Spring Vale Vineyards on Tasmania's East Coast

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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!

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.

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.)

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