Big worries for Uralla winemaker

For almost the entire last year the winemaker woke at dawn, forced by drought to hand feed his sheep.

By the time he was home for a coffee his RFS pagers would be going off, drawing him to the latest out-of-control blaze.

He'd spend the rest of the day battling blazes with the Kentucky RFS brigade finishing at 2 or 3 o'clock the next morning, just in time for another dawn alarm.

At one point the 65 year old was almost blown up. ("I didn't know diesel tanks exploded," he said).

"From June to Christmas I did something like 50 days firefighting," he said.

"We virtually had 12 months of fire around here - from Christmas to Christmas.

"In the finish I limited myself to only three days a week (fighting fires). It was too much on my body."

The RFS officer has since hung up his fire-singed uniform.

But even with the fires out the winemaker can hardly rest.

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And even basking in greenery after a record-wet February, the drought goes on for the local boutique wine industry.

The 20 year veteran winemaker, who essentially runs the little local vineyard on his own, cannot remember a worse year for his farm.

And property records dating back to the 1840s confirm his eyeball estimate, he said. They've never had less rain, more smoke or worse bushfires.

That means his winery will not bottle a drop in 2020; a "marvelous big crop" will go completely to waste. They did not harvest a crop last year either.

Their cellar door suffered as well, with bushfire smoke keeping local residents indoors for most of the end of last year including Christmas. The winery now only opens by appointment.

Instead a side business in sheep has kept him afloat: "we thought the grapes would keep the sheep but the sheep have kept the grapes," he said.

At the tail end of a horror summer he's considering selling up, he told the Leader frankly.

"I've just about had enough of the rural side of things.

"Every time you turn around the government's tearing the boot into you wanting to tax you or some environmental group wanting to restrict what you can do and what you can't do.

"We've got to consider (selling the business). How long can you keep pouring money into things?

"I'm not getting any younger."

But as for the New England's boutique wine industry more broadly he said local winemakers are tough.

"The ones that are here now are probably going to say. We're used to fighting and battling on."

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