tasmania, which I am guessing that there is a few out there, next time you wander past a wine from Tassie give it a try and you could be making the same comments to your children as mine did to me about Grange, “I can remember when this was $10.00 a bottle and we drank it at Barbarques .”

The whole island of Tasmania is an official wine zone, therefore there are no wine regions. However, there is a broad division between Northern Tasmania and Southern Tasmania and within this division there are distinct viticultural areas which include Pipers Brook, Tamar Valley, the North West and Eastern Tasmania, and in the south, the Derwent Valley, Coal River Valley, Huon Valley and D' Entrecasteaux Channel. The island has a range of microclimates and soil types which gives Tasmanian wines their diversity of character.

In a sense Tasmania is just one big market garden, according to 'them' whoever  'them' is, the Tasmanian wine industry has chosen to produce quality rather than quantity with at best guess almost 10% of the high end wine is produced in Tasmania, which is good for the smaller vineyards in the region, however does causes problems when you are wanting to put the region onto the international stage, thus the reason that alot of Tasmanian Wine Companies are rarely seen in European and American Markets. Whilst there are certainly representations of the wine overseas the true vibe of the industry is still finding its feet and in years to come it will be nice to travel the world and find a regular selection of tassie wines on of the shelves and in eateries of the wine nations abroad, just like our brothers on the big island - that would be the rest of Australia.

cheers have a great weekend everybody: will add some more next week