Single vignerons
Peter and Brenda Bosworth
Morningside
Peter and Brenda Bosworth are yet to complete building their website and they put out only one newsletter a year. Yet two thirds of the 600 cases of wine they produce each year are sold to mail-order customers (half of them on mainland Australia) – the rest go to restaurants, wine bars, a Melbourne distributor and Hill Street Grocer.
Obviously, some word-of-mouth communication is working extremely well and the Bosworths have some loyal customers who keep coming back to them.
Peter Bosworth was a scientist working with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife service (in fact he was responsible for setting up the parks and reserves system) when he and Brenda began searching for a site on which to grow grapes more than 27 years ago. They looked for land that faced east that had no frost, and with a limestone soil like that of Burgundy.
They looked at quite a few blocks of land near Hobart before settling on 45 hectares at Tea Tree; land that was once an apricot orchard. Peter says apricots are no more partial to frost than grapes, and Tea Tree railway station (now the village hall) once was famous for the number of apricots that passed through it.
Half the land is bush and they also raise sheep. The property had long been named Morningside, because it gets the early-morning sun. The property on the other side of the valley was known as Eveningside.
Like its neighbour Stoney/Domaine A, Morningside’s are doleritic black clays over with a calcareous sub-layer about a metre down, which is white and drains very well.
Only 3 hectares of their land is planted with vines – one hectare to pinot and the rest to a mixture of chardonnay, riesling and the Bordeaux grapes, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and petit verdot.
Peter says they started small and built up, “which is a good way to do it”.
When they started 27 years ago, there were only two other vineyards in the Coal Valley – Stoney, now Domaine A, and Glen Ayre, now Tolpuddle. Stoney was then owned by George Parks and Peter helped him with a vintage or two, and did a couple of short courses with the former Vineyards Association of Tasmania before going it alone. He has made a few trips to France, where he has talked to winemakers, but not worked a vintage.
Peter says winemaking is reasonably straightforward in Tasmania because the fruit is generally in good condition and winemaking occurs in the cool of autumn, so avoiding a great deal of refrigeration as is needed on the mainland.
Now, Peter judges wines here and has judged in Western Australia. Brenda is in charge of the vineyard work, and for many years she has been helped with pruning by Kim Johansen.
Peter says “I definitely do not make wine for short-term drinking.” Even the riesling, which is good when it is young, takes on different characters with age. The pinots and cabernets are at their best at three or four years old. The Bosworths are careful not to release them too soon, the 2005 cabernet, for instance, has been two years in oak and three months in the bottle and will be released soon.
About three years ago Peter retired from his job with the government, but took up a similar role with the non-government, not-for-profit Tasmanian Land Conservancy, the group that bought Recherche Bay, and other such areas to save their heritage values for posterity.
Morningside 2005 Pinot Noir
Morningside has seven different clones of Pinot Noir. Barrels of separate vineyard parcels and clones are kept separate and prior to bottling we carry out an assemblage to determine if all barrels are of good quality and contribute to a final blend.
Bright dark colour, violets, cherry and spice on the nose. Lovely dark cherry fruit with some spice. Mouthfilling with good length, structure and power. Oak a bit obvious at this youthful stage but should integrate. Looks like an excellent vintage.
Morningside 2004 Cabernets
These grapes were harvested on June 4, 2004, the latest we have ever picked. Despite this the fruit was ripe and in excellent condition. Made from a combination of five clones of Cabernet Sauvignon (80%) with smaller amounts of Cabernet Franc (15%) and Petit Verdot (5%).
Medium dark, tobacco leaf and black fruits on the nose with ripe blackberry fruit and excellent length. Bearing in mind the vintage this is surprisingly good.
Morningside 2005 Chardonnay
This was whole-bunch pressed, cold settled for 48 hours and fermented in French oak barriques and stainless-steel. Light yellow green colour with peach and nectarine aromas. Fresh stonefruit on the palate, rounded with nice acidity and some oak influence.
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