Huon Valley

The Huon Valley runs south from Hobart down the Huon River to the D’Entrecasteaux Channel — Tasmania’s cider heartland and the southern edge of viable wine country. Willie Smith’s, Frank’s, Pagan and Two Metre Tall’s cider range all draw from the valley’s heritage apple orchards, first planted by William Smith in 1888. Wineries here are smaller and quieter than their Tamar or Coal River counterparts, with Home Hill, Hartzview, Panorama and Matilda’s leading the boutique Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris producers. Grandvewe Cheeses sits inside the same orbit, as does the craft distillery scene around Cygnet. The Huon is also a working landscape — salmon leases, blueberry farms, timber mills — giving cellar-door visitors a fuller sense of rural southern Tasmania than the more polished wine-only regions.