About Us

Who we are and what we do:  VisitVineyards.com

VisitVineyards.com is Australia's most comprehensive wine travel guide, providing free information, itineraries, a national wine events calendar, recommendations and reviews of  cellar doors and wineries, and the best regional food and wine travel experiences across the country.

We also offer a 'passport to wine travel', a unique Membership program which is an exclusive package of unique experiences and benefits, plus discounts and offers in food and wine regions, that is absolutely placked with value and that you will not get anywhere else or with any other program.

VisitVineyards.com was created and is operated by a team of passionate wine, food and travel lovers and brings together over 30,000 different wineries, vineyards, food growers, makers, provedores, markets, accommodations, attractions and activities in Australian wine and food regions.

Our aim is to showcase them and their fabulous products to the world, and to connect you with them. We are also absolutely committed to offering you huge value and fabulous service for your money.

Meet the Team

Robyn Lewis, VisitVineyards.com Founder and CEO

Robyn has over fifteen years' experience working in agriculture, tourism and marketing, backed by extensive international experience and a background in strategic planning, environmental and project management, brand development and digital marketing, in Australia and overseas. She now lives on a farm and vineyard near Hobart, Tasmania, and spends most of her time on the internet.

Robyn's deep-seated passion for food and wine began with her early cooking efforts as a child. Dining out was a regular family activity, and at age seven she was introduced to wine by the maitre d' of Florentino's, one of the fine dining restaurants her family treated her to. And so the long food and wine path to VisitVineyards.com began....  Read her full profile here.

Charles Lewis, Financial Manager

Charles has had an interest in wine since a memorable University Biology 'wine and cheese' evening, back when Hill of Grace was considered expensive at $2 per bottle. Some wines from this era still remain in Charlie’s impressive (and now more costly) wine cellar. However, tired of paying for all his wine, and anxious to take on the Henschkes, he and some friends established his own 100% Pinot Noir vineyard in 1984 at Milford, then the largest vineyard in the Coal River Valley, Tasmania (and now among the smallest).

Managing a small vineyard has led Charles to understand first-hand the problems faced by wine growers and makers. For many, wine tourism is a necessity for survival. He has developed a keen interest in this aspect of the industry, hence the establishment with Robyn of Visit Vineyards.com. Professionally he is the only specialist rural property valuer in Southern Tasmania, and has valued (and consumed the produce of) most of the major vineyards and wineries in Tasmania. He can spot an ideal viticultural site from afar and has sourced the land for several established and emerging Tasmanian vineyards. His cellar grows unabated and his pursuit of the perfect pinot continues. Meanwhile, he has given up valuation and now works for VisitVineyards.com nearly full time as FInancial Manager, when not on the farm tending the rare breed of Southdown sheep.

Sara Schwarz, Product Manager

Sara is our Product Manager and is based in the heart of wine and food country on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.  With a career in the wine industry spanning more than 10 years, Sara brings an indepth knowledge of, and passion for, the wine, food and travel sector. Sydney born and bred, Sara built a broad-ranging knowledge of wine as a researcher on James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia & NZ in 1997, followed by roles in wine export, events and marketing in Australia and the UK interspersed with work as a cellar hand and laboratory technician in wineries in South Australia and California.

In her 'dream' role as Product Manager with VisitVineyards.com Sara utilises her knowledge of the industry to find hidden treasures and - if they meet VisitVineyards.com standards - invite them to become partners. Sara is also the custodian of the VisitVineyards.com team grapevine, 'Napoleon', reputedly descended from one of the Emperor's own chasselas grapes.

Trish Brown, Web Designer and Image Librarian

Trish Brown comes from a design and photography background in NSW and has been a director of mediaRare Pty Ltd since 1997. She is mediaRare's graphic designer and business manager. Her expertise includes web design, print preparation and layout, video production and editing and project management. Trish's project management skills include 25 years running a successful design business and are the foundation of mediaRare's stability and longevity ensuring all projects run smoothly and efficiently. In her work with VisitVineyards.com, Trish brings together her love and passion for food and cooking, wine, travel, writing and editing, and all things Italian.

Graham Brown, Web Technologist

Graham Brown, one of the directors of mediaRare Pty Ltd, a specialist IT company based in Tasmania, Australia, has extensive experience in multimedia, information and communication technology design and development, and training, dating from 1994. He is VisitVineyards.com’s technology designer and programmer, and along with his web designer business partner and wife Trish, who is also our designer and image librarian. Graham’s experience includes developing programs in a wide variety of languages such as Lingo, ActionScript, JavaScript, java, .NET and php and has developed database resources using Access, Oracle, mySQL and FileMaker Pro relational databases.

He has also developed online search applications such as that on VisitVineyards.com, media distribution solutions, online community tools (chatrooms including audio/video, collaborative online presentation applications), rich internet application front ends for enterprise data sources, online calendars and event organisers and web based database administration tools. Graham's offline interests include karate, mucis composition and the history of food and feasting.

Michael Cretan, Database Consultant

Michael is a consultant in creating and managing Oracle databases with over 15 years of experience. For the past 10+ years, Mike has focused on the development and implementation of Oracle databases, using various client architectures from mainframe to client server, and in the last 8+ years, web deployment.

Mike has also acted in the capacity of Director of Information Systems for a group of Tasmanian companies, including Tasmanian Collection Services, which employ in excess of 120 staff, and he has been instrumental in guiding the strategies of these organisations during a period of rapid technological change. In between all this, and patiently answering our thousands of database and other queries, Mike finds the time to relax with his growing family on the east coast of Tasmania, renovate his house, and drink wine.

Andrew Chataway, Subscriptions Manager VisitVineyards.com and Webmaster, Winepros Archive

Andrew has a diverse background in IT/computing, which he combined with his love of wine whilst working on the legendary Winepros website from 2004-2007, and on other wine and food websites in South Australia. Andrew, a fervent 'Macintosh evangelist', is involved with online marketing affiliations, your monthly newsletter and handing your tech enquiries and login problems.

We don't know where he finds the time but he's also into sport and gaming, and can be seen on the streets of Adelaide on his new scooter, doing his bit to save the environment and partaking of his hobby, urban exploration. He is slooowly renovating his house, aided by his wife Megan and their young son Morris.

Marie-Paule Leroux, Database Development 

Marie-Paule Leroux was born near Nantes in Brittany, France.   Her career commenced with Sauvion et Fils, a Loire Valley winery, where she became export manager. In 1991 she and her winemaker husband, Alain Rousseau, migrated to Tasmania, where she established Exquisite Flavours in Hobart, a gourmet food wholesale business. In 2001, Marie-Paule was elected Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the year in the Small Business Category. She sold Exquisite Flavours in 2003 to join her husband who took a position at Sirromet near Brisbane.

In 2004, she published in France a very amusing memoir of her eleven years in Tasmania: “La Grenouille dans le Billabong”, just reprinted in English (see www.tasmania-conquest.com)  In 2005 Alain and Marie-Paule moved back to Tasmania. She works as an export sales consultant in the Pacific for two different wineries, for Old Bordeaux Wines in Victoria, and part time for Visit Vineyards.com. Alain is a winemaker for Hood Wines, Tasmania.

Kerry Scambler, Personal and Marketing/Sales Assistant

Kerry Scamber is a Tasmanian who came to us from Boags, where she was for ten years PA to the National Sales and Marketing Manager. She is hyper-efficient and always cheerful, and now ably assists Robyn, manages marketing liaison and promotions, and is reponsible for Member and customer service.  Kerry will happily assist you with any enquiries.

Kim Newstead, Marketing and Development Advisor 

Kim Newstead is the principal of Corporate and Leisure Marketing. Kim is a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute, a member of the Institute of Management Consultants and a graduate of the Harvard Business School International Marketing Institute.

He has held a number of senior marketing positions in both the private and public sectors including Marketing Executive, Australian Consolidated Industries; General Sales and Marketing Manager for Stanley Works; Marketing Director for Decor Corporation; Group Marketing Manager for the Cascade Brewery and General Manager Marketing for Tourism Tasmania. Kim has received an Advance Australia Award for service to sport and the community, and the Gold State Marketing for Excellence Award. He has been an advisor to VisitVineyards.com since our inception. He and his architect son also operate an environmentally-friendly kit home business.