In the 19th century, Van Diemen's Land was considered a savage place at the ends of the earth, a brutal penal colony housed in an inhospitable wilderness where settlers scratched out a meagre existence.
As Australian author Heather Rose writes in her latest novel, A Great Act of Love, it was a colony that ran on rum, beer and sheep.
It was the last place one would expect to find a vineyard producing award-winning wine as good, or better, as that produced in the Old World.
But, according to local lore, an enterprising ex-convict by the name of Bartholomew Broughton established a vineyard in the 1820s on the banks of the River Derwent, with vines most likely sourced from France.
Other vineyards had failed due to the climate, damp and cold and given to extremes, but Broughton found success producing champagne (now referred to as sparkling wine due to EU-protected designation of origin regulations).
"The seasons can be very intense … but champagne loves that," Rose told ABC Radio National's The Book Show.
" [The vines] love a lush climate that's got four seasons; they lo
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