Fifteen minutes from Hobart, the city gives way to rolling hills, sandstone homesteads and some of the finest cool-climate vineyards in Australia. The Coal River Valley is Tasmania’s closest wine region to the capital, and one of its most rewarding — home to award-winning wineries, a world-beating whisky distillery, and the beautifully preserved Georgian village of Richmond.
Richmond itself is worth the trip alone. Founded in the 1820s, it’s Tasmania’s third-oldest town and one of the most intact colonial settlements in the country, anchored by the Richmond Bridge — Australia’s oldest bridge still carrying traffic — and the atmospheric Richmond Gaol, which predates Port Arthur.
We take guests through the valley all the time, and while there are more cellar doors here than you could visit in a week, these five are the ones we come back to again and again.
1. Sullivans Cove Distillery
Twice named the world’s best single malt whisky
In 2014, a single cask from this small Cambridge distillery became the first whisky made outside Scotland or Japan to win World’s Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards — a result that put Tasmanian whisky on the global map. Sullivans Cove has since repeated the win, and its rare, single-cask releases are now some of the most sought-after whiskies in the world.
The tasting room is a genuinely refined experience: knowledgeable guides walk you through the distilling process before a guided tasting of current releases. Because volumes are so limited, visiting the distillery is often the most reliable way to actually taste — and buy — the whisky that made Tasmania’s name.
2. Frogmore Creek
Award-winning cellar door, restaurant and cool-climate wines
It’s an easy place to make a proper stop of your visit — a guided tasting followed by lunch in the restaurant, which draws on the surrounding produce-rich region. Bookings are recommended for the restaurant and for larger tasting groups.
Twenty minutes from Hobart, Frogmore Creek is the largest ultra-premium winery in southern Tasmania, producing acclaimed cool-climate Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris under its Frogmore Creek and Forty-Two Degrees South labels. The cellar door and restaurant sit among the vines with sweeping views over the valley and its waterways.
3. Puddleduck Vineyard
A family-run cellar door with wine, ducks, and a view
Puddleduck is one of the few Australian vineyards that grows, makes and sells its wine entirely on site, and it shows — this is a genuinely hands-on, family-run operation rather than a polished corporate cellar door. Owners Darren and Jackie Brown have been pouring wine here since 2005, and the relaxed deck overlooking the dam has become a valley favourite.
Try the Bubbleduck sparkling, and stay for a platter from the Pecking Menu while the kids feed the resident ducks and guinea fowl in the playground below. It’s an easy, unpretentious stop, and a nice contrast to some of the valley’s grander cellar doors.
4. Coal River Farm
Handmade cheese and chocolate with valley views
Part working farm, part cheese factory, part chocolate factory, Coal River Farm is a genuine hub of Tasmanian produce just past Frogmore Creek on the way into Richmond. Floor-to-ceiling windows let you watch the cheesemakers and chocolatiers at work while you eat, and the farm restaurant serves a seasonal, paddock-to-plate menu of breakfast and lunch dishes.
It’s an easy stop for families — there’s an orchard to wander and seasonal berry picking on offer — and a good place to pick up gifts to take home, from handmade chocolate to award-winning cheese.
5. Pooley Wines
Cool-climate Pinot Noir and Riesling in a Georgian homestead
On the edge of Richmond, Pooley’s cellar door sits in the coach house of Belmont, a heritage-listed 1830s sandstone homestead. The Pooley family has been making wine in the valley since 1985, and the estate’s Pinot Noir and Riesling are consistently ranked among Australia’s best cool-climate wines — Pooley was named Winery of the Year by the Halliday Wine Companion in 2023.
Structured tastings run daily alongside local cheese and charcuterie boards, and wood-fired pizza on weekends. For a longer stay, Pooley also runs Prospect House, a restored Georgian manor just across the road with eleven rooms and its own restaurant.
Beyond these five, the valley has plenty more worth exploring with a guide who knows it — Barilla Bay’s oysters, Lark and Kempton distilleries, Craigow and Nocturne Estate, and the wood-fired pizzas at Vin and Larder in Richmond among them.
Our Coal River Valley Wine Tour is a private, seven-hour tour for 1–3 passengers, built entirely around your tastes — tell your guide what you’d like to try and we’ll build the day around it.
