A brush with the Devil’s pinot on Tasmania’s east coast
Words Tim McGlone
A brush with the Devil’s pinot on Tasmania’s east coast
Words Tim McGlone
The east coast of Tasmania starts at Little Musselroe Bay in the north and tracks all the way down to Port Arthur in the south, and pretty much everything in between is glorious.
I feel sand in between my toes one minute, and then the next I’m driving along Irish-like rolling green hills. It’s warm but a cool breeze is doing good things. The section of Tasmania get lost is taking is the Great Eastern Drive; the less heralded version of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. It combines the best of Australia’s landscapes and rolls it into one beautiful, drivable little ball, perfect for road tripping.
It’s perfect for a few reasons; one of these being the proximity of each town to the next, making the distances completely feasible and unlikely to induce vehicle induced cabin fever like other parts of Australia.
A truly sick-looking cabin near Bicheno.
It feels as if I’m never that far away from wild ocean crashing into white sand and rocks, or coming out of a blowhole like it does at Bicheno, about two-thirds of the way up the coast.
A half-hour drive south from Bicheno is where we find Devils Corner Winery, on the fringes of Freycinet National Park. Tasmania’s traditionally cool climate means that whites and Pinot Noir are usually a go – and it’s the Pinot which really gets me at Devils Corner. With a bunch of friendly people for company, I get quite tipsy sipping on a lush green lawn at the cellar door, which boasts staggeringly attractive views over vineyards and the national park. I think we’ve made it.
Or so I thought until the next morning, when we wandered down to a different section of the winery and met oyster farmer Giles Fisher for sparkling wine and oysters. O.K, now we’ve made it.
The colour green is a strength of Tasmania's.
Vino and oyster for days.
Explore Tassie's East Coast
Wine Trail
Explore Tassie's East Coast
Wine Trail
I’m not sure there’s anything in this world that feels as satisfyingly naughty as morning bubbles. Giles fills our glasses and tells us his and wife Julie’s story. He teaches us how to shuck an oyster (not as intimidating as it looks) and explains the differences between Pacific oysters that they farm, and Sydney rock oysters that are found in the north.
"I’m not sure there’s anything in this world that feels as satisfyingly naughty as morning bubbles."
Devil's Corner is about 1.5 hours from Launceston, and 2 from Hobart.
I’m told that the oyster I have shucked and am about to eat was harvested about an hour earlier. Tough to get much fresher than that. It was one of around 3.6 million at Freycinet Marine Farm, and there’s also around 100 tonnes of mussels. Good news if you’re a connoisseur of salty, slippery rock creatures.
We spend a few nights, mostly roaring drunk from the Devil’s pinot, at a cabin at the incomparable Freycinet Lodge at Coles Bay.
Kookaburras call as I leave my cabin in the morning, walking barefoot the short distance through Oyster Bay pines to the beach for a dip in the cool, blue waters of Coles Bay, where I achieve some success in washing away my hangovers.
Outdoor bathtubs are a big IN.
"Tasmania’s traditionally cool climate means that whites and Pinot Noir are usually a go — and it’s the Pinot which really gets me at Devils Corner."
Devil's Corner.
I do this every morning except for the last, which we spend in a Cessna plane, soaring above the incredible Freycinet. I see the flawless arc of Wineglass Bay as the birds see it. I’ve seen it from a few vantage points now, but I can say with some certainty that this one is the best. O.K, now we’ve made it.
get in the know The Tasmanian Devil is the world’s largest surviving carnivorous marsupial.
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