Heemskerk & Jansz
Heemskerk Wine Group
BEST CHARDONNAY IN AUSTRALASIA
Under chief winemaker Gary Ford, Josef’s Heemskerk Chardonnay won the Winestate Wine of the Year Awards for the Best Chardonnay in Australasia in 1997. After selling Heemskerk vineyard in 1998, it would take another eighteen years for Josef's Chardonnay to win an international trophy, but it was the most prestigious in the world. Josef Chromy himself is very proud that under chief winemaker Jeremy Dineen and senior winemaker Ockie Myburgh his 2011 won the award for the Best Chardonnay in the World at the Decanter World Wine Awards held at the Albert Hall in London in 2013.
After purchasing Rochecombe vineyard and winery out of receivership in 1994, the JAC Group purchased other struggling vineyards and wineries, including Buchanan’s Loira vineyard near Exeter on the West Tamar and Heemskerk vineyard and winery with its Jansz sparkling brand at Pipers Brook in North East Tasmania.
The processing of fruit from these vineyards was consolidated into one expanded winery at Pipers River and the wine business then became known as the Heemskerk Wine Group. To balance the volume of different grape varieties for production, a new vineyard was also established from scratch at Kayena on the West Tamar in 1995 with advice from pioneer winemaker Graham Wiltshire and later the world-renowned viticulturist Dr Richard Smart.
The Heemskerk Wine Group was sold to Pipers Brook Vineyard in 1998 as it was seeking growth to become a publicly listed company. Jansz sparkling ultimately went to Yalumba while Rochecombe is now owned by Accolade but rebranded as Bay of Fires and House of Arras. Pipers Brook was not prepared to pay full price for the Kayena vineyard that had been planted from scratch as it was yet to become productive, and so with no restraint of trade in place Josef and Ada kept their Kayena vineyard and built a new winery on the site called Tamar Ridge.