Riversdale Estate has officially opened its $7 million sustainable winery, which has been two years in the making and is a first of its kind in Australia, using the latest French technology.
Tasmania’s Coal River Valley and Bordeaux in France have an unlikely connection: they both lie on the earth’s 42nd parallel.
They now also share another link because Riversdale Estate is using the same technology as some of Bordeaux’s best wineries.
“Riversdale Estate is in a unique microclimate, and our grapes are outstanding,” explained Rainier Roberts, vigneron at Riversdale Estate.
“This new, advanced technology will help us amplify the quality of our produce without compromising it,”
The Hon. Senator Eric Abetz (above) officially opened the doors to the new sustainable winery on Friday.
“I’m passionate about promoting Tasmania, and we are becoming internationally renowned for being a world-class producer of wine,” Senator Abetz said. “To see wineries such as Riversdale Estate innovate, evolve and perfect its wines is fantastic to see, and I’m honoured to be here today to officially open the doors to the new winery.”
The new facility features cutting-edge machinery from French manufacturer Pellenc, including a Selectiv’ Winery Destemmer, an optical grape sorter and a smart press. This makes Riversdale Estate the only winery in Australia to harness the full suite of the technology, which is used in many of the leading wineries of Bordeaux. Bordeaux is widely considered to the best fine wine-producing region in the world.
“We are nationally recognised for our wines, but if we want to put Tasmania and our wines on the world wine map, we need to use the best technology available,” Rainier Roberts said.
The new sustainable winery has also been designed to be energy efficient.
“The winery is estimated to be 55% more energy efficient than a conventional winery,” Rainier added. “It captures traditionally wasted energy from the central plant room and reuses it throughout the winery, which significantly minimises our carbon footprint.”
Riversdale Estate was purchased by Roberts patriarch Ian in 1980, when he was a law student.
In the 1980s, he ran the property as an Angora goat farm – a goat that produces luxurious mohair, a fabric that was very much in demand in the 1980s.
In 1991, Ian and his wife Wendy started growing grapes on the land for other brands.
“When we saw our excellent quality grapes winning medals for other brands, we decided to launch our own label in 2008 exclusively through Cellarmasters,” explained Ian.
The family-run winery has amassed 40 trophies and over 60 gold medals, and its Crater Chardonnay is the most awarded Chardonnay in Tasmanian history. Although the majority of the grapes today are used to create the Riversdale Estate wine range, the family still grow grapes for recognised wine brands such as Penfolds.
The Riversdale Estate wines are available to purchase through the cellar door and through wine retailer Cellarmasters.
“Riversdale Estate is one of our most awarded Australian range of wines and is certainly a customer favourite,” said Christine Ricketts, Cellar Director at Cellarmasters.
“The Riversdale range always displays lovely freshness and bright fruit characters with depth and persistence,”
