The Vineyard
Cape Bernier Vineyard is situated at Bream Creek on Tasmania's east coast overlooking historic Marion Bay. This is an ideal site for genuinely cool climate viticulture as the coastal location and maritime weather patterns ensure a frost-free spring, mild growing conditions throughout summer, and an extended cool autumn ripening period. Our easterly aspect provides extended hours of sunshine while the sea breezes of our coastal location temper the heat of summer.
The Bream Creek and Marion Bay region is an area of grazing, horticulture and tourism activities. Our immediate neighbours are involved with dairy and beef cattle. The pattern of activities in the area is changing and several other vineyards are now located in our region.
Our Vineyard is family-owned, developed and operated. We have about 4ha under vine, with 18km of vine rows and almost 15,000 vines. This provides a challenging, but ultimately very satisfying set of activities throughout the year. The Vineyard is laid out with north-south rows to take advantage of the north-facing aspect and to maximise the effect of sunshine during growing and ripening. Row lengths are typically 85-95m and 160-175m and reflect natural features as well as property boundaries.
Our climate and location largely determine the selection of varieties - with the emphasis on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines. Planting started in late 1998 with a selection of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Gris. In total, we now have 10,500 vines in production. Almost 6,000 vines are Chardonnay, 4,500 are Pinot Noir. The 1,500 "Bordeaux" variety Cabernet Franc are being changed to a new Pinot Noir clone as part of a vineyard redevelopment process to enhance the production of Pinot Noir. Similarly, some of the Chardonnay vines are being converted to Pinot Noir and some to Pinot Gris. We have several clones of each of the two main varieties, providing a wider range of characters and flavours.
Our cool temperate coastal climate ensures an exceptionally slow ripening process and consequently the perfect conditions for our fruit to develop a wide range of characters and flavours. It is this factor which makes Cape Bernier wines so special.