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State Winner Tasmania: Terrace Restaurant, Prospect Vale

Terrace is the kind of restaurant that the sensible partners of wine tragics dread. With a wine list like this one, it’s entirely conceivable that someone could dive in and not emerge for hours.

You suspect that Joseph Burton’s intent matches his weighty list when it opens with a detailed explanation of the restaurant’s storage conditions – a state-of-the-art wine room at a constant 15C – and the fact that whites can be served at cellar temperature, sparklings and aromatics at 7C and more textural whites at 9C.

This is clearly a carefully considered list, offering 550 wines. They’re listed by variety, with the Tasmanians first, followed by their mainland counterparts, then those from virtually every other corner of the winemaking world – even Slovakia.

It’s hard to say what its strengths are because it’s so strong across the board – it presents Tasmanian sparklers alongside an impressive selection from Champagne. Burton is a riesling freak, with extensive coverage of the best producers in Australia, Alsace, Germany and Austria. And anyone jaded by the prices of their Burgundian favourites will find the airfare to Launceston is easily offset by the modest mark-ups on this excellent list.

More than 50 wines are listed here in alternative formats, and sweet wines run to similar numbers, with particularly strong selections from Germany and the great Tokajis of Hungary. An absolute must for any Tasmanian trip.

Terrace Restaurant, Country Club Tasmania, Country Club Ave, Prospect Vale, Tas, (03) 6335 5777, www.countryclubtasmania.com.au.

TEXT NICK RYAN

This article appeared in the August/September 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.