In one of the most anticipated events of the year, twelve of us from Melbourne's media sat down at Harriot Melbourne for an intimate, invitation-only tasting dinner marking 40 years of Jansz Tasmania, hosted by Senior Winemaker Teresa Heuzenroeder alongside sparkling wine authority Tyson Stelzer. Twelve wines. Twelve guests. One extraordinary evening that even the winemaker herself called a privilege to pour and to experience.
Twelve Seats, Twelve Wines: Inside an Exclusive Jansz Tasmania Dinner
There is exclusive, and then there is twelve people in a room with forty years of Jansz Tasmania history poured in front of them. That was the scale of this dinner: a tightly curated group of Melbourne media, seated together at Harriot Melbourne, with Teresa Heuzenroeder and Tyson Stelzer moving between courses to talk us through wines most of us had only ever read about in tasting notes and auction listings.
It is rare, in Australian wine, to be handed a glass of something the winemaker rarely opens for herself. It is rarer still to have that winemaker sitting beside you, candidly walking you through what it felt like to make it, and what it feels like to taste it decades later. Teresa was generous with her time and her stories all night, and it was clear this was not a rehearsed presentation, it was a genuine, unfiltered conversation about a wine house she has spent her career shaping. More than once she paused mid-sentence over a glass, visibly moved by how a wine had aged, and said plainly that evenings like this, tasting bottles this rare in one sitting, are a privilege for her too.
Between courses, the conversation ranged from the technical to the personal: Teresa on the discipline of holding wines back for extended lees ageing when commercial pressure says release early; Tyson on decades of tasting Tasmanian sparkling against the world's best and where he believes Jansz sits in that company. There was laughter, there were long pauses over particularly special pours, and there was a real sense, shared around the table, that we were witnessing something few Australian wine lovers ever get to experience. Only twelve of us were in the room. Some of these bottles may never be poured publicly again.
Stories from Teresa Heuzenroeder: 40 Years of Craft in One Room
Teresa Heuzenroeder brings more than 30 years of cool-climate winemaking experience to Jansz, across Tasmania, the Adelaide Hills, Eden Valley and King Valley, and that depth showed in every story she told. She spoke about the patience Méthode Tasmanoise demands, wines resting on lees for years while the market moves on without them, and the quiet confidence it takes to trust that patience will pay off in the glass. She spoke to the acid structure that sets Tasmanian sparkling apart from anywhere else in the country, to the brioche and texture that extended lees ageing builds into a wine, and to how Jansz's Chardonnay-dominant house style has evolved and sharpened over four decades.
What stayed with me most was her description of tasting the older back-vintages herself before the dinner, admitting that even she does not get to revisit wines like the 1992 Late Disgorged Vintage Cuvée often. Hearing her speak about that scarcity, from the person who actually makes the wine, was a genuinely candid, generous insight into four decades of winemaking, and it reframed the entire tasting: this was not just a celebration for us, it was a rare occasion for Jansz itself.
Tyson Stelzer on Tasting with Confidence
Tyson Stelzer needs little introduction to anyone who follows Australian sparkling wine, and across the evening he wove decades of tasting experience into every wine without ever making the room feel like a masterclass rather than a dinner.
The line from Tyson that has stayed with me since is simple, but the kind of advice worth carrying into every glass from here on: "Your palate is correct for you, and never ever doubt it. Be bold in it." Coming from someone who has tasted at the very top of the wine world, it was a generous, grounding thing to say to a room of writers, and it set exactly the right tone for a night built around genuine tasting rather than performance.
The Wines: A Rare Vertical of Jansz Tasmania
Across the table sat twelve glasses, a vertical spanning more than three decades of Jansz Tasmania:
- Jansz Tasmania Late Disgorged Vintage Cuvée 2017
- Jansz Tasmania Vintage Rosé 2020
- Jansz Tasmania Single Vineyard Vintage Chardonnay 2020
- Jansz Tasmania Late Disgorged Vintage Cuvée 2011
- Jansz Tasmania Late Disgorged Vintage Rosé 2011
- Jansz Tasmania Late Disgorged Blanc de Blancs 2011
- Jansz Tasmania Vintage Cuvée 1995
- Jansz Tasmania Vintage Rosé 2011
- Jansz Tasmania Single Vineyard Vintage Chardonnay 2011
- Jansz Tasmania Late Disgorged Vintage Cuvée 1992
- Jansz Tasmania Vintage Rosé 2002
- Jansz Tasmania Single Vineyard Vintage Chardonnay 2008
These were museum wines. Disgorged wines. Bottles that, as we were told on the night, even the winemaker herself rarely gets the chance to open. Of the twelve, it was the Single Vineyard Vintage Chardonnay 2008 that stood out as my favourite: pure, poised, and carrying that unmistakable sense of lemon curd that runs through the best of Jansz's Chardonnay-dominant house style. Tasting it alongside the earlier and later expressions made the progression of the winemaking, and Jansz's evolving expression of site, genuinely tangible in the glass.
Fifteen Years on Lees
One detail from the evening has stayed with me more than any other: some of these wines have spent as long as fifteen years on lees. That extended contact with the dead yeast cells left over from fermentation is what builds the brioche character and layered texture that set the older Jansz Late Disgorged releases apart, while somehow keeping the wines fresh rather than tired. It is a patience that few producers anywhere in the world can afford, and tasting its effect directly, across vintages, was a genuine privilege; several of us in the room were among the first to taste some of these bottles outside the winery itself.
A Terroir Story Beyond the Soil
What struck me most across the tasting was how consistently the wines carried a structure and acid line unlike anything else I have tasted. There is an almost effervescent quality on the palate, a sense of sparkling water pulled straight off Bass Strait, airborne salt from the ocean woven right through the wine. It is a reminder that terroir is not just about soil; at Jansz, it is climate, coastline and salt air as much as it is the basalt beneath the vines.
Pipers River remains the dominant influence on that identity, and its imprint of purity was evident across every wine poured, vintage after vintage. It was also a chance to hear about Tasmania's Coal River Valley, further south near the convict-built Richmond Bridge, as part of the island's broader winemaking story, a useful reminder of just how much terroir diversity a single small island holds.
A Highlight of the Evening: The Dinner at Harriot Melbourne
If the wines were the reason for the evening, the food was very much its equal. French bistro Harriot Melbourne did a genuinely great job matching a menu to twelve of the most significant sparkling wines Melbourne is likely to see poured together in one sitting, and getting that pairing right across such a wide vertical, from a 1992 Late Disgorged Cuvée through to current-release Chardonnay, is no small feat. Each dish was built to let the wine lead rather than compete with it, and the kitchen's restraint showed real confidence.
The evening opened with Boomer Bay oysters and bluefin tuna with porcini on rye, both dishes bright and briny enough to sit beautifully against the Rosé and Blanc de Blancs pours, before housemade sourdough with cultured butter and Tasmanian cheeses with housemade lavosh gave the older, more textural Late Disgorged Cuvées something substantial to play off.
The Tasmanian blue eye with caviar and beurre blanc was the standout main for me, rich enough to hold its own against the Single Vineyard Chardonnays without ever overwhelming them.
A potato galette with onion and charred brassicas with mustard vinaigrette rounded out the savoury courses with real precision, and the kale provided extra zest.
An apple tarte tatin with cinnamon ice cream and caramel closed the night on exactly the right note, warm, comforting, and a fitting match for the last of the older vintages still lingering in the glass.
It would have been easy for a menu like this to sit quietly in the background of an evening built around such rare wines. Instead, Harriot Melbourne turned the pairings into a genuine highlight in their own right, a French bistro sensibility doing full justice to forty years of Tasmanian sparkling wine.
The Legacy of Jansz Tasmania
Jansz Tasmania's story is one of vision, partnership and place. Understanding that legacy is what makes this 40th anniversary tasting so significant.
A French Connection
Jansz's origins trace back to a partnership between esteemed French Champagne house Louis Roederer and Heemskerk Wines, who recognised that the cool maritime climate and basalt soils of Tasmania's Pipers River region closely mirrored the conditions of Northeast France, the spiritual home of world-class sparkling wine. It is, remarkably, the same traditional method used in Champagne, made accessible here at a fraction of the price.
The Hill-Smith Era
In 1997/1998, the Hill-Smith family acquired the estate, transforming it into Australia's leading family-owned wine house dedicated solely to sparkling wine, a focus that continues to define Jansz today.
Named for a Dutch Explorer
The winery takes its name from Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who first sighted the island in 1642, a fitting tribute given Jansz's role in putting Tasmania on the world sparkling wine map.
Established in 1986, Established as Pioneers
Since its establishment in 1986, Jansz Tasmania has become synonymous with premium Australian sparkling wine, largely credited with putting Tasmania on the global map through its signature production method: Méthode Tasmanoise. The first commercial release, in 1991, was drawn from the 1989 vintage; on the night, we had the rare privilege of tasting the 1992 release itself, a genuine piece of Jansz history in the glass.
To mark 40 years of that pioneering work, the estate released special commemorative wines, including a Limited Edition 40 Years Premium Cuvée Magnum NV, available through the Jansz Tasmania online store. The Melbourne tasting extended that celebration further, giving guests direct access to back-vintage Late Disgorged wines rarely poured outside the winery itself, and the results spoke for themselves. Watching those older vintages open up alongside the current releases made for one of the most compelling side-by-side sparkling wine tastings Melbourne has seen in some time.
What is Méthode Tasmanoise?
Méthode Tasmanoise is Jansz's own take on traditional méthode, more than a technical winemaking process, it's a philosophy shaped by place. It reflects Tasmania's clean air, fertile soils, pristine waters and untamed coastline, and a winemaking community built on minimal intervention and working with nature rather than against it.
As Jansz describes it, Méthode Tasmanoise is the essence of Tasmania itself, and that philosophy came through in every glass poured on the night, from the earliest back vintages through to the newest release. The Vintage Rosé, in particular, was extraordinary, and a clear highlight for many at the table.
A Worthy Celebration
What: Jansz Tasmania 40th Anniversary Tasting Dinner, with Teresa Heuzenroeder and Tyson Stelzer
When: Tuesday 15 September 2026, 6:30pm
Where: Harriot Melbourne, 555 Collins St, Melbourne
Wines: Rare back-vintage Jansz Tasmania Late Disgorged wines alongside current releases
For anyone who loves sparkling wine, this was a rare chance to taste four decades of Tasmanian winemaking history in one evening, in a room of just twelve, and to hear directly from the people who have shaped it. It was an amazing night, and a fitting, elegant tribute to 40 years of a wine house that continues to lead the way for Australian sparkling wine. Thank you to Kate Harper and the team at Dialogue PR for the invitation to be part of it. Keep an eye on Jansz Tasmania for details on the anniversary Premium Cuvée Magnum NV and other 40th anniversary releases.
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