Few family businesses survive beyond a second generation. Fewer still make it to a fifth.
Yet in the Hunter Valley, Tyrrell's Wines has remained family-owned since English immigrant Edward Tyrrell planted the vineyard's first vines in 1858.
More than 165 years later, the winery is one of the country’s most recognised family-owned wine businesses, producing internationally acclaimed drops from vineyards that include some of the oldest continually producing vines in Australia.
Today, fifth-generation family member and Chief Executive Officer Chris Tyrrell is helping guide the business through a period of profound change, both for the winery and the broader industry.
He believes longevity alone is not something to celebrate.
"Someone said to me a long time ago, you're either old, you're new or you're relevant," he recalls.
"And you've got to be two of them."
Relevance, he argues, has become just as important as heritage.
"I think a lot of people in older businesses get so stuck in their ways," Tyrrell says.
"One thing we've been pretty good at is that each generation of our family has found a way to innovate.”
Today, that means telling the family's story more deliberately.
"We've sort of reverse-engineered it and really started playing on that authenticity piece," he says.
"In a world where so much stuff's fake and virtual, having something that's grown and made by people, in a place they're specialists in, is really important."
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Tyrrell's Winery, Hunter Valley, New South Wales.
Preserving history by talking about it differently
The winery is home to some of Australia's oldest producing vines, with some vineyard blocks dating back to the 19th century.
Rather than focusing solely on what's in the bottle, Tyrrell says the business has shifted its attention to the story behind it.
"We have these amazing old resources, the vines," he says.
"It's preserving those, but it's also how we're taking them to market."
"Before, we'd forever be talking about the wine. Whereas now all we talk about is how old the vines are, the story of the people who planted them and why they're important."
Consumer expectations are changing in this space. Increasingly, customers want to understand where products come from, who makes them, and the history behind them. The fact that Tyrrell's history spans five generations has become a competitive advantage, rather than just a point of difference.
And the strategy appears to be resonating, particularly with younger consumers.
"What I'm seeing is that the younger generation is really drawn to that," he says.
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Chris Tyrrell, CEO of Tyrrell's Wine
Navigating a wine industry under pressure
While Tyrrell's continues to grow, the broader wine sector faces significant headwinds.
"The wine industry is in a world of pain," Tyrrell admits.
An oversupply of wine, shrinking consumer demand and rising costs are creating difficult conditions across the industry.
"It's too many wineries, too many brands," he says.
"Australia doesn't make bad wine. There's just not a market for all of it."
At the same time, businesses are grappling with inflation and the challenge of improving productivity while maintaining strong workplace cultures.
In periods of disruption, trusted relationships become even more important.
Tyrrell's has worked with ANZ across generations, with the relationship recently celebrating 150 years. It’s proudly one of the bank's longest-standing agribusiness customers.
For Tyrrell, those partnerships prove their worth when conditions become difficult.
"The good times are easy," he says.
"If there's an issue, you lean on the relationship. It's a lot easier to work through a problem when there's that knowledge-base on both sides."
The lesson, according to Chris Tyrrell is straightforward: preserving heritage matters - but staying relevant is what ensures that heritage endures.