Tyrrell’s buys ‘oldest vineyard in New South Wales’

Australia’s Tyrrell Family has purchased a 13.52 hectare vineyard in the lower Hunter Valley, which includes a 1.1 hectare block that it believes is the oldest producing vineyard in New South Wales, having been planted in 1867.

Bruce Tyrrell and Neil Stevens at Stevens Old Hillside Vineyard

The family purchased The Old Hillside, from which it makes Stevens Single Vineyard Semillon and Shiraz, as well as the Tyrrell’s The Old Patch Shiraz, from Neil and Bernadette Stevens, who have worked with the Tyrrell family to produce single vineyard Shiraz and Semillon wines since 1993.

The block covers 13.52 hectares on Marrowbone Road, Pokolbin, of which 6.11 hectares are planted solely to Shiraz.

Included in this block is 1.1 hectares that the family believe to be the oldest producing vineyard in NSW – planted in 1867 from generation cuttings from the Busby collection. The balance of the vineyard was planted in 1968.

“This purchase ensures that ownership of this iconic vineyard remains amongst the original families of the Hunter,” the family said in a statement. “The Hunter Valley has 11 blocks of vineyard over 100 years old on their own roots, and this now gives the Tyrrell family seven of those blocks.”

The sale was settled in late December for an undisclosed sum.