Tyrrell's vineyards are established in Australia's premium wine growing regions - McLaren Vale, Limestone Coast and Heathcote - but still call the Hunter Valley home. Most of the distinguished Tyrrell Hunter Valley wines are grown at the Pokolbin and Ashmans Vvineyards in the heart of the Lower Hunter Valley, very near the winery itself.
Today Tyrrell's are a truly national winemaker, exporting Tyrrell's wines around the globe
These are all non-irrigated, dry grown vineyards, dependant entirely on 750mm of rainfall a year. Yields are very low from these vines, but the fruit is of the highest possible quality. Vines are characteristically short, (often less than one metre tall) and gnarled.
This clever design by mother nature together with experienced vineyard management has ensured that over the generations the vines have grown to efficiently distribute the precious and rare moisture to the grape bunches. The Lower Hunter does actually have extensive subterranean water pockets, but due to the proximity to the coast and ocean, this water is too high in salinity to be used on vines. Vines on Tyrrells original blocks around Ashmans winery are amongst the oldest in the Hunter Valley at 70 to 120 years old.
The Tyrrell's Glenbawn Estate Vineyard was planted in the late 1960's and the winery completed for the 1974 vintage. The area has a lower average rainfall than the Lower Hunter Valley, but close proximity to Lake Glenbawn on the Hunter River provides a reliable source of water for drip irrigation. Machine harvesting of these vineyards makes the most of cooler temperatures at night. The winery now processes over 2500 tonnes of fruit and must during the vintage period. During the year blended products or parcels of wine are transported by tanker to the Ashman's winery in Pokolbin for bottling, blending or further oak maturation.