TasWeekend: Grape expectations

TASWEEKEND: It’s been a busy year for the state’s vineyards, with many boasting new additions.

Jackie and Darren Brown in their Puddleduck vineyard, with their pet duck, Lucky, after a very busy Easter weekend. Big Weekend at Tasmanian wineries over Easter

WHILE we have all been rightly excited by the many new restaurant openings in the city in the past year or so, our vineyards have not been standing still.

In the Coal River Valley, Frogmore Creek’s newish deck and small-serve menu have proved instant hits, Jackie and Darren Brown have just opened their beautiful cellar door extension at Puddleduck Vineyard and the new Coal Valley Farm is having to turn away restaurant reservations even though their cheeserie and chocolate facility are yet to get into full swing.

Down the Tasman Peninsula at Dunalley, the recently opened Bangor Oyster Shed on Bangor Estate has been attracting crowds since day one, not only for their excellent oysters and mussels but also for their string of medal-winning, post-2013-bushfire wines.

Just north of Swansea, at Milton Vineyard, Michael Dunbabin is putting the finishing touches to a new kitchen and dining area where Jahan Patterson-Were will again be presenting what are without doubt Tasmania’s best and most authentic tapas over summer.

At Spring Vale Wines, just up the highway from Milton, Charlotte Brown and Don Monk, from the renowned Old Cable Station in Stanley, are presenting a popular seafood and kids’ menu in a marquee among the vines.

But perhaps the most exciting development along the coast is the newly expanded cellar door and tasting deck overlooking Great Oyster Bay through to the Hazards at the Hazards Vineyard just south of Bicheno.

Don Monk and Charlotte Brown are presenting a seafood and kids’ menu at Spring Vale Wines. Picture: ROSS MARSDEN

From early next month, the wines and views will be complemented by some of the state’s best and freshest seafood from Freycinet Marine Farm, as well as the pizzas and other goodies from the ever-popular Tombolo restaurant of Shannon Griffiths and Andrew Merse in Coles Bay.

But the daddy of all the new vineyard developments is at Riversdale Estate in Cambridge, where owners Wendy and Ian Roberts are putting the finishing touches on what they are calling The French Bistro, which promises to be a unique dining experience.

Those finishing touches include Carrera marble benches, commissioned and designed Aubusson tapestries, wood panelling and shelves of faux books throughout, champagne chandeliers, an orangerie for classic high teas with spectacular views over the Pittwater and, for the first time outside of Britain, a Beatrix Potter garden where Mr McGregor’s garden and Peter Rabbit and his friends – some of them articulated – will keep guests young and old enthralled.

Riversdale Estate Vineyard, which will soon open The French Bistro.

The chefs will be Kurt Collins, currently the chef at Café Zero in the Roberts’ Zero Davey complex, and Irishman Aiden Stuart.

Wendy says while the design and decor will be in the style of a French petit chateau, the food will be traditional French bistro fare – “the sort of food that’s accessible to everyone”.

And, by combining their Riversdale Estate wines with a unique selection from France, all at exceptionally reasonable prices, The French Bistro will offer one of the most interesting lists around when it opens, they hope, in the lead-up to Christmas.