Tasmania is where it’s at. Nowhere else in Australia has the winemaking hype machine running hot like the Apple Isle. That’s not hyperbole: in 2025, Tasmania had the highest average grape prices in the country ($3921 a tonne vs the national average of $722/tonne), with volumes also 37% up. Tassie still makes up just 1.2% of the national crush by volume, but a more impactful 6.5% of the crush by value (full crush report here).
Those figures are even more stark when you consider that domestically wine sales dropped by 3% YOY despite production rising 9% (based on Wine Australia data released last week).
From the Tamar in the north to the Huon River Valley in the south, it feels like every week a new Tassie wine crosses the desk too – this week it’s Sisu. The Sisu Vineyard is a plot in the Upper Coal River Valley at Campania, where Jake Sheedy (ex-Logan Wines), backed by a Sydney-based business partner, has planted some 25 hectares of vines. Campania is already heavy with wine history (hello Domaine A) with a smorgasbord of vineyard projects in the area (including the newish Yabby Lake plot) and Tassie royalty down the road (Pooley, Meadowbank, Tolpuddle etc etc). It’s a hotspot.
Interestingly, Sheedy has planted quite an eclectic mix of varieties on the black dolerite soils of the Sisu Vineyard, including Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Viognier, Gewürztraminer, Gamay, Syrah and Nebbiolo.
2024 was the first vintage, with a Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir as the inaugural release. Based on my sample size for this one wine, they’re nothing if not ambitious (and pretty bloody good).
This Sisu Pinot Noir 2024 is a blinder for a first crop. Sure, vines do that, with the first harvest often excellent, before a few low years while vines settle in (though that’s anecdotal observation). But no doubting the quality here – it feels top tier.
Made with 25% whole bunches and matured in 25% new oak. it pours this glossy purple. Cranberry, blackberry, dark cherry. It’s ripe and bright with a moodier dark side below the red and dark berry. This is good stuff! It perhaps leans a little hard into the extraction – the tannins sneak up on you a bit – but the feel here is very real and very impressive.
Nailed it.
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