SISU Wines transforms historic Tasmanian homestead into holistic vineyard and farm

Jake Sheedy and his team at SISU Wines are three years into an exciting land development in the heart of Tasmania’s Coal River Valley. In 2019 SISU acquired the former sheep grazier homestead ‘Valley View’ in Campania.

They have since carefully sculpted the 100 hectares of rolling pasture into a farm that incorporates grape growing at its core while maintaining the property’s history with 250 breeding composite ewes from Symmons Plains serviced by 4 Poll Dorset rams.

Read more: Scholarships Open: Women’s Leadership Program

‘It’s been really exciting’, says Jake, ‘I’m a winemaker by trade so of course the main focus of SISU is to grow quality grapes to make great Tasmanian wine, but I don’t want this farm to be a monoculture with a sole focus. We want to approach the property as holistically as possible. We run sheep throughout the vineyard as well as in the paddocks that are unsuitable for vines. We’ve grown rape and oaten silage for feed. We’re pulling out box thorns and clearing the land of rocks (there’s a lot of rocks). We’ve also been granted funding from Landcare Tasmania to plant more native trees in some of the steeper sections of the farm, so otherwise bare land can become rewilded habitat.’

SISU have big plans underway for their humble plot, with their own onsite winery being built as well as a cellar door to showcase their product.

Read more: The hit of payroll tax on agriculture in Tasmania

‘We grow a wide variety of grapes here. Of course we’ve got your cool climate Chardonnays and Classic Tassie Pinot Noir and Riesling but we’re growing pockets of Gamay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Nebiolo. We’ve got some Viognier in there too that we’ll blend with our Shiraz. Once our cellar door is completed and our vintage is ready for tasting we look forward to enticing more people out to explore the Coal River Valley. There’s a strong backbone of farmers and growers between these hills. On a short drive out Colebrook Road you’ll see cherries, olives, apricots, grapevines, alliums, seed crops, wheat, beef, lamb. There’s some great bushland, black cockatoos and birds of prey. Brown Mountain is a great place to take in the air. The scenery out here is seriously stunning. Our farm wasn’t named Valley View for no reason.’