Drought, hail storms, and severe rain has left some of Australia's grape growers in dire straits for several years.
But a dramatic rise in quality seen at the 2022 Australian Small Winemakers Show (ASWS) has left judges optimistic of future barrels.
The show's president Simon Hamilton said this year's competition held in Stanthorpe received submissions from across the country and New Zealand.
"We're down on submissions from last year at around 717. We're consistently around that 800 entries mark," Mr Hamilton said.
"But what we've found is that the quality is actually high. Around 67 per cent of entries have received a medal."
Medals are awarded by a selection of senior and associate judges, and are based on the wine's quality, separate to how other wines are judged.
He said previous years' weather was a talking point, with grape growers spanning from Western Australia to the east coast.
"When we were picking last year's grapes, we (southern Queensland) were getting rain and then that delayed things. That then slows the sugar process down and then the quality can be down from that," Mr Hamilton said.
"We're still trying to get over drought, the floods, plus COVID."
What makes a good wine?
Most judges use the acronym BLIC to measure wine quality: balance of flavours, length of the flavour tasted after drinking, intensity including texture, and complexity.
Associate judge and Ballandean vintner Andrew Scott said it was based on subjectivity.
"Part of our role as judges is to keep our finger on the pulse of what is popular, successful, and what style people are trending towards," Mr Scott said.
"Obviously, the quality of wine is the wine you enjoy drinking."
Mr Scott said each wine's impact from severe weather depended on its variety.
"For example, the 2022 wines will typically start to be released in the next month or two, and that will apply to your fresh, young, light, early drinking styles," he said.
"Your more serious drinking styles will start to be released next year. Then some very big styles of red wine might take two or three years before they hit the market.
"Producing wine could take anything from eight months to three years."
The majority of small winemaker varieties submitted to this year's ASWS competition were one to two years old and have been produced under challenging conditions.
"Certainly, wines from 2019 in Queensland was a tough vintage because of the drought," Mr Scott said.
He recalled the following year was characterised by "raging bushfires", while during 2021-22 it was "pretty wet on the east coast".
"But if you compare that with 2021 vintages from South Australia, they had a fantastic year. So, it was really hard to judge," he said
Although medal recipients were higher despite the severe weather, Mr Scott said he had noticed a trend of small winemakers submitting wines they knew would take a medal.
Nevertheless, he said it showed a future of small winemakers marketing higher quality wines.
Aussie wine tastes changing
A small winemaker is classified as anyone who produces 500 tonnes of grapes or less.
"Although there are a large amount of small winemakers in Australia, it definitely doesn't account for the majority of wine produced," Mr Scott said.
"The big players in the supermarkets own such a large slice of the pie that any changes don't relate to them yet."
But a changing of the guard in wine drinking habits could hold an advantage for smaller producers, according to Mr Scott.
Australia's younger population have been found to drink less than other generations, but small winemakers have noticed an increased appetite for more expensive, different varieties, and higher quality wine.
"Volume hasn't grown very much, but the value of wine consumed has grown," Mr Scott said.
"Millennials aren't going to find their favourite Sav Blanc and stick to it. They're going to go out to drink new and different things.
"I think it's going to be increasingly important to have smaller winemakers, because they can play around with new and different things."
