The Chairman of Macquarie Valley Food and Wine, Ken Borchardt, says the entire grape harvest in Dubbo, worth around $3 million, has been wiped out by mildew and disease from the wet weather late last year.
The founder of the Red Earth Estate says some growers are pulling out vines and planning to grow cherries and other fruit crops instead of grapes. Mr Borchardt says the tighter competition could be a positive for wine makers.
"If the weekend warriors, or those that didn't take the industry serious were out, it would definitely open doors for us in reference to markets," he said. "Also if the amount of fruit or wine produced for Australia was decreased, we could actually start earning a little bit better dollars (per pallet).
"Then we could get into the marketplace and market what Australia's very good at, producing premium high quality wines."Mr Borchardt says despite this year's loss there will be wine as some cellars are releasing stock they have held since 2008. He says growers are now looking towards next year's harvest.
"The vines right now are not as stressed due to it having produced fruit. "They've had a very good growing period, our vines are mostly right now, they've never looked so healthy, so that's preparing the vines mostly for next year. "So 2012 could be a bumper harvest, subject to moisture and humidity of course," he said.
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