Sebastian Calderon, Murray Pioneer

Riverland grape growers gathered last week to tour some of the frost-damaged vineyards at Loxton, aiming to discuss new approaches to manage the weather events, while also voicing opinions with Riverland Wine representatives regarding unknown grape prices.

The meeting started at Peter and Michelle Hill’s Loxton North property, touring their vineyards and looking at the remnants of the frosts that recently hit different parts of the Riverland.

After the first tour and speeches by Riverland Wine representatives, the group visited the Proud family vineyard to inspect similar frost damage.

Among the growers, approaches to managing frost-affected vineyards varied widely, from maintaining strong nutrients, water, and disease control inputs, to the complete removal of impacted vines.

Newly appointed Riverland Wine grower engagement officer Garry Manhire said “it’s been seven weeks since the disaster and we heard that its time to process and work out what your strategy is to move forward”.

“Everyone will have a different strategy now, there’s different damage in different vineyards, depending on which varieties you have, but I think the sooner you can talk to your wineries and let them know what your strategy might be, the better prepared you can be,” Mr Manhire said.

“We are at this time of year trying to prepare for our intake and understanding that events like this are difficult for growers, in a bid to understand what is left hanging in vineyards.

“We are actively behind the scenes talking amongst each other to try and work out what we can do and I’m out talking to growers, asking for feedback on what they think Riverland Wine can do for them.”

Riverland Wine Grape Association chair Ashley Ratcliff said it was a great sign more than 50 growers gathered to see frost damage, mentioning that all being there will help promoting more ideas on how to tackle such challenges.

“This meeting will bounce a lot of ideas off each other, but there are people concerned about what to do next in regards to winemaking since it is tough at the moment, but the real questions are basically to wine companies,” Mr Ratcliff said.

“We are trying to get wine companies to give us an indication of what prices are going to be, so that growers can decide whether to use that block or not.”

“We’d like to see some more assistance from government because we feel that has been lacking up to this, since the frost is widespread and financially it had a massive impact to the region.”

Once growers finished looking at the damage, the group reunited in the Loxton North Football Club for a barbecue, during which Riverland Wine board members shared updates on recent activities within the industry and efforts to seek early pricing indications for wineries.  

This article appeared in the  Murray Pioneer,  6 November 2024.