Fire takes toll on wineries

ONE winery has been destroyed and many vineyards have been lost as Victoria's Yarra Valley wine growers begin to count the cost of bushfires that have devastated the region since Saturday.

The Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association estimates about 80 hectares of vineyards in the area have been damaged or destroyed in Saturday's inferno.

The organisation says there won't be any crops harvested from the vineyards this year.

However, the group also says the area destroyed is only 3 per cent of the total vineyards and much of the valley's unaffected.

AAP