Owner of Mandurang Valley Winery, Wes Vine, expects to produce about 2500 cases of wine this year, after frosts destroyed his 2007 crop.

He said last week’s heatwave had spoilt an otherwise perfect growing season.

‘‘This season had excellent potential, but I think the hot weather of the last week has pushed the fruit along too quickly,’’ he said.

‘‘When you get heat like this you can’t get water into grape vines quick enough because the transpiration rate through the leaf is faster than the plants intake through the root.’’ Mr Vine said the heat caused the grapes to shrink and shrivel.

He expects the conditions to affect grape flavour rather than quantity.

Ideally, each variety of grape ripens at a different time, but Mr Vine said the unexpected March heat had meant the bulk of the grapes were now ready for harvest.

With the heat expected to stretch into next week, Mr Vine said he had been ‘‘picking like crazy’’ at the weekend.

‘‘We’ve had a vineyard here since 1976 - we’ve never processed grapes this early,’’ he said.

Bridgewater winemaker Bill Trevaskis, of Water Wheel Vineyard, believes the onset of climate change has altered the region’s grape industry forever.

Water Wheel cut out half of its potential crop this season because of a lack of rain.

And Mr Trevaskis said salt damage on the leaves had started to become a problem.

‘‘We’re starting to pick fruit now in the middle of February, whereas only about three years back we began our pick in early March,’’ he said.

Water Wheel has also reassessed the variety of grapes it grows.

Mr Trevaskis said early ripe varieties such as pinot noir were no longer suitable for vineyards in the Bendigo region.

‘‘We planted one variety which is quite late ripening, which in the past wasn’t suitable for this area because it wouldn’t have had time to ripen properly, but now it’s probably a good option.’’ Anyone looking for picking work should contact Wes Vine at Mandurang Valley Winery on 5439 5367.