2025 Clarence House Pinot Blanc, Southern Tasmania

Pale straw with aromas of poached pear, green apple and citrus fruits with hints of estery banana, white flowers, clover blossom, stone, soft cheese and pineapple lumps (hello to the Kiwi readers!). The youthful estery notes lessen on the palate and there's some nice textural components and crisp, stony acidity on the back end. Drink to 2029.

89 points Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, October 2025

Pinot Blanc (aka Weissburgunder or Pinot Bianco0 is one of the natural white mutations of the ancient Pinot variety mostly known for its red form, the Pinot Noir.

Clarence House has one of the first (and few) plantings of Pinot Blanc in Tasmania. It makes an elegant wine with a good balance between fruit and acid. Often overlooked, the variety has lovely aromatics and mouthfeel that place it somewhere in the middle of Aligoté and Chardonnay. Delicious as a young, uncomplicated wine, many German examples have shown that it shares Chardonnay’s affinity to oak fermentation and maturation.

The 2025, made by Justin Bubb and Anna Pooley at Pooley wines, is an example of an unoaked wine. After a brief period on skins, the fruit was pressed, lightly settled and racked into stainless steel for fermentation.

It is a delightful, fresh and fragrant dry white that opens with perfumed white flowers and stone fruits. The lively and nuanced palate displays neatly centred white stone fruit flavours that finish bright and long.

Excellent as an aperitif and served to steamed seafood and poached lighter meat dishes.

About this producer

Clarence House is historic homestead built in 1830 on land which was originally the market garden for the city of Hobart. Located in the foothills of the Meehan Ranges between River Derwent and the Coal River Valley, its present owner David Kilpatrick first planted vines on the property’s dolerite and basalt northeast facing slopes in 1998. Numerous clones of Pinot Noir dominate the now 16-hectare vineyard, followed by Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and tiny experimental blocks of Pinot Blanc, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

The vineyard is managed with judicious use of inputs and sustainability in mind. Systemic herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are not used, the under-vine area is slashed, the inter-row sward is left to thrive and flower, irrigation is used sparingly and the vine canopies are treated in a way that promotes balanced, tempered growth in line with the current season’s conditions.

All Clarence House wines are made by Justin Bubb and Anna Pooley.