Pooley

Pooley is a family operation in the Coal River Valley, the pocket of southern Tasmania north east of Hobart that sits in a rain shadow and ripens fruit slowly. Two vineyards do the work. Cooinda Vale at Campania is the original planting, the cooler and more frost prone of the pair, and it gives the more restrained wines. Butcher's Hill, nearer Richmond, faces north and produces fruit with more flesh to it. Anna Pooley makes the wine and her brother Matthew runs the vineyards, the third generation of the family on the site.

Riesling is the backbone of the range and this page shows why. Cooinda Vale Riesling is the taut, lime driven one, while Butcher's Hill Riesling carries more weight and texture. Margaret Pooley Tribute Riesling is the top selection, named for the woman who planted the first vines with her husband Denis. On the red side, Cooinda Vale Pinot Noir is the estate wine and the Jack Denis Pinot Noir the reserve above it. Pooley Syrah shows what the valley does with a variety most people associate with far warmer ground, and there is a Gewurztraminer as well. Explore more Australian wines, delivered across Australia.

History

Denis and Margaret Pooley planted the first vines at Cooinda Vale in 1985, on a property near Campania the family had farmed rather than planted to grapes. Tasmania's wine industry was still tiny then, and the Coal River Valley in particular had a reputation as sheep and cropping country. It is the driest wine region in Tasmania, sheltered by the hills to its west, which means irrigation is not optional there. What the dryness buys is clean fruit and very low disease pressure, so growers can leave bunches hanging late.

The soils are the other half of the story. The valley sits over Jurassic dolerite with sandstone and mudstone through it, and the shifts between those materials over short distances are why two Pooley vineyards a few kilometres apart taste so different. In the early 2000s the family added Butcher's Hill, closer to Richmond, and opened a cellar door in a sandstone coach house built by convict labour in the 1830s.

The reason Tasmanian Riesling and Pinot Noir taste the way they do is simply length of season. Ripening runs cooler and slower than on the mainland, so sugar accumulates gently while natural acid stays high, which is what gives these wines their nerve. Compare them with the warmer Riesling and Pinot Noir styles grown on the mainland.

How to drink it

Serve the Rieslings cold but not iced, around eight to ten degrees. Straight from a cold fridge they show almost nothing; give the glass ten minutes and the lime and blossom arrive. Use a normal white wine glass rather than a small tasting glass, and skip the flute entirely. Cooinda Vale Riesling is the natural match for Tasmanian oysters, whitebait and anything with lemon on it, and the acidity cuts through fried food better than almost any other white.

The Pinot wants fourteen to sixteen degrees, which in an Australian summer means twenty minutes in the fridge before you open it. Warm Pinot goes flat and alcoholic. Serve Cooinda Vale Pinot Noir with duck, mushrooms or ocean trout, and give the Syrah lamb or anything off charcoal, since cool climate Syrah keeps a peppery edge that suits smoke.

Worth knowing: Riesling under screwcap ages very slowly and very well. The kerosene note people talk about is a compound called TDN that builds over years in bottle, so a young Pooley Riesling tastes of citrus and a ten year old one tastes of toast and lanolin. Both are correct. Buy two, drink one now. Start with Butcher's Hill Riesling if you want texture. Once opened, recap and refrigerate; whites hold three days, the Pinot two. See more white wines.