'Real cracker of a year': local winemakers look forward to purple patch

According to Balgownie Estate senior wine maker Tony Winspear, vineyards around the region have been reporting "fantastic fruit set with excellent bunch weights across all their different varieties" thanks to "good soaking regular, well spaced rains right the way through spring".

The season was "completely the opposite to 2023," he said.

"If I was putting a grading on it, I'd be saying nine out of 10 for the whites and nine out of 10 for the reds.

"Just a real cracker of a year!"

Across the board there was joy and relief at the cancellation announced late last month of the 200 per cent-plus Chinese tariffs which torpedoed Australia's wine export industry when it was introduced at the height of diplomatic tensions in 2020.

"We were exporting 30 per cent of the Australian vintage to China before the tariffs were put in place," Mr Winspear said.

"With China opening its doors up again, it's just a really big fillip for the industry and we can all put our heads down and bums up and start selling our very best wine back to the Chinese. They'll love it."

The Maiden Gully winemaker said Balgownie had a Chinese importer "champing at the bit to put an order in".

Bendigo Wine Association president Wes Vine was also celebrating the news, but cautioned about the time it could take to build the $1 billion trade up again.

"A lot of us were pretty severely impacted but I think we've managed to survive it through diversifying into different grape varieties and looking at doing things differently," he said.

"The only thing I'd say about the China situation is that they have been buying most of their wines through Europe in our absence so I don't think they'll necessarily be coming back full steam ahead.

"It took us two or three years last time to get things up to speed and I don't think it'll be any different this time."

But Australian winemakers' diversification into varieties other than shiraz might work in their favour with Chinese buyers, given tastes had changed there, as they had elsewhere, over the past few years.

Bridgewater-based winemaker David Lawson, from Black Wallaby, also believed "palettes ha[d] changed over the last two or three years".

"Wine styles have shifted," he said.

The small scale vineyard Mr Lawson runs with his wife, Jayne, specialises in shiraz and sangiovese but they were looking at grafting over some vines and trying a few different styles, including more Italian varietals and whites, he said.

"We need to get some of those in the ground because that's what people are interested in at the moment.

"White wines seem to be on the move."

While no industry was immune from the current cost of living challenges, reduction in demand doesn't seem to have hit the local market too hard, the winegrowers said.

Black Wallaby sells online, at a few IGA supermarkets and through local restuarants and bars, Mr Lawson said, and very much appreciated the local support.

The vineyard was one of around 20 taking part in the Strategem Bendigo Winemakers Festival at Rosalind Park on Saturday.

Mr Lawson said he and Jayne would be taking seven wines to the event, including three named after their three young daughters.

"We'll be taking our Albino, which is a blend of chardonnay and viognier, our Sparkling Rosé, named after our middle daughter Madelyn, our Ruby Rosé, named after our eldest daughter, and we've got Sylvie Sangiovese, named after our youngest daughter.

"We'll also have a grenache form Heathcote and a couple of different shirazes."

The girls, aged 5, 8 and 10, were "very happy" to have their wines featured at the fair, their father said.

"It's always a competition when we go to these festivals to see who sells the best."

A big event on the regional wine community's calendar, the Strategem Bendigo Winemakers Festival will feature more than 100 local wines, local live music, and for the second year, a grape stomp event.

According to Tony Winspear, organisers had "booked in a perfect day" for the event, which is a fundraiser for the Bendigo Wine Association.

"It looks like it's going to be 21 degrees and we're expecting a really good crowd," he said.

"Really the festival just goes from strength to strength as people fall in love with what is a revitalised Bendigo wine industry."