Armidale winemaker Shaun Cassidy said without good rain Merilba Estate could be forced to source grapes from out of the New England region, but they will still make and sell product in 2020.

That's even after a "shocking" shortfall in rainfall in 2019 - a drought twice as bad as the next worst in its history.

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Their biggest impost: they will have to go and source fruit. They may even be forced to go outside the New England for white grapes for the first time - but he said he hopes that won't be necessary.

And financially Mr Cassidy said they will be able to get through the season selling old wine at the cellar door and through bottleshops.

But one local winery was directly hit by the 2019 bushfires: Topper's Mountain wines.

The award-winning vineyard lost about 15 per cent of their vines in a blaze last February.

But even Topper's says in the short term it was actually the drought that had a worse impact. Wine manager Jan Taborsky estimated even vineyards with irrigation would be producing at most half of their average annual harvest. Wineries without irrigation would have zero.

But for those local wineries that can harvest locally there's another threat: fire taint.

Smoke can contaminate grapes on the vine and make wine undrinkable. In a region that spent around three months blanketed in thick fire smoke, it's a real threat, though very random.

But Merilba Managing director Shaun Cassidy said the industry will inevitably recover for one reason: millennials.

He said Australians below 30 have an insatiable demand for boutique alcohol products.

"(That) generation has been a godsend to people like us. They're interested in craft beer, they're interested in craft spirits, boutique wines.

"There's a segment of (that) generation that loves it, and they want to know about it and they want to meet the maker."

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