Waking to gentle rain reminded me of the black cockatoos which had been seen yesterday at the neighbouring vineyard. I was in my element this morning with a cup of tea in hand whilst lying in bed watching the girls and Lachlan play UNO, after a few games we all got ready for bacon and eggs in the sunshine as the rain had stopped. We also had some new neighbours arrive at 9am who had come straight from the Ferry from Queensland, the property we are staying on is so big that we literally cant see them.

We explained to the girls that we wanted to do 4 vineyards today and then we would come back to the van to relax and play – they got Ayla and Violet dressed ready for the outing. First stop was Providence Vineyard, however it was closed, so we called the owner and he explained that he had just sold it and the new owners were just sorting themselves out and unlikely to have a cellar door open until April 2019. We decided to head to Clover Hill, which are known for their sparkling, but wanted to see what else they had to offer. The cellar door was outstanding. $1m apparently and opened late last year – stunning. A ‘great office’ as one of the ladies behind the bar said.

They have 6 bubbles and launched 6 still wines, under the brand ‘Idiom’ when they opened the cellar door – these are only available at the cellar door. The bubbles were a mixture from a good quoffa bubbles (Curve NV) at $34 to a beautiful 2012 Blanc de Blanc ($65) – we then moved onto the still wines, although only tried the single vineyard chardonnay 2016 (The Whole Nine Yards), estate pinot 2016 (Speak of the Devil) and single vineyard pinot 2016 (The Devil is in the Detail) – all were really smooth and made by people who know what they are doing. The Chardonnay was too oaky for me – perfect for Mr LordLachlanWines though. We walked away knowing what we could buy at the mainland bottles shops and a bottle of the Curvee Rose NV.

Driving to the next vineyard we noticed a vineyard which wasn’t on the map, and which neither of us had heard of…. Apogee… so we popped in to discover that this vineyard was owned by Andrew Pirie – the founder of Pipers Brook vineyard with his brother David. Andrew was the first person in Australia to get a PhD in viticulture. They purchased the Piper Brook vineyard land in 1973. He purchased the land for Apogee and made his first vintage in 2010 under the philosophy of specialising in sparkling wine, produce single vineyard wines only, restrict the scale to 2 hectares (same size as plots in Champagne region in France), which limits production to between 10-20k bottles a year. We were lucky enough to meet Andrew (who is know as one of Australia’s most respected winemakers) and for him to talk us through the grapes, the cellaring and the variances between the limited options they have –  Apogee Deluxe Vintage Brut 2014, Apogee Deluxe Vintage Rose 2015 and an Apogee Alto Pinot Gris 2018. All of the three were exceptional. I would say that their Rose was close to my favourite Billecart Salmon Champagne – however the price point is significantly better at $57, and their Brut at $47. They opened their cellar door last christmas for the peak season  at the same time as the opening of Clover Hill, they were literally labelling bottles in front of us, and we took their last bottle of Rose for New Year’s Eve – the case of 6 Brut and 6 Rose which we ordered will be sent home. Outstanding. This cellar door isn’t on the wine route map, or advertised anywhere, the other local vineyards which surround Apogee want them to be marked on the map, as it will help them all having such a prestigious name next door. Whilst we were tasting and talking to Andrew, the girls were playing with Ollie the golden lab and running in and out of the sprinkler – good idea in 30 degree heat.  We walked away really honoured to have met Andrew and to have tasted his passion in a bottle.

We then headed to Brook Eden Vineyard which is a 3hectare Vineyard planted in 1988 and purchased 6 years ago by an Italian couple who are trying to bring an Italian influence to the wines – this hasn’t commenced officially yet as the Italian grapes which they planted 4 years ago aren’t ready yet. So currently they have just labelled the wines with Italian names – Nero, Rosato etc. We tried all of the wines which were all OK, but only the 2013 Pinot stood out, so we purchased 2 bottles (95 points Halliday 2017).

It was getting close to lunch and we originally thought we would head back to the van for lunch, considering we were driving straight past the door, however Bay of Fires wines offered tasting plates and pizza, so we decided to have a light bite and then taste to enable us to get back to the van and relax for the afternoon. The girls played noughts and crosses in the garden with Lach whilst I kept the table, when they returned to the table we all toasted to our last full day in Tasmania. After a delicious lunch we tasted their bubbles, but walked away with 4 bottles of their 2017 Trial by Fires Chardonnay – which is cellar door only and a beautiful light (slight oak) buttery wine. Wines released under the Trial by Fires label are special and small production wines made using unconventional techniques. This one was called Project Egg, which was produced from a single Derwent valley fruit and fermented in a porous concrete egg shaped fermenter, then finished in old oak for 4 months.

Arriving back to the van in the 30+ heat we opened all the windows and then had a walk around the grounds to find some cherry trees. The owner of the property bought out a huge bag of cherries for us – which Ava literally devoured in under an hour. Whilst eating the cherries, the girls decided that Lach and I needed a massage, so we sat in our chairs in the shade and they literally massaged us with water on arms, legs and face for about 30minutes each. I did wonder where they learnt some of their techniques from, but I didn’t want to interrupt the silence and relaxation. Eventually Audrey volunteered to Lach (who was her client) that they learnt all this from their massage at ClubMed Bintan in July – money well spent I think. Lach played a couple of card games with the Audrey and I played Backgammon with Ava before dinner of Special Chicken and leftovers.

Knowing we are leaving this beautiful island tomorrow night makes me realise how much of the island we have actually seen, which of the ‘must do’s we can now tick off our list and also what areas we would do if we came back again with the caravan.