Meet an in-depth guide to the Tasmanian wine industry

Want to know more about wines from Tasmania and the people who make them?

Who better as your guide than wine writer Mark Smith, who has been covering Tasmania and its producers for over 30 years.

Smith has recently launched his impressive labour of love wineintasmania.com, which is full of useful info for both serious wine lovers and those with a casual interest.

Smith says he was motivated to launch the free website by the increasing number of wine producers on the island, and the growing interest.

"I figured that if it’s getting hard for me to keep up with Tassie developments, it must be hard for media and industry folks more generally who are trying to keep up with the industry," Smith says.

"The industry has expanded so rapidly of late that few people have been able to keep up, even within the business."

So if you want to know the history of Small Wonder, or where Sailor Seeks Horse comes from then wineintasmania.com delivers.

Good news: The site has nothing to do with selling wine. No ads, endorsements, product placements, subscriptions.

The site features more than 450 pages of content and covers more than 180 Tasmanian wine producers.

For the more serious, there is site specific climate data for single vineyards, news/back stories about what’s going on at the moment and plenty of archival material, including vintage reports.

The site is fully navigable with a search box in the nav bar.

Want to know about Tasmania's only/first gruner veltliner, baco noir or chenin blanc? You'll find the info here.

There is still work to do. As Smith explains: "With 3rd and 4th generation ownership of vineyards, very few know the full story about how their vineyard came into being and evolved."

Still to come: distributor details, an events calendar, vineyard map locations and more.

I know that this is a site I will be referring to an a regular basis. Well worth bookmarking.  

Image: Mark Smith

All you need to know about Moldova - and its wines

Serious wine lovers may be aware that Moldova produces world-class sparkling wines, crafted using Méthode Traditionnelle and matured in limestone cellars. Others may be surprised.

The country is also home to Mileștii Mici, the world's largest wine cellar, which stores close to 2 million bottles (below). The cellars extend for 200 kilometres underground, of which only 55km are in current use.

I tried some Moldovan wine in Moscow a long time ago and was impressed by the quality. 

Should you be tempted to visit, The Republic of Moldova has just launched a new official website www.moldova.md, which it describes as a new tool for presenting the country.

The website reveals that Moldova is a small country, 135th in the world in terms of size, but among the top 20 global exporters of plums, walnuts, cherries, apricots, rape seed, apples, and grapes.

And its ranks in the top 20 global exporters of wine.

The Invest Moldova Agency says the new website is a "a modern identity card for the country, the platform provides a structured, easy-to-navigate presentation of the Republic of Moldova for international audiences and for citizens at home and abroad".

The content is presented to provide a quick and accurate understanding of Moldova. Available in English, its is specifically tailored to international audiences.

An key element of the launch is the placement of a dedicated www.moldova.md banner at Chișinău International Airport, in the passport control area, so arrivals can immediately access it.

“A strong country image is built through consistency and through an identity that is presented coherently across all international platforms," says Irina Tolstousov, deputy director, Invest Moldova Agency.

"We aim to provide the Republic of Moldova with a modern presentation framework, developed based on the experience and standards applied by countries that have been implementing nation branding strategies for many years. 

"At the same time, we placed a strong emphasis on usability and accessibility, ensuring that these tools can be used easily and effectively by institutions, partners, and communities that promote Moldova.”