Jen Doyle
SPARKLING IN THE WILD
On the pristine island of Tasmania, a region renowned for its premium, cool-climate wines, Jen Doyle is coaxing elegance from a rugged and remote landscape.
As vigneron at the prestigious Jansz Tasmania, Jen ensures only top-quality fruit goes into the winery’s premium sparkling wines. Jansz is one of Australia’s only wineries devoted solely to sparkling, and for Jen it’s been a decade-long devotion to growing grapes and crafting wines that reflect the truth of this unique wine region.
Wild island home
Jen grew up on a farm in New South Wales, far from wine country, but she’s always felt close to the land. After studying rural science at university, she worked as a viticulturist for eight years in Western Australia, before returning east to the Orange wine region and then, around a decade ago, quit the mainland for Tasmania.
Wild and beautiful, Tasmania is a haven for premium-wine producers and those seeking a life a little off the beaten track.
“Where we live, down on the Tasman Peninsula, it has a stunning wilderness area, national parks, beach... It’s the quiet place that I can go to, and then be renewed for the flurry of vintage,” says Jen.
Jen prefers a gentle approach to viticulture that takes advantage of the pristine environment. In 2017, she was named Australian Women in Wine Viticulturist of the Year.
“I love the natural world and I love watching the interaction of scientific processes but at a micro level,” she says. “Understanding the way the environment interacts, the ecology of the vineyard, the good insects, the birds… And by making an environment which is welcoming to them, they assist us in controlling diseases without having to use chemicals to do so.”
More recently, Jen has transitioned into the winery, working with winemakers to help steer the direction of Jansz’s sparkling styles.
“In Tasmania, we get a long extended grape-ripening period, which slowly develops the beautiful flavours but with a great elegance as well as depth of flavour,” she says. “We’re looking for the beautiful lemon acidity that the Chardonnay can contribute, and then the lovely strawberries and cream that the Pinot Noir underneath that Chardonnay is able to further contribute.”
As Tasmania’s reputation for sparkling wine continues its rapid rise, and the world increasingly takes notice, Jen remains constantly in pursuit of new opportunities to showcase this stunning wine region.
“I like to let the vines express what they want to, and to be as lighthanded as possible for them to truly show the place from which they come.” – Jen Doyle
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