Premier Lara Giddings has opened the new Cambridge winery of family-owned wine producer Pooley Wines on Monday.
According to the latest media release by the Premier of Tasmania, the new winery will employ five new FTEs and will showcase the industry’s best practice, with on-site electricity generation, waste reuse and rainwater harvesting features as integral part of the new state-of-the-art installation.
“This is another example of the excitement, investment and momentum being built in the Tasmanian wine industry,” Ms. Giddings said.
“Tasmania is the perfect location for producing premium cool climate wines with our temperate climate, plentiful water, affordable land, and disease-free status all enviable competitive advantages.”
Ms. Giddings said the time has come for Tasmanian producers to continue to grow and create further employment and investment, as the demand for cool-climate wine has been on the up all around the world.
“Pooley Wines has recognised this trend and has actively invested in company growth in recent years, planting additional vines and growing production from 120 cases in 1991 to 6000 cases in 2013. It’s not just about increases in scale either as Pooley Wines continue to rack up awards at important national wine shows.”
The company was awarded Champion Wine of the Show award at the recent National Cool Climate Wine Show for its 2012 Coal River Pinot Noir.
“The next generation of the Pooley family is now intimately involved in the company’s success, with Matthew a viticultralist and Anna the 2010 Wine Society Young Australian Winemaker of the Year.”
Ms. Giddings said that the Tasmanian government has pinpointed the wine industry as a priority sector in the Tasmanian Economic Development Plan.
According to the Premier, the government has invested heavily in individual wineries through programs such as the Tasmanian Government Innovation and Investment fund and the Vineyard and Orchard Expansion program (VOEP).
Ms. Giddings further added that the government has backed Pooley Wines through a VOEP grant amounting to $28, 200 in order to help with the planting of an additional four hectares of vineyards.
Prominent Australian brokers and advisers Gaetjens Langley published a Regional Profile of the Tasmanian wine industry highlighting that the value of Tasmanian wine sales is growing at double figures of 11.1 % and that the selling price per unit of Tasmanian wine more than doubles the national average price at $22.36.
