Description

Tolpuddle’s recent fame was achieving ultimate global recognition in 2025 at the International Wine Challenge when its 2023 blockbuster Chardonnay won the historic trophy for “Champion White Wine” of the year.  AND the subsequent 2024 vintage was also named James Suckling’s #1 Australian Wine of the Year and #10 Top 100 Wines of the World (98 points). The newly released 2025 vintage continues this incredible streak with already super high-90s critical reviews from the Aussie trade.

Tolpuddle Vineyard was established in 1988 and is named in tribute to the Tolpuddle Martyrs; the transplanted English convicts who were guilty of forming an agricultural union.  George Loveless, the leader of Martyrs spent some of his sentence working on the property near Richmond which is now part of the Tolpuddle Vineyard.  On our last trip to Tasmania in 2020 we privately toured this southern part of the island known as Coal River Valley which is situated about a 20 minute drive to the northeast of Hobart.

This is the same cousins’ partnership as the famous Adelaide Shaw-Smith winery.  Michael Hill Smith was the first Australia ever to achieve Master of Wine status back in 1988.

The vineyard was planted in 1989 to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on a northeastern slope of light silca and sandstone for low vigor and stress.  The Derwent River and the Tasmania ocean buffer the region and are highly influential in maintaining the cool temperatures.