We had the best time a few weeks ago exploring Tasmania – so much so that I wanted to share what we did across two guides. The first place we visited was Launceston and the Tamar Valley and so I figured it was best to start here with a guide to the Tamar Valley and Launceston! Tasmania was everything I was hoping it would be and more. As a first time visitor, I couldn’t get enough of the food, wine and scenery! Although we couldn’t jet off overseas for our honeymoon, Tasmania certainly delivered in every way possible!
We only stayed in Launceston for two nights, so we didn’t get to anywhere near as many places as I wanted to get to. I couldn’t believe how much there was to discover, and I’m already planning my next trip! So the caveat behind this is that this guide is just the tip of the iceberg on what incredible things there are to discover. I was sad we didn’t manage to get to more spots! But hopefully, this guide gives you a little taste to get you thinking about your own trip!
A few tips for visiting the Tamar Valley and Launceston
As I mentioned, we didn’t get to so many places that I wanted to visit. So in this guide to the Tamar Valley and Launceston, I wanted to give you a couple of tips that I’ll know for my next trip. Hopefully, they’ll help you plan your own!
- Timing of your visit – we arrived in Launceston on Monday and left on Wednesday. However, many of the wineries including those major ones, and restaurants, are not open early in the week. Wineries open for either just the weekend or Thursday – Sunday. So if you want to get the most out of your visit, I recommend heading to the Tamar Valley later in the week or the weekend.
- Restaurant bookings – Monday night is also not great for restaurants so keep this in mind
- There are two sides to the Tamar Valley – one side to the right is known for its sparkling wine, and the other is more wine-focused. They are a little drive apart so if you have a couple of days maybe split your time
- It’s pronounced Lon-ceston, not Lawn-ceston. But if you want to sound like a local, call it Lonny!
A bit about the Tamar Valley
The Tamar Valley is Tasmania’s oldest wine region. It surrounds Launceston following the Tamar River. There are currently 32 vineyards that make up the wineries in the area, so there is plenty to discover! You can find a lot of them on the Tamar Valley Wine Route which is a great guide to what is around the area.
The Tamar Valley is a cool maritime climate that produces balanced and premium wines. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling are the most important grape varieties, however, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris are growing in popularity. The region is also renowned for producing top-quality sparkling wines using the traditional method. Many of Australia’s famous sparkling wine producers can be found in this area.
Where we stayed
I recommend staying in Launceston if you haven’t before. It’s quite beautiful and easy to walk around, so worth a visit! Although it isn’t a huge city, there is a beautiful gorge walk, a lovely river walk and great cafes and restaurants to discover.
We decided to stay at Stillwater Seven, and it was absolutely incredible. Stillwater is a bit of an institution in Launceston, and now they have boutique accommodation with seven rooms. I cannot speak more highly of the whole experience of staying there. Before we arrived they sent a questionnaire about all our preferences from our favourite music to what coffee we liked. As soon as we arrived we were shown through our room and given a glass of bubbles. They had our favourite music playing and even some free popcorn and fresh bread!
The best part was the minibar though which was filled with meats, cheeses and Tasmanian goodies to enjoy – and they were very affordable! They also provided a selection of Tasmanian beers, wines and spirits too! It was hard to want to leave the room with so much delicious food and such a gorgeous fit-out.
But then there was the food on your doorstep. It was close to town with a beautiful view of the river, but you also got to have breakfast at Stillwater included in your room rate! The breakfast was some of my favourite of the trip. We also enjoyed dinner on our second night and it was fantastic.
The staff were incredibly attentive and made you feel like a VIP every time you dealt with them. They made our stay so special. I can’t imagine staying anywhere else now I’ve experienced this – it has ruined me for other hotels!
Where to eat in the Tamar Valley and Launceston
Speaking about food, we ate some seriously good meals in the Tamar Valley and Launceston. As I mentioned above, a lot of the really popular restaurants weren’t open, but we still ate very well! Here are some of my highlights:
Stillwater
One of the highlights of our whole trip was our dinner at Stillwater. The food was out of this world good. You can certainly see why it is an institution and so well known in Launceston. I think this restaurant needs to be top of your list for your visit! They also own a number of other restaurants which we didn’t get to but I’ve heard they are great as well.
Every dish was a standout, the wine list was incredible and the service was fantastic. It’s also a beautifully cosy restaurant that has a really nice warm feel to it. You don’t feel like you’re in a fine dining restaurant which I loved!
The food is modern Australia with a bit of an Asian flair to it, so the dishes offer something different to the other restaurants we tried. As I mentioned there were so many incredible dishes so it’s hard to pick just a couple. But the standouts for me had to be the beef tartare, the lamb and then the coconut panna cotta for dessert. Do not skip the dessert whatever you do!
Josef Chromy
We started off our honeymoon with lunch at Josef Chromy. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to pick up our hire car when we arrived at the airport, but I had a plan. Rather than waiting two hours for our hire car, I made a booking for lunch at Josef Chromy which is only 10 minutes from the airport! Perfect if you have a spare moment between travel and my hot tip!
Josef Chromy is well known in the wine industry in Tasmania and is one of the larger wineries in the area. The winery itself produces many of the wines as a lot of the vineyards are too small for their own production. But I’d heard the food at Josef Chromy along with the view was worth a visit and so I booked us in to have lunch as soon as we jumped off the plane. The views weren’t as nice as they would normally be as it was very cold and wet when we visited, but the food made up for it!
They offer set menus where you can choose two or three courses and there are plenty of choices of tasty food. The stand out for us was the pork belly, but I also loved the beef carpaccio and the mushroom dish. If you’re looking for a good lunch spot midweek definitely check it out!
Saint Johns Craft Beer Bar
My partner loves beer, and so when I heard so many people recommending Saint Johns I knew we had to go. We went before dinner on our first night (yes it is open on a Monday take note) and I honestly think we should have just stayed here because it was so much fun! The place was pumping and there were so many people enjoying a beer and some food. They also have a great wine list filled with Tasmanian wine to discover – so if you’re like me and don’t enjoy beer don’t worry!
Besides the incredible beer and wine selection, they have some great food. Their menu is filled with bar snacks and more substantial bites like burgers and tacos. So there’s something for everyone whether you want a snack or a full meal. It is a great casual dining option if you are a bit over fine dining. I loved the atmosphere here and I wish we’d spent longer!
Bread and Butter
If you’re looking for a breakfast spot, a great option is Bread and Butter. They are famous for making their own butter, but their pastries are next level! The space is nice and open with high ceilings and a view of the bakery. You can opt to get breakfast or just choose from their pastry cabinet which had so many I wanted to eat that I couldn’t decide! Between the fresh butter, bread and pastries you are sure to find something you want to try. They also have a selection of Tasmanian goodies and wines to take home with you.
Brisbane Street Bistro
We went to Brisbane Street Bistro on Monday night. It wasn’t a place we would normally go to and it was probably a little too quiet for us (I think we were the loudest couple in the restaurant…whoops). But the food was awesome and the wine was great too, so I wanted to include it! Brisbane Street Bistro is in an old villa and so has a very cosy atmosphere with almost Victorian decor. I liked that it felt very intimate and we felt like we were in our own space while dining.
The food here was absolutely delicious, but the standout for me was the Brick Chicken. This chicken was cooked under a brick as the name would suggest. I’ve never tried chicken like this before, and the dish was absolutely delicious! We also had a beautiful wine from Milton Vineyard – they didn’t have our first choice and so reduced the price on this bottle for us. The staff were very lovely and accommodating!
Cabbage Tree Hill
We went to Cabbage Tree Hill on our wine tour. It is a relatively new vineyard that has only just started producing wines with its own grapes. I can’t wait to see what happens over the next few years for them. But I wanted to mention them because for lunch we had one of their share platters. I have to say this platter was one of the best one’s that we had in Tasmania (and we had a lot of platters). Not only did it have the usual suspects of cheese and cured meats, but it also had smoked salmon and beautiful Tasmanian pairings to go along with the selection. Everything was absolutely delicious, and it is a great place to stop for lunch if you’re not looking for a big set menu. I am still dreaming about the hot smoked salmon that was on that platter!
Our favourite cellar doors in the Tamar Valley and Launceston
And now onto the best part because no guide to the Tamar Valley and Launceston would be complete without wrapping up some of my favourite cellar doors that we visited. There were so many that we sadly didn’t get to as they were either closed or we ran out of time. I have to admit my list was very long, and so I knew I was never going to get to them all but the ones we did get to were incredible!
We had one full day of wineries and went on a tour with Valleybrook Wine on Wheels and it was great. Their full-day tour comes with lunch and a cheese platter along with visiting five wineries, and it was a great day out. I loved that it was a small group as well – it was just us and a family that we became friends with very quickly! If you are after a wine tour option leaving from Launceston definitely check out their tour options. Jeremy was a fantastic guide for the full day and we had some great laughs along with learning a lot about the local area.
So without further ado here are my highlights of the wineries we visited:
Clover Hill Wines
Clover Hill Wines has the most incredible cellar door and is definitely worth a visit while you are in the area. We popped in on our way to Freycinet after leaving Launceston and were treated to one of their fantastic cellar door tastings.
First off, the view and cellar door itself is absolutely beautiful. Even without the wines, this cellar door is worth a visit for the beautiful outlook and the building itself. But then you add in their incredible range of Sparkling Wine and it really ticks all the boxes.
While we were there we got to try our hand at making our own sparkling and understanding how little Pinot Noir wine needs to go into sparkling to really impact flavour! It was such an interesting exercise and one I would like to say I definitely excelled at in comparison to my partner who made lolly water. We then sampled their great range of Sparkling Wine and it was great to see just how different they all were. This paired with my other favourite platter of Tasmania (seriously it was so good – whoever thought kale on a cheese platter would taste that good!), it really was a winner.
Clover Hill Wines is located on the other side of Launceston to my other recommendations so make sure you keep this in mind when planning. There are heaps of other wineries in the area to explore but be mindful they only open later in the week.
Tamar Ridge Wines
Tamar Ridge Wines was one of the biggest surprises of the trip. It is owned by Brown’s Brothers and so I immediately assumed it would be incredibly commercial. I was keen to try smaller cellar doors and so wasn’t too excited about visiting. But that all changed when we got there and tried their wines.
Yes, it is a larger winery and much larger than others in the area, but their wines are absolutely fantastic. We had a beautiful tasting where we got to try wines alongside their counterparts either in age or vintage vs non-vintage etc. I really loved the whole tasting experience for this because you really got to taste the difference between wines. I couldn’t believe how different all the wines were. It was great comparing which ones we loved, particularly in the differences between clones of Pinot Noir. We even ended up trying some of their museum wines!
Holm Oak Vineyard
Holm Oak was another highlight for us. They have a lovely cellar door with two very cute wine dogs and pigs you can feed apples to! The view is beautiful and it’s a perfect spot for enjoying a cheese platter over a wine tasting. Their base wine tasting allows you to choose which wines you want to try. This means you can try what appeals to you. They had a lot of wines to choose from so it was great being able to try what you wanted to.
The best part about our visit though was trying some of their older wines after our tasting. We got to try some of the back vintages of the Wizard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. I have to tell you they were seriously fantastic. Holm Oak is a smaller Vineyard that is producing some seriously incredible wines. Make sure you take the time to stop in for a visit!
Velo wines
We visited Velo Wines as the first stop on our wine tour and the wines were delicious. It is a smaller cellar door with Timbre next door. The food there is meant to be amazing so it might be worth a stop when it’s open! This vineyard is family run and producing some really delicious wines. The tasting list was quite substantial and had some delicious options to try.
The highlight for me was the Cabernet Sauvignon. Many of the Cabernets that we tried were quite green due to the temperature in Tasmania. But this one had a great complexity to it and was absolutely delicious! They also had some beautiful white wines to try including their Riesling.
Josef Chromy
Josef Chromy is definitely worth a visit when you head to the Tamar Valley and the area around Launceston. Make sure you book in for a tasting of their wines, especially if you are going there for lunch. They offer three tasting options in a self-guided tasting and seats are limited. But it’s a great way to try some of the range they have on offer.
Josef Chromy is known for sparkling wine, but there are so many other wines to try! We absolutely loved their range of Pinot Noir. My partner got the red wine tasting and really enjoyed trying a few of their different varieties. My favourite however had to be the classic Sparkling Wine!
In summary: Guide to the Tamar Valley and Launceston
I hope this guide to the Tamar Valley and Launceston inspires you to plan a trip to this beautiful region. It has so much to offer, and we only scratched the surface! There is so much more to see and do, and plenty of spots we didn’t make it to. I can’t wait to go back and keep exploring everything this mighty wine region has to offer!