EAST COAST WINE TRAIL

Welcome to the East Coast Wine Trail

Stimulate your senses as you swirl, sniff, sip and savour your way along the indulgent East Coast Wine Trail.

Tasmania’s sunny east coast is beautiful wine country. An intoxicating blend of low rainfall, warm days, crisp nights and fresh ocean air helps the local winemakers create some sublime drops – especially cool-climate rieslings, pinot noirs, chardonnays and sparking whites that will make your senses hum.

The East Coast Wine Region stretches 211 kilometres from Bream Creek in the south to St Helens in the north, with the East Coast Wine Trail linking together a dozen of the area’s best vineyards. Add sleepy fishing towns, fresh seafood and staggering coastal scenery to the mix, and you’ve got the makings of a terrific road trip – the Great Eastern Drive.

Cellar doors here generally open 10am to 5pm daily, and most can ship your purchases home for you if your car boot is getting overloaded. Some wineries have restaurants in which you can while away a lazy afternoon – or you can head for a coastal town like Orford, Swansea, Coles Bay or Bicheno and grab something good to eat.

If you’re here in spring, time your tour with September’s Great Eastern Wine Week. This 10-day festival is a hedonistic celebration of the east-coast wine scene. Look forward to dozens of tastings, degustation dinners, long-table lunches, seafood-and-wine masterclasses, and lots of live music…right through to sip-and-paint sessions and gin appreciation events. Shuttle companies can whisk you between your accommodation and the local vineyards.

In the presence of rolling greenery and seemingly boundless beaches, it’s easy to catch the east-coast wine vibe.

Milton Vineyard and Cellar Door

One of a cluster of wineries in the fertile terrain just north of Swansea, Milton Vineyard and Cellar Door has been a family-run farm since 1826. Back in those days, merino wool was the name of the game – and sheep remained the focus until the early 2000s when Milton’s first vines started to work their magic. Coiling upwards from the farm’s red loamy soils, peppered with chunks of dolerite, early plantings of pinot noir have been joined by aromatic pinot gris, riesling, gewurztraminer and chardonnay. More recently, syrah and Spanish tempranillo have come to the party – a grand total of 22 hectares of east-coast happiness.

Milton’s cellar door and lunchtime café are set below a rolling vine-striped hillside, alongside a rippling, reed-fringed freshwater dam. In autumn, the grape leaves are a blaze of reds and golds. Sitting and sipping on the balcony here, it’s easy to feel like you’ve time-warped into a Van Gogh painting, the vine colours sparking against the cobalt afternoon sky.

For a bite to eat, look forward to grazing platters overflowing with cheeses, cured meats, olives, chutneys and crunchy bread – perfect accompaniments to a chilled glass of summer’s day chardonnay, or pairing beautifully with a bottle of dusky, cherry-red pinot noir.

Milton Vineyard is open seven days: from 10.30am to 4.30pm Sunday to Thursday, extending to 5pm on Friday and Saturday. The cafe does its thing from Thursday to Tuesday, noon to 3pm. And there are still 3500 sheep here to keep you company.

Craigie Knowe Vineyard and Cellar Door

At little Cranbrook 15 kilometres north of Swansea, Craigie Knowe is the oldest vineyard on the east coast. The first vines curled out of the soil here in 1979, planted by Hobart dentist John Austwick. Despite some doubtful looks from the local farmers, Austwick saw the wine-growing potential in the east coast’s fertile soils and sunny skies. There’s a rich atmosphere of history here, enhanced by the estate’s old sandstone house and outbuildings, dating back to the 1840s.

Craigie Knowe’s early vintages were cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and petit verdot – but once the site’s cool-climate credentials became clear, pinot noir and riesling soon followed. Handcrafted cab sav and pinot noir have since become the mainstays – an outcome that would no doubt have pleased old John the dentist, who was a big reds fan.

Settle in for a tasting; partner what’s in your glass with a cheese board; or launch into a generous gourmet platter of flavoursome Tasmanian edibles (think Pyengana cheeses, Casalinga cured meats from Launceston and homemade pinot noir paste). Or go next-level indulgent with a paired wine-and-chocolate experience, featuring silky handmade treats from Coal River Farm further south. Patisserie delights and smoky wood-fired pizzas also regularly feature on the enticing Craigie Knowe menu.

The winery also offers immersive vineyard tours, allowing visitors the unique opportunity to gain deeper insights into farming practices and the history and story behind the oldest vineyard on the Freycinet Coast. Tours include a seated tasting of all current release wines, an informative and interactive session amidst the vines, and tasty delights accompanied by a glass of your favourite vino.

Craigie Knowe’s cellar door and patisserie are open 11am to 4pm, seven days a week.

Devil’s Corner Vineyard and Cellar Door

Devil’s Corner is one of the east coast’s most spectacularly sited wineries – and it’s one of the newest. Nooked into a hairpin bend on the Tasman Highway, this stylish cellar door overlooks the calm waters of Moulting Lagoon, across Great Oyster Bay to the Hazards peaks in Freycinet National Park – a pink-granite mountain range that shimmers and glows in the beautiful, bright sunlight. Visitors often soak up this vista from the lofty lookout tower, a jaunty turret rising from the hillside.

Nose your way into some lively cool-climate wines in the underground tasting room, a snug spot to find yourself on a windswept winter’s day. If the weather is on your side, head for the sun-soaked deck with a bottle of peppy pinot noir, or spread a picnic rug on the lush lawns and savour a glass of creamy chardonnay.

Hungry yet? A cluster of cleverly reimagined shipping containers plays host to foodie partners Fishers of Freycinet and Tombolo Freycinet. Prime your appetite for super-fresh seafood and pizzas with pizzazz, using seasonal Tasmanian produce and local free-range meats. A plate of sumptuous oysters harvested from the warm shallows below Devil’s Corner is always a good option. Or, if you need an energy shot to keep you trucking along the coast, the coffee here is rich and aromatic.

Devil’s Corner is open from 10am to 5pm daily. Things can get busy here, so pre-book your tasting to make sure they can fit you in. Check the website for details on ‘Sunday Sessions’ live music.

Accessibility

If you’ve got your own wheels, the East Coast Wine Region kicks off just 45 minutes (or 53 kilometres) east of Hobart at Bream Creek. From here, the wineries unravel as you head north up the coast: the most northerly is near St Helens, a little over two hours (or 165 kilometres) east of Launceston.

Operators like Ageing Barrel Tours and Long Lunch Tour Co run seasonal day tours to the East Coast Wine Region from Hobart. Or, if you’re travelling via public transport, Calow’s Coaches and Tassielink buses also connect the east coast towns with Hobart.

Dog guides are welcome at most cellar doors. Call ahead if you have any particular access requirements or questions.