Tasmania’s Tamar Valley sparkles on a Josef Chromy tour
On this Tassie tour, guests learn to make sparkling wine to their taste.
I’ve been to plenty of wineries for tastings and the odd tour, but now, at Josef Chromy, a Tamar Valley winery minutes from Launceston, I’m about to make a sparkling according to my taste. What is that exactly? Brut? Extra brut? Self-doubt mounts as the cork pops on The Art of Sparkling’s introductory bottle. Our small group is asked to hold on to the memory of how it tastes. All I know is I like this non-vintage cuvee.
A half-day experience guiding participants through the methode traditionelle, The Art of Sparkling is one of several behind-the-scenes opportunities offered at Josef Chromy. They are part of the nationwide Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia collection, enticing visitors beyond cellar-door tastings.
As a black swan and her cygnets glide across the estate’s lake on a blue-sky autumn day, vines rising up the hill beyond, the pressure ebbs away with each sip. The winery’s sales manager, Dave Milne, leads the experience. He knows his stuff (Milne is also a Wine Tasmania board member) but it’s clear his objective is to gently educate, not intimidate.
The lesson begins with a little about Josef Chromy, whose escape from Czechoslovakia in 1950 is like a John le Carre novel. The penniless 19-year-old arrived in Tasmania, built a meat empire, then developed wineries that the Tamar Valley’s international reputation for sparkling was built on, including Jansz and Tamar Ridge. In 2007, aged 76, Chromy focused on one: this 61ha vineyard bearing his name, with a logo featuring the Czech coat of arms: a crowned, double-tailed lion, used with special dispensation. Milne says we’ll probably bump into Joe, who’s still active at the winery.
Sure enough, while exploring massive steel machines and vats, tasting the semi-fermented chardonnay and pinot-noir juices that will be blended into sparkling’s base wine, we meet the man himself. After sharing a quiet joke about his love of wine, Chromy continues with his busy day.
We step on to a platform overlooking several smaller machines, which carry out the final stages of sparkling-wine production. It’s at this point that our experience gets hands-on. We’re about to play winemaker with “liqueur d’expedition”: a little je ne sais quoi added to the wine, balancing sweetness and acidity according to taste before it’s finally sealed.
In a light-filled room, we each face four glasses of tart, second-fermented bubbly. There’s also a pipette for dispensing tiny, adjustable amounts of “liqueur”, which Milne says is a 68 per cent sugar solution. He’s cagey about what’s in the vial besides sugar and water; sparkling-wine houses the world over closely guard their liqueur recipes.
Otherwise our guide is a calmly enthusiastic font of knowledge, informing us that 35 per cent of Tasmania’s wine production is sparkling. It’s starting to be recognised as second only to the Champagne region, but Milne goes further. “Tasmania can produce sparkling wine every bit as good as Champagne,” he says.
I’m in the right place then, pondering liqueur dosage variations from bone-dry extra brut to doux. After experiments across those four glasses, I settle on a brut dosage of eight, which turns out to be a whisker drier than The Art of Sparkling’s introductory drink.
The experience continues with tastings of the winery’s range, and a delicious lunch. I eventually depart, pleased with the bottle bearing my name and that of Josef Chromy, a man whose life, like a fine bottle of sparkling wine, epitomises grace under pressure.
In the know
The Art of Sparkling experience at Josef Chromy is available from 11am, Monday to Friday; $245 a person, including two-course lunch with matched wines.
ultimatewineryexperiences.com.au
Patricia Maunder was a guest of Tourism Tasmania.
