Australian vineyard veteran Bruce Tyrrell is toasting a wine country milestone this week with the announcement of $100,000 in State Government funds for the protection of local heritage assets in Wine Country.
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The funding, announced by Hunter Parliamentary Secretary Scot MacDonald and Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association Chair Lindy Hyam, will go towards the Hunter Valley Heritage Vineyards Strategic Study which will document the wine region’s historic assets ranging from buildings to vines – some the oldest surviving in the world.
Mr Tyrrell said the idea is to record and protect our most precious heritage assets, in particular old vines, some more than 150 years old and still producing quality fruit.
Read more: 160 years of sublime wine
The idea to start the document was one Mr Tyrrell came up with about 10 years. “I was talking to old John Tulloch and I thought, wow, if he goes, all that information goes with him and we need to make sure we have that knowledge recorded somewhere.”
He made a long list of vineyards which includes everything planted before 1968. “I wanted to start recording from then because the majority of those vines would have been planted from existing vine material which would have had significant age and probably could all be chased back to the Busby Collection.
James Busby is widely regarded as the "father" of the Australian wine industry, as he brought the first collection of vine stock from Spain and France to Australia.
