Since taking over his historic family winery, Tyrrell’s, fifth generation son Chris Tyrrell has taken a gentle approach to balancing the past, present and future. He has taken the business from strength to strength, resulting in strong sales and Tyrrell’s wines becoming the third most-cellared in Australia last year. The winery also topped topped Halliday’s list of Australia’s 100 best.
Rising to COO in 2014 and taking over as CEO in 2023 at just 40, Chris Tyrrell’s leadership journey has been about celebrating the Hunter Valley winery’s long history and one-of-a-kind style. With so much competition, he’s definitely not taking it for granted.
“It’s just about focusing on the things that make Tyrrell’s unique,” he says.
“It’s an incredibly crowded industry. We’ve got 2500 wineries in Australia and I think there are so many great stories out there, but I actually think a lot of brands would kill for what we have. So it’s really just focusing on what makes Tyrrell’s special and telling that story.”
At its core, Tyrrell’s has plenty to make other wineries envious.
Family patriarch Edward Tyrrell founded the brand in 1858 and its long history has become a key part of the Tyrrell’s identity. It has eight 100-plus year old vineyards and one —- the Old Patch — that dates all the way back to 1867.
The winery also flies the flag for the wine styles that make the Hunter Valley region so renowned, with fresh-and-bright shiraz and the long-lived white wine semillon.
With a long, in-house apprenticeship and the weight of Australian wine history behind him, Chris Tyrrell the leader isn’t jumping at shadows, taking a gentle approach to change and evolution at the winery.
“I’m inherently a pretty impatient person, unless it’s got to do with vineyards or wineries, then I’m the most boring person in the world,” Tyrrell says.
“If we’re talking about changing a style of wine we’ll say, okay, where do we want to be in 10 years?
Because if we just change it overnight, then we’re going to lose all of our customers or alienate people. So we’ll just change one thing per year and then, eventually, you’ve got all your new customers, plus your old customers coming in saying, ‘Oh, that wine’s never been as good.’”
Despite a loyal audience of rusted-on Tyrrell’s drinkers, media awards and some of the oldest vines in the world, the journey hasn’t been without its challenges for Chris Tyrrell.
Fires in 2019 ruined much of the winery’s 2020 vintage, with the difficulties of the covid pandemic following quickly after.
Tyrrell reflects on the wise words of his father Bruce (“It’s having patience, but also the dedication and discipline just to stay with it,”) and the generous leadership style of his grandfather Murray. But in difficult recent years, he’s found important leadership support through Vistage, too.
Joining a Vistage peer advisory group has, says Tyrrell, been an important step in navigating the challenges of business leadership, with the ability to hear the sort of feedback that isn’t always forthcoming in a tight-knit business like Tyrrell’s.
“I think [it’s provided] a bit more accountability for me,” Tyrrell says.
“In a family business, everyone’s pretty relaxed, we can make decisions quickly, but I didn’t get as much of a kick in the arse as I probably wanted.”
For Tyrrell, the smoke tainted 2020 vintage offered a quick proving ground for involvement with Vistage and a much-needed source of advice in a tough time.
“My very first meeting was in 2020 which was when we had essentially written off our vintage,” he says.
“I probably started at the perfect time – it was a year where lots of ideas and outside the box thinking were needed. I got that from the group in a funny way and we did really well that year. It was just other people to bounce ideas off, because we didn’t have much wine to sell.”
Despite the ups and downs of a turbulent industry, Tyrrell knows he and the business are well-placed for future success.
Backed by the lessons learned from Vistage peers, Tyrrell can reflect on a brand that has all the qualities to continue for family generations to come.
“We’ve got authenticity, and we’ve got a story,” he says. “I think you’ve got to have the story, the brand, the good wine and, number one, you’ve got to have a good product.”
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