“The wine was extraordinary in the way it changed so much in the glass… and the wine bottle was emptied with a grateful nod to the Apple Isle,” says wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.

Tasmanian wineries are doing well, especially in the production of pinot noir.

It is my favourite varietal: versatile, reflective of the terroir, food friendly and often both complex and delicate.

Tasmania is producing some excellent examples of pinot noir. According to Wine Australia statistics pinot noir was 43 per cent of Tasmania’s wine grape production up to 2019. 

In the 2025 National Wine Show awards, the Stargazer 2022 Palisander Vineyard Pinot Noir was awarded a gold medal and allocated 95 points out of 100.

Samantha Connew is the winemaker at Stargazer, located in the Coal Valley Tasmania. I’ve tried three of her wines and found them to be textural and complex, worthwhile drinking, with the pinot noir tasted at the wine show, expressive and velvet like.

The wine I was sent for review, the Tamar Ridge 2022 Research Series Pinot Noir, got a silver medal at the 2025 National Wine Show and was allocated 93 points, just a nudge behind the gold-medal winners. 

Brown Family Wine Group’s Tasmanian wine brand Tamar Ridge has released three new pinot noir expressions: Tamar Ridge Research Series Pinot Noir 2022, Tamar Ridge Single Block Kayena Pinot Noir 2024, and Tamar Ridge Single Block Rosevears Pinot Noir 2024.

I decided to review the Research Series, given its silver-medal status and because, unusually, it is made using two distinct methods: a bespoke dry yeast fermentation as well as carbonic maceration, a two-headed approach if there ever was one.

The parcel that underwent this latter treatment had to be blended with the yeast-infused parcel because carbonic maceration is a whole-bunch fermentation technique in which the first phase of fermentation is conducted in a completely anaerobic atmosphere. In this process a small amount of malic acid and sugar in grapes is converted to ethanol (drinking alcohol), along with traces of many aromatic compounds, without the intervention of yeast. 

I tried the Research Series over dinner with my two adult children. The wine was paired with oven-baked salmon that had been marinated in lemon juice and a third of a bottle of NZ rose’.

The usual stance is to pair white wine with fish. But, in my experience, pinot noir often matches well with richer fish dishes such as salmon or baked trout.

At first opening, the wine was astringent and had a harsh finish. It needed air. The solution was to decant the wine, undertaken with care by my daughter.

The bouquet and taste were transformed after decanting and a little time, becoming respectively more pleasant and more complex. 

The nose reflected cherry and earthy notes that translated into a fuller bodied pinot noir than many others I’ve tried recently. This wine was layered when compared with say the very pleasant but much lighter Lark Hill pinot noir, albeit there was a cherry and red fruit mix in both.

The main difference lay in the Tasmanian wine being more earthy and complex with a spicy finish not evident in the local wine.

I think the local wine would have gone better with the fish and the Tasmanian wine would pair better with game or duck.

The Research Series wine changed markedly after even more time (we’d moved on to dessert of brownies) with the forest-floor element predominant.

The wine was extraordinary in the way it changed so much in the glass. But it was a motivator to refill the glass to reassess the taste and the wine bottle was emptied with a grateful nod to the Apple Isle.

How do you know if a researcher has a PHD? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.