About Spring Vale

Spring Vale is situated at Cranbrook, north of Swansea on Tasmania's East Coast. The Freycinet Coast could otherwise be described as the mid East Coast, and Spring Vale is about in the middle of that!

Continuing in the tradition of hard work and innovation established by William Lyne in 1826, Rodney and Lyn Lyne have planted 6.6 hectares of wine grapes at Spring Vale, principally Pinot Noir. The vineyard began in 1986, when a small area of two acres was planted to Pinot Noir. Further plantings were made in the following years: firstly, more Pinot Noir, then Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer, followed by Pinot Gris in 1996. In 2000, more Pinot Noir and a splash of Pinot Meunier was planted.

In June 2007, Spring Vale purchased a neighbouring farm, "Melrose". The purpose of this purchase was to enable decent amounts of a lighter red to be produced, with the first "Melrose" Pinot Noir being the 2008 Vintage. The acquisition of "Melrose" brings the total production in a normal year to 120 tonnes. There are plans in place to plant more Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Meunier in 2009, which should push production closer to 200 tonnes.

The Freycinet Coast is the driest part of the state, with an average annual rainfall of 550mm. Irrigation is therefore essential. The entire vineyard is drip irrigated. For frost protection, we use overhead sprinkler systems, while one block has a wind machine to blow away the cold air. The soil at Spring Vale is mostly a fertile clay loam, with the subsoil varying from porous friable loam with rock to medium-heavy clay. Drainage is excellent throughout the vineyard and the pH of the soil is around 6.5. A modified Lyre ("U-shaped") trellis system is used in conjunction with vertical shoot positioning (VSP), while the block planted in 2000 has a simple VSP trellis. "Melrose" is entirely VSP. All vineyard operations are carried out manually - pruning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking and harvesting.

The team

Rodney and Lyn are the owners of Spring Vale. Rodney manages the farm and vineyard - a never-ending task which sees few spare weekends present themselves. He steers the ship with Lyn as counsel and support. Lyn is a retired primary school teacher of 25 years who has shown great enthusiasm for farming and viticulture, giving Rodney her full support and assistance.

Kristen is the only daughter of Rodney and Lyn. She completed her wine science degree in 1999, and has since worked in France as an assistant winemaker and in the Yarra Valley as a lab technician. During the 2002 vintage, Kristen began as the winemaker at Spring Vale, assisted by her husband, Dave Cush. Nowadays, Dave is the day-to-day winemaker, with Kris being called in for technical support when required. During vintage and pre-bottling, Kris and Dave work closely together - Kris in the lab and Dave in the cellar. So far, so good, as the wines improve with each successive vintage. Kris' duties also include being mother to two boys (Max & Willem) and also consulting to the kitchen at Trellis, the Spring Vale wine bar in Swansea. Dave's other role is marketing and distributing Spring Vale wines in Tasmania, as well as promoting the wines at various mainland functions and offering sales support to the mainland distributors.

Tim is one of Rodney and Lyn's sons who came back to Spring Vale in September 2006, after several years on the mainland. He brought with him his wife, Kellie, and they now have a son, Lewis. Tim is the General Manager and Viticulturist at Spring Vale.

Robert Elliott is the vineyard supervisor at Spring Vale. He works tirelessly in the vineyard and elsewhere on the farm and has good control over the quality of all vineyard processes.

The whole team functions well together to create a friendly, hard-working atmosphere.

Preserving History

Both the Spring Vale homestead and the cellar door building are heritage listed. The cellar door is actually a stable, which was built by convict labour in 1842. The stable has been preserved (with minor restorations necessary) and is now a unique cellar door building with a very historic feel. In the same room, a modern Macrocarpa pine bar and wooden wine racks have been installed, to offer a great mixture of old and new.

The cellar is open from 11am to 4pm, 7 days a week (excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day.)