Blue skies for wine industry, but dark clouds on the horizon

Not a drop of rain fell on Hunter Valley vineyards for most of the summer and the grapes so overdosed on sun winemaker Rodney Kempe is convinced this will be one of the better harvest in his 16 years at Pokolbin’s Lake’s Vineyard. “Textbook stuff,” Kempe says. “Not a cloud, very dry, nice and warm. It’s been ideal.” The 2016 harvest has just been picked and the Hunter had its best Easter ever, with tourists flooding in, but across the world the wine industry is undergoing massive upheaval.