NSW wine grapegrowers anxious about wet weather

NSW wine grapegrowers anxious about wet weather

In the Riverina Highlands of New South Wales wine grapegrowers are feeling particularly nervous about the rain this week. Last year’s wet harvest created major disease problems across the district. Despite more rain forecast, Cathy Gairn president of the Tumbarumba Vignerons Association, is trying to remain upbeat, reports ABC Rural.

Winegrape rot isolated so far

Some winegrapes in South Australia’s Riverland have started to rot after rain and humid weather in recent days. Wet conditions damaged many grapes last season by helping vineyard diseases to spread. The weather bureau is expecting the rain to continue in the region until the end of the week, reports ABC News.

Wet weather hits wine growers hard

Wine growers in the region have copped a beating from January’s rain, with Normanby Wines only salvaging seven and a half tonnes of its usual 40-tonne yield. Neighbouring vineyard Paradine Estate has been forced to make its own wine with the tonne of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes it saved when last weekend’s weather wiped out its entire crop. For many local wine growers, small harvests have meant they could not get any grapes to Stanthorpe for pressing because they did not meet the tonnage requirements, reports the Queensland Times.

Cool-climate wines are cool

After spending time in limbo, NSW wine is now on a roll, with several years of rising sales. The trend is most marked in restaurants, bars, hotels and other places where wine is consumed ”on premise”. Research on restaurant wine lists by Wine Business Solutions shows a 22 per cent increase for NSW and ACT wines between 2010 and last year. The growth is being driven by cool-climate wines, especially from the Orange and Canberra regions, which both enjoyed growth of more than 60 per cent, writes Huon Hooke in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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