Grapes lost but spirits unbroken for rain-affected vineyards

For many NSW wine producers, the recent deluge of rain across the state means this year's vintage will be particularly challenging. In some regions, water-damaged grapes simply won't be picked at all.

"The first region in Australia that picks is the Hunter Valley," says Mark Bourne, president of the NSW Wine Industry Association. "They got all their whites off the vines in really good condition and were halfway through the reds before the rains really set in a couple of weeks ago."

The Southern Highlands – where Bourne owns Cuttaway Hill Wine and co-owns biodynamic brand Tractorless Vineyard – wasn't so lucky.

"We won't pick anything this year," says Dave Lorentz, owner of Cherry Tree Hill in Sutton Forest. "We've still got fruit here, but unfortunately it's not going to be usable for anything."

Lorentz's father Gabi established the Cherry Tree Hill estate and boutique wine brand in 2000.

"It's the third challenging year in a row," Lorentz says. "After the fires in 2020 we picked three tonnes of fruit rather than the normal 70. Last year, it rained quite a lot during harvest and again this year. My manager has been with us for 35 years and has never seen it this wet.

"Two years ago, it was so dry we had to sell most of our cattle."

When conditions are right, the Southern Highlands is an ideal location for growing exceptional pinot noir, riesling, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. The high altitude, cool climate area is dotted with small, boutique family-run wineries.

It is a close-knit community and like most of his peers, Lorentz refuses to be defeated.

"We've had a lot of good [vintages] as well. I love this industry but it's been tough over the past few years. A lot of people around Australia are getting disillusioned."

At Mittagong's Artemis Wines, run by siblings Anton and Mark Balog, cellar door manager Krystal Meindl described the past year as "chaos".

"On Tuesday we had nearly 180 millilitres in 24 hours," she says. "We are situated on top of a hill so the cellar door and winery itself hasn't really experienced any flooding. Not everyone has been so lucky. The region has been hit pretty hard."

Most vineyards prefer winter rain when the plants are dormant, whereas summer rain adds disease pressure to grapes. Clean, ripe fruit is the aim but during heavy rainfall, vines take up water too quickly, which pops the berries and makes them unusable.

In 2020, Artemis picked their pinot noir early and used it to make rosé. "We've just had to be flexible, think on our feet and work out what we can make out of this terrible situation," says Meindl.

"We just haven't had enough heat for anything to ripen. It's really unfortunate because we get a lot of fruit from Tumbarumba and they were hit quite hard as well."

Artemis will now use fruit picked on Wednesday to make brandy. "We're a distillery too, so we're pretty lucky to be a little bit more flexible," says Meindl.

Cherry Tree Hill also has grape spirits on the horizon. "We were forced into it," says Lorentz.

"The smoke tainted fruit that came off a couple of years ago [from bushfires] was unusable for wine so we decided to make gin out of it. We have some lovely gins hitting the market in the next couple of months."

Spirit production isn't an option for Craig Moxey, whose Tertini Wines brand is focused purely on premium wine and tastings.

"The road to our cellar door caved in and disappeared this week," Moxey says. "Fortunately, it's not the only access point so we've spent the past few days buying gravel and rocks to fill in holes so customers can still find their way to us."

Moxey, too, is optimistic. "The Tertini family has farm rainfall records from the 1800s and what it shows us is that after every drought there is a wet period. After that wet period, we normally get a good run of consistently dry years before the next drought.

"Hopefully this is the worst of it over, and for the next six or seven years we might get back to more average rainfall. If that's wrong and we have another one of these events next year, then wine stock will definitely be under extreme pressure."

Consistent rainfall and cooler weather has led to a delayed harvest (between three and four weeks) across the board in NSW this year.

"Anybody off the coastal strip and on the immediate Great Dividing Range hasn't received the heavy rainfall that the coastal strip has, so they're looking in pretty good shape and they need it," says Bourne.

"It's been four years of challenging climatic years. There seems to be an increasing frequency of these extreme weather events. It's providing a real challenge on how we run a wine business in the future."

Southern Highlands cellar doors remain open this weekend and Artemis has live music lined up for Sunday. Tertini will serve complimentary cheese platters with tastings, typical of the generosity of spirit the NSW wine industry is known for.

"It's an old chestnut but we're a resilient bunch," Bourne says. "I'm an eternal optimist as most farmers are, but I think once the weather calms down, people will return. Diversity is one of our big strengths.

"NSW has 350 cellar doors across 16 totally different climatic regions. We really encourage people to get out and revisit, reconnect and recharge themselves in regional areas.

"Vintage is just kicking off at Mudgee, Orange and Canberra around the Murrumbateman area. They haven't had the rain that we have in the Southern Highlands, so it's a good time to see all the action."