Tour Tasmania

Salamanca Market located in Hobart, takes place every Saturady morning

WORDS WINSOR DOBBIN

Tasmania comes alive each summer with a plethora of food and wine festivals, open-air concerts and sporting events, making it an increasingly popular family holiday destination.

There are also dozens of destinations where mum and dad can enjoy a tasting or meal overlooking vineyards, or during a tour of an artisan distillery, while the younger family members are kept busy.

Cool-climate wines from artisan producers? Tick. Ciders from small family operations? Tick. Small-batch whisky, gin and vodka from family producers? Tick. Beer tastings? Tick. Tourism Info Monitor figures show Tasmania continues to rank as the second-mostappealing Australian travel destination, behind Queensland. Here are some family-friendly highlights you won’t want to miss out on – but don’t forget to appoint a designated driver.

CASCADE BREWERY

Established in 1824 alongside the Hobart Rivulet in South Hobart, at the foot of Mount Wellington, Cascade is the oldest operating brewery in Australia. It also produces a range of juices, syrups and cordials. Visitors aged over 16 can join a one hour brewery tour, while a heritage tour, which does not include tastings, is open to all ages. The Visitor Centre includes three acres of beautifully manicured heritage gardens perfect for children and there is an on-site restaurant with dishes matched to Cascade beers and ciders.

WILLIE SMITH’S CIDER

In 1888, Willie Smith planted the first apple tree in an orchard in the Huon Valley, Tasmania. Four generations later, the Smith family has the largest organic orchard in Australia. The Apple Shed is its tasting facility, restaurant, museum telling the story of Tasmania’s apple industry, and a regular music and festival venue. The self-guided tour of the cidery takes around 20 minutes to complete and costs a gold coin donation. Also, make sure to take a peek at the new copper still being used to produce apple brandy – Tasmania’s answer to calvados.

DEVIL’S CORNER

There are great views, al fresco dining and wine tastings on offer at the Devil’s Corner Cellar Door and Lookout on the edge of Moulting Lagoon on the east coast. A viewing tower features vistas across the lagoon to the Hazards at Coles Bay. The cellar door has tastings of wines, many exclusive to the cellar door, while The Fishers seafood restaurant is located next to the cellar door and serves oysters and mussels from the lagoon and local fish straight off the boats. Tombolo Café sits on the other side of the cellar door and utilises local ingredients to produce a range of wood-fired pizzas.

JOSEF CHROMY WINES

Josef Chromy is one of the pioneers of the wine industry in Tasmania, the Czech migrant having owned and developed Rochecombe (now Bay of Fires), Jansz, Heemskerk and Tamar Ridge. His latest project, at Relbia, just down the road from Launceston Airport, includes a high-tech winery, upmarket restaurant and function centre overlooking gardens and a beautiful lake. The cellar door is located in the estate’s original 1880s homestead and has a welcoming open log fire in winter. The award-winning eatery, right next door, is open seven days a week and sources regional produce to match with the wines. Several different vineyard/winery tours are available.

HOME HILL WINERY

Located at Ranelagh, cider country, in the heart of the Huon Valley, Home Hill is home to one of Tasmania’s finest cellar door restaurants with a focus on local produce, including salmon and oysters. And the wines are top-notch too; Home Hill won the Jimmy Watson Trophy at the Royal Melbourne Show for its reserve pinot noir a couple of years ago. There are sweeping views of the vines from the restaurant (with room for young ones to run around) and a tasting area/ barrel hall. Kids will enjoy patting alpacas over the fence. What started as a hobby farm with six rows of vines has become a thriving business.

NONESUCH DISTILLERY

Nonesuch Distillery is situated just 15 minutes from Hobart Airport, on the road to Port Arthur. It sits on the scenic Rayburn Farm and younger visitors will enjoy a look inside the farm barn with its store of old machinery, carriages, carts and implements. The boutique distillery (prior bookings are advised for tastings) produces two different gins and a sloe malt. Twice a month, Nonesuch hosts a hands-on Whisky Making Experience incorporating milling the grain, mashing-in, taking specific gravity readings, starting the fermentation, distilling, taking and recording alcohol by volume measurements, using conversion tables and even filling a cask.

LARK DISTILLERY

Ten years ago there were only three distillers in Tasmania. Now there are 22, making whisky, gin, vodka and other spirits with sales having grown by more than 50 per cent in the last two years. Bill Lark from Hobart’s Lark Distillery is the ‘Godfather’ of the industry and the Lark tasting room is set just back from the Hobart waterfront. His atmospheric ‘cellar’ offers tastings of various whiskies (there are 150 single malts in all) and other spirits in a clubby atmosphere. There is often live music on Friday and Saturday evenings and two different structured tours to choose from.

BANGOR WINE AND OYSTER SHED

The setting doesn’t get any more quintessentially Australian than this four-hectare vineyard on a 6,200-hectare farm with native wildlife, gum trees and ocean views midway between Hobart and the Port Arthur historic site. Along with wine tastings, cellar door sales and light lunches (think oysters, abalone and platters), the Dunbabin family also has a gift shop selling local artisan products and there is a fenced area for children with its own sandpit. There is also a wood fire on cold days to keep the whole family warm. Starting in January is an electricpowered bike tour of the property, including where Dutch explorer Abel Tasman laid anchor 375 years ago.

PAGAN CIDER

Pagan Cider, which uses local apples, cherries and berries in its beverages, not only has an outdoor ‘cider garden’ - it also pairs with the Tickled Rib smokehouse food truck to serve up American-style barbequed meats at weekends at its tasting facility at Cradoc in the Huon Valley. All meats, including pork spare ribs, are sourced locally and smoked over local cherry and apple wood. In addition to a range of ciders, Pagan recently launched its first mead. For the designated driver there is an excellent cherry juice.

RIVERSDALE ESTATE

One of the newest tourism attractions in Tasmania and just a few minutes’ drive from Hobart Airport, Riversdale Estate at Cambridge offers wine tastings, an upmarket restaurant, the French Bistro, high teas and a Peter Rabbit Garden for children of all ages. The sixth-generation waterfront estate is a working crop and sheep farm that includes the largest Tasmanian privately owned vineyard in the Coal River Valley. The garden, open daily, features the story of Mr McGregor and Peter Rabbit, along with many other Beatrix Potter characters. It is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Tasmania’s leading tourism attraction has something for every member of the family. Australia’s most famous private museum, designed to thrill and shock in equal measure, is also home to the Moorilla cellar door (some of the vines surround the facility), as well as The Source Restaurant with views of the Derwent River, a wine bar and gardens with bean bags in which to chill out. Regular markets and concerts are held during the summer and getting here is half the fun, with options of taking a fast ferry from the Hobart waterfront or cycling from the city, as well as driving. If you are in a car, winemaker Stefano Lubiana’s Osteria restaurant is just 15 minutes away in Granton.

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FRANK’S CIDER

Set in the picturesque village of Franklin, across the road from the Huon River and the Wooden Boat Centre, Frank’s has local food and coffee on offer to complement the free tastings of its ciders seven days a week. The cellar door here is the former St John’s Church Hall, built in the 1870s and where four generations of one of the brand’s founders went to Sunday School. There are interesting historical exhibits on display. Frank Clark, after whom the brand is named, was the third of six generations of the Clark family to live at ‘Woodside’ on the banks of the Huon River, still the family home. The range includes apple, pear and cherry ciders all made from local fruit.

JAMES BOAG’S BREWERY

Tasmanians split their beer loyalty between the north and south of the state. In the north, locals tend to drink James Boag, a brewer with a history dating back to 1888, when Boag & Son started brewing beer on the banks of the Esk River in downtown Launceston. Visitors are welcome to enjoy a guided tour of the brewery followed by a beer tasting for those 18 years and over, seven days a week. Children under five are not permitted on tour and those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

VELO WINES AND TIMBRE KITCHEN

The Tamar Valley is surprisingly short of winery dining options, but if you do want to dine among the vines, Timbre Kitchen at Velo Wines, a short drive north of the city, has recently been taken over by chef Matt Adams and partner Shannon Bushby. The drawcard here, along with wines made by former Tour de France cyclist Micheal (correct) Wilson, is locally raised and ethically sourced food with an Asian accent, along with fresh oysters. It is open seven days for lunch and late on Fridays and Saturdays. The outdoor deck overlooks some of the oldest vines in Tasmania, planted in 1966.

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