Wine support
AGrampians tourism leader has urged the region to make the most of healthy stocks of high-quality wine to support wine producers and makers devastated by frost.
Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said people could help ensure the region maintained its standing as one of the best wine regions in Australia and the world by simply visiting cellar doors.
He said freakish late-season frost that wreaked widespread havoc on a variety of regional crops on November 3 had also destroyed much of the expected Grampians wine vintage.
But he quickly added there was plenty of ‘exceptional’ wine in storage and circumstances presented an ideal opportunity for people to show their support for the Grampians industry.
“Yes this frost has pretty much destroyed the vintage and it is something the winegrowers and makers won’t fully feel until 12 months down the track. But it hasn’t destroyed the will of our local winemakers to continue to make the best wines in Victoria,” he said.
“The industry has endured this type of weather event in the past and bounced back, and the reality is that there is a lot of confidence in the quality of what’s happening in the Grampians.
“Sometimes we’re not quite sure if people realise just how good the wineries are in the Grampians.
“Of the 800 wineries in Victoria, less than eight percent are five-star James Halliday-rated.
“In the Grampians that figure climbs to more than 50 percent. In saying that, it is the support from the region that can help the industry rebound strongly. The vintage might be down but the cellar door is still open.”
The frost, one of the latest recorded in the region, caused severe damage to a wide cross-section of crops across the region and beyond.
Historic Best’s Great Western winery, dating back to the mid-1800s, was among Grampians vineyards hit hard, losing about 25 hectares of grapes.
Managing director and vineyard manager Ben Thomson, who has been busy trying to nurse vines back to health since the frost, said efforts now involved getting the vines to be as productive again as quickly as possible.
“The hard part for us is that it is a long-term hit and will affect our wine sales deep into next year and 2019,” Mr Thomson said.
“You work all year and you think everything is going well and then suddenly Mother Nature comes along. “But it’s not the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last.” Mr Thomson said he felt for everyone who had suffered any type of major crop loss and echoed Mr Sleeman’s call for the region to support the industry through cellar-door sales.
“We’d like to think that when the chips are down that everyone comes together in support – not just for us but everyone in the region,” he said. “It’s a good time to sample wine. The 2017 vintage was very good, with good volumes and the opportunity to pick up something pretty special is quite high.
“Visiting a winery and buying a bottle or two, while perhaps getting a wine experience now, will help in the long run.”
Widespread damage
Many broadacre grain growers, who had been hopeful of solid back-to-back harvests, felt the full blow of the brief but destructive cold snap.
Victorian Farmers Federation president and Wimmera grower David Jochinke said Wimmera legume crops had been hit particularly hard and further south there had been damage to cereals and canola.
“It is very hard to take. At least there might still be some volume out there, but the truth is it would have only been worse if this was a drought year – which would have been gut-wrenching,” he said.
“There is no real silver lining in a late frost. The hope is that growers have had adequate diversity in their cropping portfolios and that some cereals have come through relatively unscathed.
“Unfortunately the old adage that you haven’t really got a crop until you’ve got it off rings so true.”