This past weekend, with friends Phil and Lynne, we decided
to wander through the Tamar Valley near Launceston in Tasmania. The idea was to visit as many of the wineries
in the area as possible in the couple of days at our disposal and enjoy the
‘fruit of the vine’.
Jules and I landed first in order to take a quick trip up to
Burnie to visit the rellies and we greatly enjoyed seeing Auntie Lorna (92) in
such rude good health and fine form and a couple of glasses of the old amber
fluid only added to her sparkle. We were
hosted by Helen and Chris and dined with Christine and Peter, along with the
others and loved our couple of hours together at the Beach Hotel and again
afterwards at the Sturzaker ranch. The weather
was fine, if very cold and the drive up to Burnie and back again was punctuated
by stops at the Ashgrove Cheese Company and in Devonport on the return journey
for a good lunch. Our Thanks to Helen
and Chris for our B & B experience and to Christine for baking some of her
special mango fruit cake for morning tea.
Returning to Launceston in time to pick up Lynne and Phil
from the airport, we wasted no time and headed straight to Josef Chromy’s
cellar door to enjoy some fine examples of their produce. Our very knowledgeable and welcoming hostess
introduced us to some rather lovely chardonnay and pinot noir and we came away
somewhat lighter in the pocket but keener than ever to sample more of the
produce of the Tamar. Our B&B
accommodation wasn’t far away and we arrived to a warm welcome from Janie, who
along with Brett, has been running Trevallyn House for some years. This was our third visit to Trevallyn, which
is perched on the hill on the north-west part of Launceston overlooking the
Tamar Valley and river. The house is an
art-deco style home which has been in Janie’s family for many years and is
beautifully kept and stylishly furnished.
It was originally part of a much larger estate which was a horse stud,
many years ago. In fact, in pride of
place in the guest lounge, is a silver cup – the Launceston Cup, won by one of
their horses, some years ago.
Friday evening, we’d booked into Navaro’s, one of the finest
restaurants in Launceston and we thoroughly enjoyed this, our second
visit. The food is exceptional and the
service, extremely good. It is labelled
as Italian, but it is more European in food style, but be warned, the serves
are generous so three courses is only for the more ravenous. On our return to Trevallyn we realised that
we’d forgotten our door key and calls to both mobile and house phones of our
hosts, went un-answered. Eventually,
after a half hour or so standing in the VERY cold breeze outside the house, we
found a window around the back of the house which was unlocked and I crawled
through, only to finish up head first onto the bed in the back room. Problem solved! We then lit the fire in the lounge and
enjoyed a late-night tipple whilst we thawed out. We found out at breakfast the following
morning that Jane and Brett were asleep and didn’t hear the phone – lucky I
didn’t finish up at an unlocked window at their bedroom!
Saturday morning we headed off to the City Farmers’ Market
and enjoyed a walk around the central city market with a very good
cross-section of stalls with everything from organic vegetables, wines, beers,
and meat to rabbits, honey and numerous other produce types. We then headed out along the eastern side of
the Tamar towards Scottsdale with our first stop at Piper’s Brook Winery, with
the Jansz winery next door. Over the
rest of the day we visited Bay of Fires and Tamar Ridge Estate vineyards,
gathering a fine collection of wines in the boot of the car.
We’d had quite a day and decided on an easy evening, dining
at the local Legana Tavern where the food was basic, but quite good. We were back at Trevallyn in time to watch
the Magpies match against the Bombers and finish off another bottle of fine
red. Sunday morning we again enjoyed one
of Brett’s fantastic breakfasts. Think
of fresh asparagus wrapped with fine prosciutto and served with hollandaise
sauce on a potato roesti with poached egg!
Incredible! We packed our gear
and said our goodbyes to Janie and Brett and headed off to the Evandale Market,
Evandale being a tiny town just south of the airport. After wandering the market for a while (girls
buying hand-made jewellery) we travelled back up into the Tamar to complete our
vin trip with a visit to Rosevears
which is on the western side of the river, again high on the hill overlooking
the river. Our hostess at Rosevears
managed to squeeze a little more from our credit cards, served a lovely cheese
platter for our lunch and organised our full complement of purchases from all
of our visits, to be shipped home. This
is one of the great tips about this region – the last winery visited will pack
up all purchases and ship them home together.
This is called the Tamar Valley Vineyards Dozen and the wineries all
work together to promote the region – a fantastic initiative.
Recommendations – visit the Tamar Valley for the lovely
wines and stay at Trevallyn House for a great hospitality experience.
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