Four months after an unseasonable frost event wiped out vineyards across southeastern parts of the country, growers in South Australia say they're feeling optimistic about the quality this season's vintage. Yields are expected to be down significantly, and some producers say that will affect local economies.
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00:00Hidden among the vines, Michael Keyes reveals bunches of Riesling grapes.
00:08It's the glimmer of hope the fifth generation vineyard needed after a devastating start
00:13to the season.
00:14I'm feeling a lot better, a lot more optimistic now than I was a few months ago.
00:20Back then, his Barossa Valley vineyard looked like this.
00:24Everything was burnt off.
00:25We had 100% burn off.
00:27We're here on top of a hill and we got burnt off with the frost on top of the hill and
00:31normally the frost follows like a water course.
00:37So it was the worst frost I'd ever seen.
00:40The multi-day frost event extended over the southeast of the country during September.
00:45A lot of extra care has gone into Mr Keyes' vineyard since then, though he may only still
00:51yield up to 40% of a normal crop.
00:55Time, money, diesel, everything.
01:00It's all extra, but we don't have a choice.
01:02We have to do it.
01:04In the Riverland, grower Eric Semler considers himself one of the lucky ones, even after
01:10losing about 90% of his berry vineyard.
01:14I know of growers who have been harder hit by the frost events this last spring and because
01:21we're a winery, we still have product to sell so our business can go on.
01:26Mr Semler says he's mostly concerned about the damage the frost will do to the local
01:31economy.
01:32It has a huge impact on regional business and I would suspect it will be two or three
01:37years before that starts to recover or turn around.
01:42The state government has denied financial aid to frost hit farmers, but it hopes satellite
01:47imagery will capture the extent of the damage and help growers prepare for future events.
01:53We have all sorts of challenges all the time.
01:56We keep bouncing back and the outlook for the wine industry is quite enthusiastic.
02:01A resilient industry hoping to come back better than ever.