We absolutely loved our stay in Hobart, and our view of the city has done a backflip. I’m unsure if we have changed so much since we were there last, or whether the city has blossomed, but whatever, there is so much on offer in Hobart, and three days was not really enough.

Mick had planned our trip to Bisheno to ensure we passed through the Coal River Valley wine region. And today we stopped at three wineries on our way here. I also have to share that at each winery we were given a ‘proper’ guided tasting by people who were both passionate and knowledgeable about their wines. One of the wineries was a small family business, the next was a very, very small, new-owner, family business and the last one was a large ‘premium’ winery (well that’s what its brochure said).

Mick is strolling up to Puddleduck Vineyard – where a small dam is located close by for all the …

…ducks. That’s correct. Good guess.

Here, a very nice young man named Ian took Mick through a guided tasting. Mick was so, so tempted to buy a bottle of (2007) vintage “Bubbleduck” for $90. But I did talk him out of that. He left with two bottles of their very good Riesling instead. What interested me here was their quirky wine club. Mick and I are members of a few different wine clubs where we get 1-2 dozen bottles of wine per year at a discount. Puddleduck Vineyard though had more than a discount for its club members. Their top club membership, called “Golden Egg”, is fully subscribed. But these lucky members get 25% discount on all wines, plus free postage, plus, and this is the big difference, they get a row of vines named after them. When (or if) they visit, they can go out and water their own vines. The next level – “Nest” – gets 20% discount off wines and get a vine named after them. And, yes, they too can water it when they visit. Apparently, they get photos of their vine (or row) at regular intervals during the year.

Next stop was Every Man & His Dog, and we did have a discussion about political correctness of this name, as the new owner has been advised to perhaps change it so as not to offend. Really!!

This place was so interesting because here, almost 50 years ago, CSIRO planted several different grape varieties in order to work out what might grow well in Tasmania. The varieties were the usual Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. But, they also planted two very rare varieties – Ehrensfelser and Siegerrebe.

Mick and I had never heard of either. Ehrensfelser is a Riesling-style dry wine, while Siegerrebe is grown in only 6 vineyards around the world. It smells very sweet, but has a savoury, spicy finish.

Mick decided to buy one of each of the rare wines, and he had a choice of labels for the Ehrensfelser. Around 100 bottles only are made each vintage, and that is not every year. Every bottle is hand labelled.

The next vineyard was our last stop. It was a much bigger enterprise.

And the wines were very good indeed. We signed up to become members here for at least 12 months. When we return home, our first dozen will be waiting for us.

Finally we arrived at our little appartment in Bicheno where we will spend three nights.

We will use this location as a base for further explorations south of here. Mick is after some seafood.

Regardless of whether he finds what he wants, this is a very pleasant place to spend a few days.