Tasmania – 2023 vintage snapshot
Ned Goodwin MW takes a look at the 2023 vintage across Tasmania, which despite challenges, produced outstanding whites.
2023 was a uniquely uniform vintage across most of Australia, including Tasmania. The third successive La Nīna year saw ample water in the ground across a wet winter, delayed bud burst, stunted flowering and a prolonged ripening period as growers dodged perennial botyrytic and disease pressures, to strategically coddle the vine into a state of relative ripeness. While Tasmania lags behind the rest of the country in terms of creating official sub-regions, the drier districts of the Derwent and Coal River arguably fared best, but it was really touch and go throughout most of the state.
Johnny Hughes at Hughes & Hughes / Mewstone in the Channel District indicated that yields for the last three vintages have been low, albeit, minuscule in 2023.
‘... Whites are generally superior to reds, although... delicate, perfumed pinots were also made…’
Whites are generally superior to reds, although the earlier ripening physiognomy of pinot noir, the island’s flagship, meant that delicate, perfumed pinots were also made. Tannins, often on the stringier side. Later ripening Bordeaux varieties fared less well, while syrah, growing in traction in these parts, served up spicy wines with tannins that needed a little more resolution on the vine.