Rich pickings for wineries in 2009

It's that time of year when viticulturists and winemakers prepare to reap the rewards of a hard year's work and harvest their wine grapes.

This vintage, Queensland vineyards are expected to yield around 5000 tonnes for the industry, which supports 180 wineries in the State, according to Queensland Wine Industry Association executive officer Sharon Rowlings.

Ms Rowlings said the industry had seen lower tonnages across the State in the past few years because of climatic conditions such as drought and hailstorms, and similar circumstances had been seen across the industry in the rest of the country as well.

But despite the lower yields, the industry is growing, with wineries and vineyards expanding.

"The industry is definitely growing and we are now collecting more accolades.

"Last year Heritage Estate took out the Winestate magazine's wine of the year," Ms Rowlings said.

The largest growing area in the State is the Granite Belt, which includes towns such as Stanthorpe, Ballendean, Glen Aplin and the Summit.

The Granite Belt wine region is expected to harvest between 2000 and 2500t of wine grapes this year, producing 1.9 million bottles of wine.

Despite some hail damage last month, the crops are looking very good for the upcoming vintage, according to Granite Belt Wine and Tourism wine chairwoman Leeane Gangemi.

"Conditions on the Granite Belt look good for vintage, thanks to substantial rainfall in November, which helped growers to establish good vineyard canopies with plenty of leaves to ripen the crop," Ms Gangemi said.

"More recently, some properties suffered crop loss from hail storms before Christmas and on Christmas day itself.

"However, the hail came early enough in the season that the quality of most of the remaining crop should not be greatly affected."

The major varieties grown in Queensland are chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and shiraz - some of the most popular consumer varieties.

The State's wine industry is a relatively niche market as it is, but some producers such as Andy and Beth Boullier from Wild Soul have taken it even further. Wild Soul is an organic vineyard - the only one in the Granite Belt - and is south of Stanthorpe at Glen Aplin.

The Boulliers don't just toil away in their vineyard all the time though, they are also busy winemaking, producing their own organic wine sold through a cellar door on the property.

The vineyard produces red varieties including shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

"You can't really make a living off three acres of wine grapes, so that is why we decided to expand into the winery and go organic," Mr Boullier said.

"It is a lot of manual work, as everything is done by hand and we rely greatly on the weather – we don't even irrigate.

"But it is rewarding to see all your hard work go into the product."

Other major wine-growing regions in Australia are expected to have average to below average yields, with irrigation allocations low in some areas, such as Victoria, and some hail damage recorded.

But despite the lower yields, numbers are still huge in comparison to those of Queensland, with the top three areas - Riverland, Murray Valley and the Riverina - all expected to produce more than 300,000t each.