Sam Connew’s Stargazer tasting room – an understated feat of Australian architecture – gives another reason to travel to the Coal River Valley.
Sam Connew is being unexpectedly humble. The winemaker is hosting a tasting of back vintages of the riesling and pinot noir she has grown since 2016 at her Palisander vineyard in the Coal River Valley, outside Hobart. The venue is the stunning, just-opened Stargazer tasting room, designed by local architects Maguire + Devine and perched above the vines, looking out across the valley. This vertical tasting for a group of visiting wine media is part of the launch of the new venue.
“This is the first time I’ve done this,” says Connew as we taste through the Stargazer rieslings from 2016 to the yet-to-be-bottled 2025. “And I’m surprised at how consistent they are.”
What’s surprising is that this should be a surprise. Connew is one of Australia’s most experienced and most respected winemakers, and Palisander is clearly a beautiful site for growing grapes.
Before launching her Stargazer label, moving to Tasmania and buying the Palisander vineyard in 2016, the New Zealand-born winemaker established her reputation at Wirra Wirra in McLaren Vale and Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley. She also worked for the Australian Wine Research Institute and was the first woman appointed chief of judges at the Sydney Wine Show.
And yet, here at the tasting table, she seems genuinely humbled by the wines in front of her – humility being a virtue that is sometimes in short supply among winemakers.
Some of Connew’s understated approach is manifested in the building itself. When you drive up the hill, the tasting room is hidden from view. The entrance is a simple dark rectangle in a sheet of what looks like corrugated iron: classic Aussie vernacular.
You walk down a short narrowing corridor lined with blackened timber and into the light-filled tasting area, with panoramic windows and honey-warm wooden ceiling.
While visitors to the tasting room might not get to try every vintage of Sam Connew’s estate-grown wines, as did on my visit, they will be treated to a proper, hour-long sit-down tutored tasting experience of the current releases, plus “special vinous treats”. It’s exactly the kind of high-quality, thoughtful, intimate experience that’s driving steady growth in wine tourism in Tasmania.
According to the state body Wine Tasmania, 24 per cent of visitors to the island visit a cellar door – a very high percentage compared with other states. By 2040, wine – both locally consumed and exported to the mainland and further afield – is predicted to be the No. 1 contributor to Tasmania’s economy.
This sense of optimism and growth in high-end wine tourism is particularly tangible in the Coal River Valley. A few minutes down the road from Stargazer is the also-striking Tolpuddle tasting room, which opened in late 2024 and offers tastings for a maximum of six people of just four wines, the current-release chardonnay and pinot plus a back vintage of the two, for $55 a head. Another new cellar door, Sisu Wines, opened a 20-minute drive away in Campania just before Christmas, offering guided tastings in a light-filled, architecturally designed space built with local materials.
As we spend more and more of our lives in the digital realm, people are craving these personal interactions in beautiful, real places. “I constantly get feedback from people saying, ‘We love what you do and the way you talk about what you’re doing,’ ” says Connew. “It’s not generic, it’s from the heart, it’s real.”
It’s enough to make even the most famous winemaker feel humble.
You can read the entire article over at The Australian Financial Review here.
