Historia
Celebrating 50 years and 3 generations in wine.
The first vines on our property were planted in the 1930s in Clare Valley and produce our superb Byrne Limited Release Grenache. As South Australia is phylloxera free, and didn’t suffer the scourge of this vineyard disease which wiped out most of the world’s vineyards, these are some of the older vines still in commercial use in the world.
In 1963, Eric and Romla Byrne purchased the Devlin's Pound property near Overland Corner in South Australia and planted this limestone based vineyard to a range of grape varieties, most notably Shiraz, Cabernet and Chardonnay which have all received Gold medals for their premium wine quality. We have some prized old white varieties on this vineyard which now are used for our Antiquarian Rare White Blend which is a unique vineyard blend, barrel fermented using wild yeasts.
During the 1970s the Morgan (Scotts Creek) vineyard was established by then owners, Penfold’s, under the guidance of Max Schubert due its close proximity to the Barossa, excellent Limestone soils and ideal climate for premium wine production. The Byrne family acquired this property in 1995. During the decade long drought which ended in 2011, the Byrne family had to make the difficult decision to mothball a large section of the vineyard due to lack of water. Many lessons were learnt during this difficult period which has resulted in adoption of the latest water technology allowing water to be returned to the natural environment, preservation of the Scotts Creek wetlands and replanting the mothballed vines with resilient clones.
Our winemaker, Peter Gajewski, coincidently helped plant these vines at Scotts Creek as a young man; and then as Senior Penfold’s Winemaker, used these grapes for many years producing premium wine; and now has come full circle making these grapes into premium wines for Byrne Vineyards where he first started.
Originally growing grapes for other major wineries, Byrne Vineyards started producing its own wines from the estate vineyards in 2008 and has gone from strength to strength winning many accolades and awards for its wines and strong demand for its wines around the world. Phil Reedman, Master of Wine, joined Byrne to provide his market and blending expertise in 2010.
In the past 5 vinetages, our wines have won over 400 medals in international shows.
Like all good wine, the quality starts from the vineyard, so that is why we take a holistic approach to wine making from grape to glass.