Please do not walk amongst our vineyards during your visit to Tyrrell’s. We are custodians of some of the oldest grapevines in the world with 42% of our vines being over 50 years old and 11% of our vines over 100 years old. It is our utmost priority to keep this rare vine material safe from pests and diseases that can be picked up and spread by visitors’ shoes and clothing.
The Hunter Valley is its own special wine region and is thankfully free of a number of nasty foreign pests, such as the Phylloxera mite, which attack grapevine roots and eventually kill the vines. If we don’t have tight controls on who and what comes into our vineyards, then foreign pests and diseases could come into our vineyards and potentially destroy them.
Tyrrell’s are now members of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, which boasts well over 1,000 member vineyards and wineries. We are aiming to become “Certified Sustainable” by the end of 2023. As part of this program we are required to have a tight Biosecurity Plan, to protect our valuable vineyards from foreign pests and diseases.
Our Sustainability Committee has spent considerable time over the past few years working on the Tyrrell’s Biosecurity Plan, which includes measures such as machinery inspections and washdowns, keeping a visitor record, chlorine footbaths for visitors, and locking all vineyard gates. Tyrrell’s also has recently added biosecurity signage at vineyard entrances to assist with visitor awareness and education. We are minimising the amount of people that enter our vineyards, only allowing entry to essential and management-authorised visitors (e.g. vineyard contractors and consultants).
Each generation of the Tyrrell family has been focused on passing down the vineyards to the next generation in better condition than they received them, and our biosecurity plan plays a vital role in ensuring the long-term viability and sustainability of our vineyards.
We thank all of our visitors very much for their cooperation.
