They say we drink with our eyes as well as our mouth, and this just LOOKS like great Pinot Noir - clear, transparent ruby red, it really shines in the glass. The aromas really captivate as well, with plenty of bright red cherry, strawberry and rhubarb. There's darker, more savoury stuff going on as well - hints of aniseed, baked earth and a faint dustiness. There's a really lovely silky flow to the wine - great palate texture built around fine tannins and juicy acidity. This is incredibly easy-drinking but also manages to conjure up more than a hint of seriousness. Great stuff.

Unless you’ve been living under a hefty rock for the past ten years, you can’t have escaped the hype and excitement surrounding the Tasmania wine scene. Once seen as something of a backwater, Tasmania has risen through the ranks to be - correctly - identified as one of the food and wine capitals of the world in the 21st century, and it’s all thanks to amazing, diligent, hard-working wineries like Beautiful Isle. With their vibrant, eye-catching labels (based on the traditional Tazzie ‘Apple Isle’ posters of yesteryear) and an incredible array of flavours and aromas, Beautiful Isle has garnered something of a cult following. It isn’t hard to understand why. This winery is completely dedicated to showing the world just why Tasmania’s reputation is rocketing in the way it is. Beautiful Isle wines are accessible, uncomplicated and fun to drink… yet they pack in the kinds of flavours and characteristics that other wineries around the world would give their left arm for. Run by a husband and wife, Beautiful Isle started as a family-owned estate at Marion's Vineyard in the Tamar Valley. The estate was once an apple and pear orchard, dating back to the late 1800s.The old apple shed on the property housed boxes full of apple labels for negociants who purchased fruit and then sent it off to England by boat! The discovery of these old labels was the inspiration for the colourful and vibrant labels that adorn the bottles today. Beautiful Isle was born of experimentation - the founders simply fancied having a crack at winemaking, using some packages of grapes they’d received from a nearby estate. The results were considerably better than they’d expected, and they decided to see whether or not it was just a fluke. Needless to say, it wasn’t - the land and the fruit they had access to was simply too good to fail. Before long, Beautiful Isle was set up, and it hasn’t slowed since. The cool climate of the Tamar Valley is perfect for the long, slow ripening of grapes, and Cynthea and her husband David take great care to treat the grapes gently and carefully, use native yeasts to ferment the wines, and do everything in the winery by gravity - eliminating any unnecessary mechanical intervention.