From Nova Scotia to Nashdale, Jeff Byrne's twisted and long journey to the Orange Wine Region has just about as many branches as some of the vines he's planted on his farm.
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From Canada to the Gold Coast, and back again, then down to Wagga to study and the Hunter Valley to work, Mr Byrne's connection to Orange has taken a while to develop but the more he's branched out and headed west to the heart of cool climate wines in NSW, the deeper he's fallen in love.
Now, well, Orange "kind of reminds me of my home".
"I love the fruit from here and there's just, well, we think, so much potential here in Orange being a young wine region ... so here we are," Mr Byrne said.
Mr Byrne said he originally left Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1995 and came to Australia backpacking.
"I met my wife in a maxi taxi, we shared a taxi in Surfers Paradise for the night, it was pretty funny," he said.
"I returned to Canada and studied at the University of New Brunswick there and in my fourth year Bridgette contacted me and came over ... and so I moved down to Australia at just the end of 1998-99."
They now also have three daughters.
Caitlin is the oldest and has, as Mr Byrne puts it, caught the "wine-making bug" and helps out at the cellar door at Byrne Farm, too. She's currently in her first semester at Wagga studying wine science.
"It's cool that she enjoys it," Mr Byrne added. "(And) our other two are at James Sheahan, Lauren and Bree."
Byrne Farm might be a relative newcomer to the Orange Wine Region, however Mr Byrne's experience in the industry is extensive.
It was great to share the moment with them.
- Jeff Byrne on his award-winning 2021 chardonnay, which used grapes from See Saw
He's been making wine for over two decades and started in the Hunter Valley, where he cut his teeth at a place called Tower Estate, alongside Len Evans.
That's where he fell in love with wine, and a steely determination to turn that passion into a profession landed him at Wagga to study.
He then became chief wine maker at Agnew Wines, which produces Audrey Wilkinson, Poole's Rock and Cock Fighter's Ghost in the Hunter. Mr Byrne was there for almost 12 years.
He describes that Hunter Valley experience as fantastic, but throughout that entire time he was constantly travelling to Orange to buy fruit to make wines in the Hunter.
It's over that time he developed a strong connection with the owners of See Saw, Justin and Pip Jarrett.
And the fruits of that relationship are behind the success of Byrne Farm at this year's Orange Wine Show.
The winery won four awards at the 2022 Orange Wine Show, from which the Orange Wine Show Tasting and Masterclasses will be held on October 22.
The awards included: Best Wine of the Show - 2021 chardonnay; Best White Wine of the Show - 2021 chardonnay; Best Single Vineyard - 2021 chardonnay; Best Young Chardonnay - 2021 chardonnay.
The fruit from that award-winning drop was purchased from See Saw, with the vines at Byrne Farm, planted in 2019, still not mature enough to produce grapes.
"The (winning) chardonnay comes from what's known as the Balmoral Vineyard," Mr Byrne said touching on the work he does alongside the Jarretts at See Saw.
"One of the trophies was a single vineyard trophy and it was nice to get (Justin's) his son Brendan Jarrett up to take a photo with me. It was great to share the moment with them."
He said winning was always "a nice surprise".
"Occasionally one of the wines you enter in wine shows can kind of snake along and jag a few trophies if the judges obviously enjoy it, so yeah, we had good success with that wine," he added.
"We were fortunate enough to get two other goals as well, which was always nice. That was for our 2019 Byrne Farm chardonnay and then our 2021 Byrne Farm pinot noir.
"Every now and again the stars and planets align for you."
The Byrne Farm cellar door is only relatively new to the Orange wine scene, having opened five months ago off the Cargo Road, at Nashdale. The family moved to the farm in 2019, which will be the first vintage for the Byrne Farm label.
"The last couple of days since the show we've had a few people pop out and obviously want to have a try of the 2021 chardonnay, which we offer to people now," he said.
"Considering we are a pretty new business, there's people starting to find us which is pretty exciting and other cellar door staff are making nice suggestions to come see us to their guests, so it's good, it's got a nice community support system going on, which is great."
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
