The Coal River Valley, 20 minutes from Hobart, is famous for its exceptional wines. What is unusual for this particular area, is the significantly lower rainfall than in other cool climate regions of Australia, which allows the vines to ripen slowly and develop a greater intensity.

It was a happy coincidence that brought the two cousins Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith, who have been running Shaw + Smith in the Adelaide Hills together since 1989, to Tasmania: They both had read a lot about the potential of Tasmania and wanted to see for themselves. So they went on an exploration trip to find out … At dinner with befriended winemakers (including Andrew Pirie) they recognized the favorable climatic conditions in Tasmania and got some tips what to look and potentially aim for. Back on the mainland, they decided to move into action and acquire a vineyard. So, in 2011 they eventually ended up buying Tolpuddle Vineyard.

The Tolpuddle Winery was very successful very quickly: it won the title Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year with its first vintage (2006) and has since then received multiple awards and top rankings for its inimitable tassie-style. Thereafter Tolpuddle became even more famous for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines, both of which are developed as single vineyards.

Both 2017 flagship wines were awarded 98 points (Halliday), with the Tolpuddle Pinot Noir even being named the best in Australia.

In 2019 Shaw + Smith waived their chance on a top-follow-up Tolpuddle vintage because at the time of the decision, taste impairments could not be ruled out due to the devastating forest fires. Nonetheless, if you can manage to geht your hands on a bottle of the reserve filling under the label“The Other Wine Co.”, you should definitely do so and find out for yourself whether this precaution was really needed. We personally think that contrary to all fears, this Pinot Noir is once again a dream!

But for now, we are humbly looking forward to offer you the great trio of the last three Tolpuddle Pinot Noir vintages (2016, 2017 & 2018) – they are still available, but only in very small quantities, even for our standards. So we are excited to receiving your requests and await the 2020 vintage (available probably by end of 2021/ beginning of 2022)!