In 1995, Jeff Byrne a Canadian from Nova Scotia made the decision to take a year off school and travel to the Gold Coast, Australia with some buddies. One evening Jeff and his mates were leaving Broadbeach for Surfers Paradise and shared a maxi taxi with a group of girls, an important time in history for Byrne Farm as one of the girls, Bridgette is now Jeff’s wife!

After getting married in 2000, Jeff & Bridgette made the move to the Hunter Valley where Jeff started his career in winemaking, working for the newly built Tower Estate owned by a consortium led by the wine legend Len Evans. During his 8 years at Tower, Jeff completed his Wine Science degree at Charles Sturt university in Wagga Wagga and with Bridgette had three daughters Caitlin, Lauren and Bree.

In 2008 Jeff joined the Agnew Wines family where he became the Chief Winemaker overseeing the production of Audrey Wilkinson, Poole’s Rock and Cockfighert’s Ghost wines for 11 years. Over this time, Jeff had the opportunity to do two Vintages in Burgundy, both at Domaine D’Eugenie, which solidified his love affair with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. He was a scholar at the 2009 Len Evans Tutorial and has become a leading judge in the Australian wine show system, currently the Chair of the NSW Small Winemakers Show.

In 2019 Jeff and Bridgette made the decision to make a ’tree-change’ leaving their Newcastle beach suburb of Stockton for Orange NSW, a cool climate area Jeff had long admired after many years of purchasing fruit and making wines from the region and which also has a strong resemblance to Nova Scotia.