Tamar Ridge Wines 
Vineyard

Following the sale of the Heemskerk Wine Group to Pipers Brook Vineyard in 1998, the JAC Group appointed Julian Alcorso as chief winemaker and built a new winery on the Kayena vineyard it had planted from scratch three years earlier with the advice of world-renowned viticulturist Dr Richard Smart. The winery was called Tamar Ridge Wines to leverage off the beautiful Tamar Valley which is the largest regional centre for commercial vineyards and winemaking in Tasmania. Tamar Ridge achieved instant brand recognition and its wines won numerous awards from the first vintages, prompting Chris Shanahan of the Canberra Times to describe Tamar Ridge as 

“… surely one of the most stunning, complete and instant wine-brand creations in the history of Australia’s wine industry”. 

James Halliday in his Australian Wine Companion also elevated Tamar Ridge Wines to five stars as “an outstanding winery regularly producing exemplary wines” when it was only three years old. 

Tamar Ridge then attracted the attention of forestry company Gunns Limited which was looking for a wine brand to complement its wine managed investment schemes. In July 2003, Gunns Limited approached Josef and offered to buy Tamar Ridge Wines for a price too good to refuse given it was substantially more than the JAC Group had originally invested. At the time, Tamar Ridge over four years had won twelve trophies, twenty gold medals, thirty-six silver medals and in excess of one hundred bronze medals in wine competitions around Australia. Tamar Ridge was subsequently sold in 2010 to family wine group Brown Brothers and is currently the largest winery in Tasmania.