Having grown grapes for 35 years, Bendigo Winegrowers Association president Wes Vine has noticed the changes to rainfall levels and the start of the growing season – byproducts of a changing climate.

The Mandurang Valley Wines winemaker said climate change was not just about warming temperatures, but about the variability of each season.

“In the 1970s, you could grow grape vines in this region with natural rainfall. But now, if you don’t have irrigation, it is very difficult,” he said.

“Here at Mandurang Valley Wines, we had a front on October 18, 2013, leading up to the 2014 vintage.

“We just weren’t expecting a frost at that late stage and it wiped out the crop.”

The region’s winemakers are expecting a second consecutive early vintage, after temperatures were far higher than average for the month of October.

The average temperature for the month in Bendigo was 27.4 – seven degrees higher than the long-term average.

Mr Vine said the grape was always a good indicator of what was happening with the climate.

“We now have increasing unpredictability and a shorter growing season,” he said.

“Shortened hang time for the fruit means more difficulty in achieving desirable fruit flavours.”

Some winemakers in the region have started to experiment with grape varieties normally grown in hotter Mediterranean climates, while others begin to plant further south.

Mr Vine has thrown his support behind a climate march in Bendigo later this month, organised by the Bendigo Sustainability Group with the support of international aid and development agency Caritas Australia.

The group hopes to join co-ordinated marches across the globe ahead of the international climate talks in Paris in late November.

BSG president Chris Corr said the evidence from the prominent local winemaker showed no region would be unaffected by a changing climate.

He said the march would allow “everyone who feels powerless in the face of climate change” to have a voice.

The march will begin from in front of the Bendigo Library on November 27.