Spoilt for choice with wine

JOHN Bell explores the cultural delights of Tasmania's wine-growing region and unearths a fine blend of boutique wineries, gourmet food and inspiring artwork.

Cool delights ... Tasmania's climate provides an ideal wine-growing environment.

DIVERSITY and innovation drive Tasmania's cultural success and two "wineries" near Hobart are fine examples.

MEADOWBANK Estate, a self-proclaimed boutique winery, sticks to what Tasmania does best – cool-climate wines such as pinot gris, riesling, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, plus a bit of sparkle and a cabernet, make up the bulk of the homegrown business.

There is no narrow corridor for harvesting in this cool environment. The grapes can stay on the vines until they are perfect and don't need "adjusting" later.

The estate's restaurant, with a menu entirely of entree-size dishes, is very user-friendly, and as you browse, the hilltop view over the vineyards and some of the 11,000 fine-wool merinos soothes the soul.

Meadowbank also grows peppermint, fennel and blackcurrants and provides a catering service for public and corporate functions.

If all that doesn't dazzle you, there is "the loft" – a two-metre wide gallery around the walls above the tasting room, with art you can walk on. There is really no choice. The entire floor of the loft is carved, etched and painted in the unique style of Czech-born Tom Samek, interspersed with 30 stanzas of puns, humour and nonsense verse by long-time friend and poet Graeme Phillips.

I'm sure there were paintings on the walls as well, but I was too distracted to remember. It is, after all, a free-access gallery.

The permanent floor mural, the Flawed History of Tasmanian Wine, was completed in December 2005 after millions of words, endless discussion and lots of bottles. It is certainly Samek's largest work, and perhaps his finest. It's undoubtedly the most durable.

And the price? It is, of course, priceless. You can't buy it but for those who wonder about these things, it cost $160,000, half of which was funded by the Federal Government. An absolute bargain.

Where owner and managing director Gerald Ellis hasn't yet stepped, another great restaurant and winery in the area, Moorilla Estate, has jumped in.

Meet Moobrew – three varieties of beer made by a mini-brewery inside a towering glasshouse at a winery adjacent to the wine-tasting rooms, restaurant, accommodation, function centre and art gallery.

Moorilla produces premium cool-climate wines, with riesling, gerwurtztraminer and pinot grapes on 3.5ha on the banks of the Derwent River.

The eponymous Source restaurant is dominated by a six-metre painting of the same name by John Olsen.

The entire architectural vision features contemporary works by Australia's major artists, and ceilings that allow views of the river from almost everywhere.

The function room caters for 300 but has been designed to expand for another 900 if required.

The stainless-steel brewery in a round glass building is certainly no gimmick. Its designer beer is on tap throughout the centre and in appropriately arty bottles in Tasmania and selected venues on the mainland.

Meadowbank or Moorilla? What a choice. Just go to both if you can.

In the spirit of Tasmanian enterprise, they would likely endorse each other anyway.