Jennifer Doyle of Jansz Q&A
In honor of Women's History Month, we spoke with some of the top women winemakers working in the industry today to learn more about them, their craft, and the wines they produce. Stay tuned throughout the month of March as we update this Women in Wine series with more interviews and be sure to check out our wine list featuring wineries who have women winemakers on staff.
Jennifer Doyle, Winemaker at Jansz from Tasmania, Australia
Jen uses beauty of the rugged and remote landscape of Tasmania to create elegant and intense sparkling wines. Produced using Méthode Tasmanoise, this connection between the environment and the winemaker coaxes out brilliant wines for Jansz.
Jennifer Doyle
Wine.com: Tasmania is filled with awesome wilderness - Does that wildness make its way into the wines you produce?
Jen Doyle: It cannot be avoided! Our grapevines are very much a part of the environment in which they grow. The icy chill off Antarctica and the wild winds of Bass Strait drive pure, crisp acidity in our sparkling wines. These elements are tempered by the bodies of water that sustain them to create a long, cool ripening season, perfect for achieving natural balance. Wild, indigenous yeasts facilitate fermentation – further thumb printing the distinctive expression and nuance of this place.
W: How would you describe Méthode Tasmanoise to someone who hasn't experienced your wines yet? Are there any noticeable characteristics that set it apart from Champagne?
JD: Méthode Tasmanoise is an all-encompassing term that expresses not only the way in which our wines are made, but acknowledgement and in celebrate of every aspect influencing the ‘Tasmanianous’ of our sparkling wines. They are not, and cannot be likened to any other sparkling wines anywhere else in the world – this is the only place where this unique environ exists, this taste of Tasmania.
Jansz Vineyard
W: In two words how would you describe Jansz's Premium Cuvée?
JD: Intense, yet elegant.
W: If you aren't sharing your own wine with someone, how do you pick a wine gift?
JD: I would match the knowledge that I have of grape varieties and the regions in which they have proven to be most elegantly expressed. It would then come down to knowing and choosing an individual winemaker’s style that most resonates with you (or the person for whom the wine is intended!).
W: If you weren't a winemaker, what would you be doing?
JD: I might I have pursued another of my loves – those creatures with which we share Planet Earth – through the fields of animal science and conservation.
W: What is your can't-fail food and wine pairing?
JD: Jansz Tasmania Premium Cuvée sipped, and poured over oysters freshly shucked from the rocks.
Thank you, Jen!
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Stay tuned throughout the month of March for more interviews with women in wine and opportunities to shop wines from women winemakers. Cheers!