Report details Tasmania's Wine Season

Owner of Veno Wines in Legana, Rodney Thorpe, has been involved in the industry since 1992 and said the 2022 season was one of the better ones he has had.

"It was a lot better than the previous years,2021 was alright but 2020 was a tough year - we've had a few tough years," Mr Thorpe said.

"It's been a very good year, production from our vineyard was up, a lot of the others said theirs was down a bit at the end because they ran short of water.

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"Since we took over in 2016, we actually doubled the output of the vineyard," he said.

Mr Thorpe said the winery produced about 20,000 bottles of wine and had a crop yield of 24 tonnes.

"It's only a small vineyard, it's just on four hectares. This year is one of the better years we have had in the Tamar Valley. We had quite a bit of rain but it was a very dry and ripening period through the summer.

"I think the winery scene here is very good at the present moment, let's hope things keep going the way they are going.

"If we are going to produce Tasmanian grapes, we should stick with Tasmanian. It's not the wine of Australia, it's the wine of Tasmania because it's a unique place.

"I don't know how a lot of the small boutique vineyards will finish up but we just got to hang in there and keep going forward, that's the way I see it," he said.

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Dr Andrew Pirie from Apogee Tasmania said conditions were slightly warmer than average and slightly drier than average at the end, which resulted in excellent ripening conditions.

The Wine Tasmania Vintage 2022 report revealed that crop yields were three percent lower compared to the 2021 vintage.

The report also stated that the quality of wine grapes was again reflected in the record value of $3,237 per tonne, compared with the national average of $630 per tonne.

Owner of Utzinger Wines in Legana, Matthias Utzinger, said he established his vineyard in 2018 and was only now just reaping the rewards after four years of hard work.

"It takes roughly three to four years for vines to produce fruit so 2022 was the first year that our vineyards produced fruit as well," Mr Utzinger said.

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"It was a real joy. We were so busy during the harvest we didn't fully realise what was actually happening. Finally we could actually get some reward for the work we have put in over the last four years.

"It was really nice to see that fruit coming in and the fruit that we actually established from scratch so it was really rewarding.

"It was a really good year from a quantity point of view for us, but I think overall, the West Tamar has certainly had alright yields compared to other wine regions in the Island.

"Our quantities were still there and our qualities were exceptional.

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"The beginning of the season was really quite challenging, a lot of a lot of rain, and kind of humid conditions and there was a lot of pressure from a fungal point of view.

"Things then got better and dried out. We had a really stunning summer which was warm and really dry and then it cooled off again towards the end of the ripening period."

Mr Utzinger said he believed the winery scene in Northern Tasmania was becoming more dynamic as a result of smaller and newer wineries popping up.

"It's good to see some smaller labels popping up and pushing everybody to kind of do things and continue that push for quality overall," he said.

The 2022 Australian winegrape crush is estimated to be 1.73 million tonnes, two percent below the 10-year average of 1.78 million tonnes.

The Tamar Valley was the highest contributor of wine grapes - 39 per cent in Tasmania - compared to the rest of the state.

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