Stoney Rise

About

Several members of the CellarHand team have long been friends with the Holymans, and all of us have sought out and enjoyed their exceptional wines. This mutual admiration culminated in Stoney Rise’s entry into our Tassie portfolio in 2018. A natural – and bloody exciting – progression has been the adoption of these fabulous wines for our broader customer base. This standout Tamar Valley producer provides an excellent complement to our other Tasmanian star, the biodynamic estate of Steve and Monique Lubiana in the Derwent Valley. Joe and Lou clearly fit the CellarHand mould as a small, family producer with long-term vision and the highest quality aspirations from the outset. A fairly young initiative in its own right, the roots here are fittingly deep, what with Joe’s parents’ Tasmanian grape-growing history stretching back four decades. And, of course, it was the old vines of this beautiful 1986-planted vineyard that drew Joe and Lou to this beautiful site back in the early 2000s.
There’s also a strong precedent in our portfolio of growers who take the quality of their work dead seriously, but with the creativity and fearlessness to push the envelope. We can also relate to the principle of honouring great terroir and loving top booze in equal measure. And this is what the Holymans do, from the outstanding fruit-first Stoney Rise Pinot and delicious fringe of No Clothes and Grüner Veltliner, right up to the old-vine Holyman wines. Year after year the latter rival the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay reared on the Apple Isle - or anywhere on mainland Australia.