Combine wine tasting with wildlife spotting

Tasmanian sparkling wine producer House of Arras has added a new experience to its cellar door offerings.

Visitors can now sample a sustainable new way to experience its Wildlife & Vineyard Safari on board a quiet, zero-emissions electric passenger golf cart.

The eco-friendly addition is promoted as allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the beauty of the northern Tasmanian landscape along the banks of the Pipers River while accessing more of the estate with minimal environmental impact.

Following a guided tasting of some of Australia's most awarded sparkling wines, guests can embark on a two-hour journey through the vineyard, learning about sustainable viticulture and spotting native wildlife including resident platypus, wedge-tailed eagles and bandicoots.

Combining world-class sparkling wine with conservation, wildlife and scenery, the experience aims to offers a deeper connection to the landscape and terroir that define House of Arras.

The offering is part of House of Arras' membership of Ultimate Winery Experiences and costs from $175.

See https://houseofarras.com.au/

So you want to learn about sparkling wine from the best in the business?

Serious about sparkling wine? 

Want to learn more? 

Leading wine educator and Champagne experty Tyson Stelzer is teaming up with Ed Carr (House of Arras), Natalie Fryar (Bellebonne) and Andrew Pirie (Apogee) for the inaugural Tasmanian Sparkling Immersion on November 13-15. 

The quartet will host five intimate masterclasses, two winery visits, barrel tasting and a vineyard visit in the Tamar Valley and Piper’s River, home to some of the best sparkling wines in the world.⁠

⁠The winemakers have a combined experience of a 134 vintages and the weekend will showcase over 50 of their finest cuvées spanning three decades, alongside some other great sparkling wines of Australia, Champagne and the world. 

Along with three days of tastings and visits, there will a gala dinner, a cocktail dinner, brunch and two lunches at Evenfall, where Apogee and House of Arras will pair their wines with local Tasmanian produce.⁠

⁠The weekend is limited to just 33 guests. 

For more details check out https://www.tysonstelzer.com/tasmanian-sparkling-immersion-13-15-november-2026/

Jansz offers a sparkling winter experience

Jansz Tasmania is encouraging wine lovers to embrace the stillness and the chill of Tasmania’s Off Season with a luxe new wine room experience: "Winter With Jansz Tasmania".

OK, it is not the catchiest name, but the indulgent package for two celebrates the pleasures of winter, Tasmanian-style, as part of Tourism Tasmania's campaign. 

Wine lovers are invited to the Jansz Tasmania Wine Room in the heart of the Pipers River wine region to watch the weather roll in across the vineyards and lake. 

The Winter With Jansz Tasmania experience includes:

* 2 x Ultimate Tasting Flights

* A shared lunch platter featuring locally sourced Tasmanian produce

* A Jansz Tasmania wine bottle stopper

* 1 x bottle of your choice: Vintage Cuvée or Vintage Rosé

* A Tasmanian-made woollen beanie or scarf

The cost is $180 for two. 

“Winter is a time when Tasmania reveals its true character; wild, beautiful and wonderfully quiet,” says Daniel Kavanagh, Jansz Tasmania’s new Wine Room manager.

“Our Off Season experience is about slowing down, soaking it all in, and discovering the warmth that sparkling wine and good company can bring to even the coldest day.”

Bookings are essential and can be made via jansz.com.au. The experience is available Thursdays to Mondays during winter. 

Family-owned Delamere is a Tasmanian wine success story

Fran Austin comes from Kalgoorlie via Perth. Shane Holloways's family owns a vineyard in the Adelaide Hills.

Together, the husband and wife winemaking team has turned once-tiny Delamere Vineyards into one of the most respected names in the Tasmanian wine industry.

Austin made her name as winemaker at Bay of Fires; Holloway made wines at Dalrymple. And when Delamere, planted in 1982, came on the market in 2007, they gambled all on buying the Pipers River property.

Almost two decades on they have hugely expanded vineyards, a large winemaking facility, including a new tirage facility, their own bottling line, and they contract make wines for several small labels. That's a win.

The couple - who combine technical ability with good instincts - sescribe themselves as "Tasmanian grower producers handcrafting traditional method sparkling wines and table wines". 

Cool guys. Obsessive about quality.

Austin has a degree in winemaking from Adelaide University and did vintages in Burgundy and the south of France, worked with the hugely influential Brian Croser, and has a CV that involves roles at Domaine Chandon, Petaluma and Houghton before landing in Tasmania, where she worked at Heemskerk and Rochecombe before landing at Bay of Fires, where she quickly developed a formidable reputation.

  

Holloway, a former marine biologist, took up a vintage cellar hand position to help pay the rent whilst undertaking post-graduate research. He completed an Adelaide University post-graduate degree in winemaking and embarked on vintages in the Adelaide Hills, Yarra Valley and Oregon before Tasmania called him back and he made wine at Dalrymple. 

Wine won over marine creatures. 

Last week, the couple hosted a dinner at Launceston's Black Cow Bistro to launch the new 2023 vintages of their estate pinot noir and chardonnay. A similar tasting is scheduled for Hobart later this month.  

The line-up, which showcased wines as far back as their first vintage in 2008, featuring stunning brackets of museum wines, along with a sneak peek at the 2023 Delamere Estate Chardonnay and 2023 Estate Pinot Noir, both of which are released today with an RRP of $70.

Delamere is unusual in that all its estate wines are made from just two grape varieties, the range includes not only sparkling and table wines but also a new-release NV Ratafia. 

Both new estate wines will likely sell out within weeks.

While the dinner was about the releases and showing how the wines age, diners began their night with a stunning 2012 Late Disgorged Blanc de Blancs ($150) and a 2013 Vintage Rosé ($80). 

They were then regaled with entertaining stories about the couple's Delamere journey on a 100% estate grown, made and bottled story. 

"Chardonnay is why I fell in love with Delamere - and it remains my desert island wine," said Shane, revealing how he made the stunningly youthful 2008 on his own, with Fran still working at Bay of Fires at the time.

"The combination of soil and site make our vineyards perfect for cool-climate chardonnay and pinot noir," he says. 

Fran says each wine they make "unlocks the inherent beauty of our site, as we encapsulate the story of each season in our wine". 

The rich ironstone soils at Pipers River are farmed 100% by hand, and the wines are very much a reflection of each vintage: 100% family-owned and -run. 

And the back vintages that we tried at dinner underlined just how well the estate chardonnay and pinot noir will cellar.  

See www.delamerevineyards.com.au    

100% Family owned and run, 100% grown, made and bottled at our Pipers River Estate