New book reveals Tasmania's key role in Australian wine industry
Tasmania's importance in creating some of the country's best-known wine regions has been outlined in a new book launched in Hobart.
Viticulture virtually died out in the 1870s before returning after World War Two. (Photo : Simon Cullen ABC News)
Historian Tony Walker has spent the past four years writing the first history of the state's wine industry.
His book - Vintage Tasmania - has revealed little known facts about the early industry and its chequered past.
Tasmania's first vineyard was a failure.
The vines were planted by William Bligh at Adventure Bay, Bruny Island, in 1788 but when he returned four years later they were gone.
More were planted on the shores of the Derwent in 1803.
Mr Walker said disease and an exodus of workers to the Victorian gold fields brought an end to the first period of Tasmanian wines.
"Viticulture here virtually died out in the 1870s," he said.
He said Tasmanian vines lived on in other areas, creating some of the country's best known wine regions.
"The first vineyards planted in South Australia and Victoria came from Tasmania," he said.
Tasmanian vineyards grown against advice
The book details how the state's modern vines can be traced to two men.
Wine timeline:
- 1788 - first vines planted by William Bligh at Adventure Bay, Bruny Island
- 1803 - first vines planted on shores of the Derwent
- 1870s - disease and Victorian Gold Rush eroded Tasmania's wine sector and it collapsed
- 1956 - first vineyard planted by Jean Miguet near Launceston
- 1958 - second vineyard planted by Claudio Alcorso at Moorilla in Hobart
- 1990s - production shifted from mostly hobby viticulturalists to cool climate sector
Europeans Jean Miguet and Claudio Alcorso migrated after World War Two to Tasmania and began shaping the future of the cool-climate industry.
"Neither of them knew about the other, and when Alcorso planted here at Moorilla he had no idea that there was a vineyard two years old at Launceston," Mr Walker said.
He said both men ignored the prevailing view that Tasmania was not suited to viniculture.
"The department of agriculture were totally opposed to it and they advised people against planting vineyards," Mr Walker said.
"They said Tasmania was too cold."
Viticulturalist Fred Peacock said the two men had no suitable literature to study.
"A lot of the information that was available at that time was from warm and hot climates, whereas we were growing in a very cool climate," he said.
On the back of their success the Tasmanian wine industry has gone from strength to strength.
In the past two decades, vineyard area has grown from about 200 hectares to 1,800 hectares.
Winemaker Andrew Hood was contracted by dozens of Tasmanian vineyards in the 1990s and remembered how exciting it was to see the industry grow.
"1990 was a great year, it was a big year in terms of production, but we still produced only 1,000 tonnes, but now it's well over 10,000," he said.
"Things have really developed and the whole profile of the industry has developed dramatically."
Source : ABC News Tyson Shine December 8th 2014
