Wine grape harvesters have been rumbling through Sunraysia vineyards for the past two months but not all of the grapes that are picked will make their way to wineries.
Cardross wine grape grower Russell Lynch has just let 130 tonnes of shiraz drop to the ground because it was not worth anything.
Only two years ago, Mr Lynch was paid $700 a tonne for his crop, while last year it was $400 a tonne.
"Unfortunately, I didn't have a contract for this property."
The uncontracted shiraz accounts for just 10 per cent of Mr Lynch's harvest, meaning 90 per cent of the grapes he has grown would be made into wine.
"I've had bumper crops in chardonnay, so that will take some of the pressure off," he said.
Mr Lynch, who also runs a grape harvesting business, has several other growers on his books who were looking at dumping their fruit.
"It's mostly shiraz, cabernet and merlot [and] after Easter we'll go through and knock it on the ground," he said.
No home for '15,000 tonnes'
At Trentham Estate, about 4,000 tonnes of grapes were crushed during vintage — a similar amount to previous years.
Managing director Anthony Murphy said he had continued taking grapes from his regular suppliers.
"Certainly there's been plenty of growers ringing up trying to place fruit," he said.
China trade dispute continues
Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Tony Battaglene said a number of issues had led to red grapes being in oversupply.
"That means a $1.2 billion market is closed."
The industry was also struggling to export wine overseas because shipping had been disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"There is no short-term fix, but market diversification is obviously what we are targeting, so we've been looking at where we can get into other markets," Mr Battaglene said.
He added that this year's vintage would be close to the long-term average of between 1.7 or 1.75 million tonnes crushed.
It follows a record vintage during 2021 when more than two million tonnes of grapes were crushed.
