Fred Peacock’s name is associated with Bream Creek Vineyard, planted in the early 1970s on gentle slopes east of Hobart looking north-east to Marion Bay and Maria Island. But, in order to hedge his bets against volatile Tasmanian weather, Fred also has a block in the Tamar Valley. It’s name does not appear on any label, in fact it doesn’t really have a name except “Fred’s Block” or “Fred’s North”.

In 1996 “summer never occurred” says Fred, who at that time had been owner of Bream Creek Vineyard for six years, having bought it from a syndicate that included Moorilla Estate, and in whose bottles all the grapes ended up. The vineyard was planted in the 1970s, making it one of the longer-established commercial vineyards in the state – after Providence and Moorilla, a little ahead of Pipers Brook and Heemskerk.

After the summer that didn’t happen, Fred decided “if we were going to be involved in the long term, we needed to be represented in more than one site to spread the risk”.

When he graduated with a degree in agricultural science, Fred went to work for the Department of Primary Industries as a horticulturalist working with the viticulture industry. One of the early jobs he did was to help Rod Cuthbert lay out his Iron Pot Bay vineyard at Rowella. The vineyard was in a French “lyre” layout, with two rows close together and then a machinery lane. Fred suspects the man with the 4ha next door hopped over the fence at night to study the layout. In any event, he “made a pretty good copy of it”, and this is the block that Fred bought, 22 years after he had set up the one next door.

Fred enjoyed bumper crops from both vineyards for some years, until last year, when, once again, summer forgot to come. Then, he was glad to have Fred’s Block, because it was less affected than Bream Creek Vineyard. In spite of a difficult time in the south this year, the vintage from both vineyards has equaled the long-term average.

Fred is a vigneron only. The Bream Creek wines that consistently win medals in stock at Hill Street Grocer now were made by Stefano Lubiano, and this year’s vintage will be made by Julian Alcorso.

The original 5 hectares at Bream Creek was planted mainly with riesling and cabernet sauvignon with small areas of pinot noir and chardonnay. Now, all the cabernet sauvignon has been moved to Fred’s Block, and on 2.5 hectares of new planting at Break Creek are included traminer, sauvignon blanc and schonburger grapes.

Schonburger is a variety bred in Germany as recently as the 1970s. Giving tastings of it at a Melbourne food and wine show, Fred found himself encircled by Japanese chefs. What was going on? “It is the only wine to drink with sushi,” he was told. “It allows the food to do the talking.”

Schonburger matches with the broadest range of food, says Fred. “It has rose petal, Turkish delight flavours and muscat flavours, but they build up slowly”. It blends perfectly with other grapes, ages well and workers just love to pick it – it’s the best wine grape to eat straight off the
vine.

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