About Hinton Bay Vineyard
History of hinton Bay
The name Hinton Bay comes from a beautiful cove that sits a stone’s throw below the location of our vineyard on the Tamar River.
Tall tales from Tasmania’s past and historic notes refer to Hinton Bay as a safe mooring place for small trading sailboats, at a time well before engines, offering protection from the North West to the South East.
The land above Hinton Bay itself became an orchard in the early 1900s when the Tamar Valley, like many parts of Tasmania, had a thriving apple industry. The apples are long gone but the vines of Hinton Bay now flourish in their place.
a boutique approach
With about 1.5 hectares of vines planted at close intervals in 1989, our vineyard is certainly boutique. We sourced pure clone materials and planted half of the block with Chardonnay and the other half with Pinot Noir. The chardonnay is almost entirely of Penfolds clone and the Pinot Noir a blend of some of the classic Burgundy clones of 114, 115, MV-6 and 777.
Our management practices are historically French from clone selection to trellis design, we even burn the winter pruning’s in a mobile firepot in the vineyard during winter. The close planted vines are dry grown and after 30 years are producing fruit of highly intense flavour and colour.