Lowestoft
Producer website
Lowestoft is the newest of the Fogarty Wine Group vineyards.
The Lowestoft vineyard and homestead is part of Tasmania’s wine history. The original owner of Lowestoft, Thomas Lowes, won first prize for two Tasmanian wines in 1848 at the Hobart Horticultural Society Show. In circa 1850 Lowes built Lowestoft, which is situated on the Derwent River and opposite David Walsh’s extraordinary Museum of Old and New Art (Mona).
The 3 hectare vineyard, planted in 1986, is very close planted Pinot Noir using planting material from Moorilla (the Mona vineyard) which is believed to be from the James Busby MV6 Pinot Noir cuttings first brought into Australia in 1831. These cuttings were taken from Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy.
Lowestoft Tasmania
The name “Lowestoft” derives from our Lowestoft vineyard in Berriedale near Hobart. The vineyard and historic Lowestoft homestead overlook the Derwent River, Lowestoft Bay and Mona – David Walsh’s extraordinary Museum of Old and New Art and its adjoining Moorilla vineyard.
Thomas Lowes acquired Lowestoft in 1830 and in circa 1850 built the existing homestead. Lowes won first prize in 1848 at the Hobart Horticultural Society Show for two wines he produced near Lowestoft, so was a true pioneer of wine production in Tasmania.
In 1958 Claudio Alcorso planted the first vines at the Moorilla vineyard which led the emergence of the modern wine industry in southern Tasmania. In 1986 Alcorso convinced the then owner of Lowestoft (Bernard McKay) to plant 3 hectares of close-planted (8,300 vines per hectare) Pinot Noir for supply to Moorilla. The Pinot Noir planted was from cuttings from vines that were the first Pinot Noir MV6 clones brought to Australia by James Busby in December 1831 and taken from Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy.
The Lowestoft label features the Fogarty family crest in recognition of our first Australian ancestor, Patrick John Fogarty, who settled in Tasmania in the mid-1800s and was laid to rest in Strahan, Tasmania.