Vineyards

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The 1.5-hectare 8 Acres vineyard was planted with Shiraz vines in 1892. It sits just below the 4 Acres vineyard beside the driveway up to the winery at an elevation of 130 metres. Like the 4 Acres, it sits on deep-red podzolic clay over limestone, but the vine orientation is north–south, perpendicular to the 4 Acres vines, and the vineyard produces a different style of wine altogether. On the western side of the vineyard there are also 1.7 hectares of Pinot Noir vines, which it shares with the 4 Acres vineyard. Taken as cuttings from Mount Pleasant, they were planted in 1972 by Murray Tyrrell with the aim of replicating the great red wines of Burgundy. Traditionally a component of the Vat 9 blend, since the 2018 vintage one cask of wine from the 8 Acres vineyard has been bottled on its own to be released as the 8 Acres Shiraz.

Located at an elevation of 140 metres on the western side of Mary Ann’s Creek opposite Johnno’s vineyard, the 5.7-hectare Black Ridge Vineyard was planted with Shiraz vines in 1998 and 2000. The soils are mostly red clay with isolated pockets of brown clay and some sandy alluvial soils in the lower sections. The vineyard has both west- and east-facing sections, with the western aspect leading down into more of the brown clay loam, while the eastern aspect is a continuation of brown clays leading into some sandy alluvial soils. Grapes from this vineyard provide the Shiraz component of our Vat 8 Shiraz Cabernet.

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Located beside Moore’s creek about 3.5 kilometres north of the Tyrrell’s winery, the HVD vineyard was first planted in 1908 by the Hunter Valley Distillery Company, which was formed in 1903 when the demand for spirits and fortified wines was high. The distillery was designed to take excess grapes for distillation into spirits for the manufacture of fortified wines. Penfolds leased the vineyard in 1933 and bought it in 1948. Murray Tyrrell always said that it was one of the finest white wine vineyards in the Hunter and it was a coup for Tyrrell’s when he bought it in 1982/83. The vineyard, which sits at an elevation of about 85 metres on alluvial sandy clay loam, contains a mixture of Semillon (4.29 hectares) and Chardonnay (1.1 hectares) vines, the latter making up the oldest block of Chardonnay in the world. It provides the grapes for our HVD Chardonnay and HVD Semillon.

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Situated adjacent to Chris and Tegan Tyrrell’s house at an elevation of about 150 metres, the Mother’s and NVC vineyards lie on red podzolic clay over a limestone base. The vines on the 1.7-hectare NVC vineyard were originally planted in 1921 and the fruit that they produced was traditionally used to make our Vat 5 Shiraz. However, after we experienced severe drought during the late 1990s, we stopped making Vat 5 and spent ten years working on the soil and vineyard trellising, eventually getting the vineyard back to where it needed to be. In 2010/11, the 1.4-hectre Mother’s vineyard was planted with cuttings of our best Shiraz clones from the 4 Acres, Johnno’s and Old Patch vineyards. These two vineyards produce the grapes for our NVC and Mother’s Single Vineyard Shirazes.

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The Old Hillside vineyard is situated at an elevation of 160 metres on Marrowbone Road at the southern end of Pokolbin, next to Mount Pleasant. Within the 3.3-hectare vineyard is a discrete block that contains the oldest still-producing Shiraz vines in New South Wales. The ‘Old Patch’ as it’s known, was planted in 1867, making it nearly 150 years old. The average vine age across the rest of the vineyard is 50 years, with the oldest vines planted in 1960. In 1993, Bruce Tyrrell struck a deal with the Stevens family, the then owners of the vineyard, that cemented the long friendship and history between the two Hunter families. Sealed with a handshake, the deal gave Tyrrell’s access to fruit from the Old Hillside vineyard, which features rich deep-red soil mixed with an unusually coloured purple ochre clay loam. The oldest vines are the source for our Old Patch Shiraz, while the remainder goes into our Old Hillside Shiraz. The vineyard was purchased by the Tyrrell family in 2017.

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“Old Patch” sits within the 3.3-hectare Old Hillside vineyard on Marrowbone Road, which the Tyrrell family purchased in December 2017. Situated in the middle of the vineyard site, the Old Patch was planted in 1867, making it almost 150 years old. It is the oldest vineyard in NSW and one of the oldest in the world. It is a steep, east-facing block located right underneath the Brokenback mountain range, which provides great protection, and features darker, richer soils than those on our Ashmans property.

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The five-hectare Short Flat Vineyard is located directly north of the driveway up to Tyrrell’s Wines at an elevation of about 110 metres. The vineyard is a mosaic of vine ages, with the oldest Semillon vines dating back to 1923 and 1927. There are also blocks of Chardonnay vines that date back to 1968, while the youngest vines were planted in 2001. The Semillon is planted in the middle of the vineyard, where the soils are quite uniform sandy loams, while the Chardonnay is planted more sporadically in sites where the soils best suit the variety. Fruit from the Semillon vines goes into our flagship Vat 1 Semillon, while the Chardonnay grapes go into our Short Flat “Old Vines” Chardonnay and flagship Vat 47 Chardonnay.

Within the Short Flat vineyard are two distinct named blocks: the Mathews and Contours vineyards. Grapes from these vineyards, which were both planted in 1968 and are both situated at an elevation of about 115m, form an integral part of the blend in our flagship Vat 9 Shiraz. Usually one of the first Shiraz blocks to be picked, the 0.5-hectare Mathews vineyard is located on the south-eastern corner of the Short Flat vineyard on deep-red podzolic clay. The 0.9-hectare Contours, one of the best blocks on the Ashman estate and Chris Tyrrell’s favourite vineyard, is on the rise just above the Semillon as the soil begins to change to a darker, heavy sandy loam.

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Previously owned by Ted Mead, the owner of the Weinkeller Restaurant in George Street, Sydney (hence the name), the 4.6-hectare Weinkeller vineyard is located at an elevation of 145 metres due south of Bruce and Pauline Tyrrell’s residence. Tyrrell’s leased the vineyard in 1977 so that Bruce and Pauline had somewhere to live, before purchasing it in 1979. Bearing the same red podzolic clay over a base of limestone as is found around the winery and in our Mother’s and NVC vineyards, it was first planted with Shiraz vines in 1968. Wine made using fruit from these blocks makes up the major share of the blend in our flagship Vat 9 Shiraz.