Out of the fires

The tragic Central Victorian fires have had a devastating effect on many small wineries with ongoing financial and personal challenges likely to linger for many years to come. The loss of wineries, stock, cellars doors and vineyards is a cruel blow for any winery. For the 30 small businesses, their families and the towns that rely on them, this is an incredibly difficult time, especially as the press has moved on and the vignerons are now left to deal with incredible challenges. Now is really the time where they need our help the most, especially from our industry and customers as a whole.

Victorian wine writers Jeni Port and Lisa Cardelli have spent the last fortnight talking to all the affected wineries to document not only their own personal stories but also how we can help, whether it is visiting their cellar doors, making a donation or simply buying a case of wine. Please read their stories and buy a case to help assist these wineries with their recovery.

A Glass Of

For a business originally founded by sommeliers with the aim of championing independent winemakers through a curated selection of wines, served in 200ml pouches at affordable prices, the devastating Harcourt fires hit even harder.

As advised via email on 15 January, the business has been completely destroyed.

“We lost all our pouches, the machinery that fills them, packaging, well, everything except the laptop I’m writing this email on and a phone,” wrote founder Paul Taylor.

If you’d like to support, there is still some Nick Spencer Chardonnay, Mercer Wines Pinot Noir and Gilbert Rosé available at Dan Murphy’s and selected BWS stores in the eastern states. Alternatively, you can donate via GoFundMe at aglassof.com.

“We’re still here. In everything bad, there’s an opportunity if you look hard enough. Write and tell us what you liked about what we were doing. Most importantly, now’s the time to tell us what we can do better, or what we should be doing that we weren’t.”

You can reach them at hello@aglassof.com.

Antcliff’s Chase

Strathbogie Ranges

One of the hardest hit wine producers in the recent Longwood fires, Antcliffs Chase is going to take some time to recover from the devastation. While much of the vineyard miraculously survived, Chris and Susan Bennett lost everything else including their house, winery and all wine stock. With approximately 90% of the vineyard saved, the race is on to get an army of pickers in and to source a winery able to take and process the fruit, including 10t of riesling. Chris Bennett has grown crisp riesling and elegant pinot noir, among a range of wines dubbed “wine with altitude” in the Strathbogies for 45 years, but counts it as lucky that there is a small amount of wine due to be bottled soon and, so there will be some wine for sale in the immediate future.

Website: antcliffschasewines.com

Belvoir Park Estate

Belvoir Park Estate is located in the Bendigo wine region and is a small wine producer concentrating on a trio of grape varieties: cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and riesling. It is believed to have been affected by the recent fires, but little is known at this stage. Its vineyard is located near Ravenswood, the site of significant bushfires.

Website: belvoirparkestate.com.au

Blackjack Wines

Bendigo

Ian McKenzie, co-owner/winemaker at Blackjack Wines says despite losing all of his museum stock going back to 1992 in the Harcourt Coolstore fire, he can still regard himself as “fortunate.” “The fire got to Blackjack Road, which is spitting distance from the vineyard, and stopped,” he says. “It didn’t cross the road. I don’t know how or why, but it didn’t.” The vineyard, cellar door and winery are safe and McKenzie and business partner, Ken Pollock, have wine ready to be bottled and, importantly, to sell. Also lost in the coolstore fire was most of the ’21 and ’22 Mr Ramoy shiraz, the producer’s top shiraz. Blackjack was founded by McKenzie and Pollock in 1987 and has established a reputation for warm hearted, honest reds.

Blackjack offers cellar door wine sales
Buy online at blackjackwines.com.au

Bress

Bendigo

Bress hit the wine scene in 2001 with a mighty splash and a strong sustainability and biodynamic message under experienced Australian and international winemaker, Adam Marks. It was ahead of its time. It went on to produce not only wines from across Central Victoria with vineyards in Macedon Ranges and Heathcote in addition to the 27ha home vineyard and winery at Harcourt, but also award-winning cider, olives, honey and vegetables. The Gold Chook label wines regularly took out 95+/gold medal scores with reviewers. Marks sold Bress and its Central Victorian properties in 2020 to Tim and Di Robertson at nearby Lome Vineyard and Chris McCormack. Bress and Lome Vineyard share the same cellar at the Bress winery site. The January 9 fires came down hard on Harcourt and Bress/Lome lost winery buildings. The cellar door was fortunately saved but has now been closed. Bress also lost large quantities of stock in the Harcourt Coolstore. It’s going to be a long road to recovery for the small producer.

Buy online at bress.com.au

Burke And Wills Winery

Heathcote

Andrew Pattison is well-known in Melbourne music circles as the founder of The Troubadour music venue which thrived in the 1980s. While he diverged into making wine, first at Lancefield Winery in the Macedon Ranges and now Burke And Wills Winery in Heathcote, he has always made live music an essential part of the wine experience, hosting live music events throughout the year. While his vineyard remained fire free during the recent fires, he was hit hard with the loss of 768 cases of wine in the Harcourt Coolstore fire, including large quantities of “Mr Burke’s Favourite Big Red,” his biggest selling wine. The loss represents three quarters of Burke And Wills Winery’s annual production.

Burke And Wills Winery offers cellar door wine sales, music events, farm lunches (with notice)
Buy online at: wineandmusic.net

Byronsvale

As a small, family-owned and managed winery based in Maiden Gully, just seven?km from Bendigo, Byronsvale was purchased in 2016 by a couple in their 80s with the strong wish of finally retiring. They spent the past nine years restoring the oldest vineyard in Bendigo, originally planted in 1968 by then-owner Byron Andrews with the guidance of Stuart Anderson (of Balgownie Estate), only to be hit hard by the recent Harcourt Cool Store fire. “Sadly, we’ve lost five years’ worth of work, our vintages from 2021–2025 were stored there. The past year has been incredibly tough. I’ve lost both my father and our Master Winemaker, Lindsay Ross. I won’t pretend I’m not feeling nervous,” admits owner and manager Denise Langford.

Although the current ownership is relatively new, Byronsvale’s history traces back to 1860, when the winery stables were commissioned by one of Bendigo’s first mayors, David Chaplin Sterry, to accommodate his eight horses. If you fancy spending a weekend at these heritage-listed stone stables, jump onto byronsvale.com.au. While there, you can sip on classic examples of Central Victoria Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon. “I have so many stories to share, yet most Bendigonians don’t even know we’re here, let alone the wider world,” Denise says. Now you have no more excuses.

Dilworth and Allain

Chris Dilworth and Loïque Allain launched their boutique négociant business only nine years ago. Yet I clearly remember trying their first releases of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and thinking, “Wow!”Chris’s experience runs deep, with formative stints in Tuscany, Burgundy, and Tasmania. Loïque has also worked with Burgundy superstars Paul Pillot and Bernard Van Berg. “Luckily” for them, if that can be called a good thing in the big scheme of things, they’ve only lost one pallet in the recent bushfire at the Harcourt facility. “It’s not so much the monetary value, rather the sentimental side, all the memories that you lose. In the scale of what other producers lost, I think we feel quite lucky, as we had some of our museum stock in another storeroom,” Chris explains.

The severity of the fires is still being assessed, and the effect of smoke taint on this vintage is yet to be determined. “We buy grapes just off Mount Alexander, and we don’t know yet if the smoke taint has affected them. All the testing will be done, but there’s a potential chance that this year won’t be a harvest for that,” Chris says. In the worst-case scenario, it might be a very small year for Dilworth and Allain. Never has it felt so important to drink local. For $15, you can enjoy a guided wine tasting at their Daylesford tasting-room studio, choosing from Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grenache, and Dolcetto, while admiring Loïque’s artwork. She is also an artist and printmaker, with a Fine Arts Honours degree from the University of Tasmania. Although walk-ins are welcome, booking is advised via info@dilworthandallain.com.au or by calling Loïque on 0450 716 232, or Chris on 0455 744 217.

Farmer & The Scientist

Heathcote

Brian Dwyer is the farmer, the viticulturist, former vineyard supervisor at Treasury Estates who now looks after the De Bortoli vineyard in Heathcote. Jess Dwyer is the scientist, academic, teacher, wine marketer, you name it she does it. Together they lease an 8ha vineyard in the Heathcote wine region and send grapes off to Billy Button Wines duo, Jo Marsh and Glenn James, for turning into the Farmer & The Scientist range of wines. Sadly, they lost the bulk of their wine stock, past and present, including all of their shiraz and their award-winning tempranillo, in the Harcourt Coolstore fire. Luckily, 8 pallets of wine stored at a separate location were saved. Friends have stepped up to assist them with the ’26 vintage, given years of income were lost with their destroyed wine stocks.

Buy online at farmerandthescientist.com

Fowles Wines

Matt Fowles, proprietor of the celebrated homonymous winery in the Strathbogie Ranges, has a long past as a volunteer firefighter. Yet, before that infernal 8th of January 2026, when the bushfire claimed his 1,400-acre farm in only 45 minutes, he had never seen “a fire of that magnitude.” Shortly after, another fire took his house too, with “every blade of grass, 300 acres of vineyard across two properties, three homes, 1,140 sheep. We’ve only got 118 left, which was… just so destroying work. Euthanising and burying them,” remembers Matt.

In this carnage, the survivors were the vineyard, cellar door, and the winery, alongside an accommodation for seasonal workers, which will be Matt and his family’s next home. “It’s very distressing losing your home and your life’s work, but equally, we feel very blessed that we still have the winery and the cellar door-restaurant.”

While no stock was lost, the entire 2026 vintage is wiped out completely. Despite this, there is still a healthy amount of stock available to buy. As Matt puts it adeptly, “What’s the most helpful thing? Not just for our business, but for the region generally, just making sure that people know that it’s safe, that we’re open.”

Like Fowles, the Strathbogie Ranges wine region needs you more than ever. And while you’ll drink award-winning Riesling, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon, among others, you’ll also be surrounded by incredible people. “My wife had a very bright colleague, and we’ve worked hard to support her. Now this has happened to us, and we didn’t have a house to go to, she literally moved out of her house to her parents’ place, letting my family move into her new house, just so that we could get settled for a while. This is one of the kindest things I’ve ever heard of”.

In extremely difficult times, human warmth can really make the difference. “Just seeing people at the cellar door is enough. Only an email, you don’t have to buy anything, it’s just nice to know people are thinking of you”. You can book a guided wine tasting here: fowleswine.com/cellar-door/

GilGraves Wines

Husband-and-wife duo Ken Gilchrist and Kaye Graves run GilGraves Wines in Bendigo, exclusively following low-intervention principles. Their range includes Shiraz, Sangiovese, Malbec and Viognier. Unfortunately, the recent fire at the Harcourt Cool Store claimed most of their stock, leaving very little available from their home and cellar door. The 2025 Rosé, however, miraculously survived, as its bottling had been delayed. GilGraves is a family-friendly winery with onsite accommodation. So next time you’re planning a weekend in Bendigo with family or friends, think of them. Alternatively, you can find their wines at Melbourne venues such as Freyja, Al Dente Enoteca and Mount Macedon Hotel. Some stock is still available through their online shop, gilgraves.com.au/wine-sales.

“We decided the day after the fire that GilGraves would rise from the ashes,” says Ken.

Let’s get behind them and help make that happen.

Glenwillow Wines

Bendigo

For 27 years, Peter and Cherryl Fyffe have been working hard to produce some excellent wines led by shiraz, as well as a full-on cellar door experience that celebrates local Bendigo produce and art at Cherryl’s fine art gallery. The couple are now counting the major loss of wine in the recent Harcourt Coolstore fire with their entire stocks of the flagship, 2017 Reserve shiraz, destroyed. Peter Fyffe notes that he has small amount of Guildford sparkling shiraz and Musk Lane rosé for sale. Red wine lovers have been drawn to Glenwillow because they only grow red grapes -shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo and barbera – which are so well-suited to the area and its mix of volcanic and clay loam with quartz and buckshot gravel.

Visit Glenwillow Wines cellar door Wed-Mon 10.30am-4pm at Bendigo Pottery, 146 Midland Highway, Epsom
Wesbite glenwillow.com.au

Guildford Vineyard & Cellar

Bendigo

Guildford is known for its organic and biodynamic approach to viticulture, producing a small but quality-focused wine range of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and viognier. It’s also celebrated for its long lunches prepared every weekend by chef, Zack Grumont, using local regional ingredients. Gilles Lapalus, ex-Sutton Grange and winemaker at Maison Lapalus/Maidenii, has been the long-time winemaker at Guildford. Sadly, both have been deeply affected by the Harcourt Coolstore fire. Lapalus lost the entire production of all his wines (Maison Lapalus, Bertrand Bespoke) and vermouth (Maidenii). Guildford lost 66 dozen of its shiraz blend, Rose, as well as boxes of a Beaujolais-style light red, Rouge, sold to enjoy over the winery’s Long Lunches.

Guildford is open every weekend for lunch.
Buy online at guildfordvineyard.com.au

Hesket Estate

Macedon Ranges

While the vineyards of the Macedon Ranges were not affected by the January bushfires, Alex Stevenson and Elizabeth Hudspeth at Hesket Estate in the Hesket Kerrie Valley lost important stock – a total of nine pallets of their exceptional ’02 and ’03 pinot noirs, ’02 and ’03 chardonnays – in the fire that engulfed the Harcourt Coolstore. It could have been worse; Alex was ready to send the ’24 pinot noir into storage. When he sells the last of his ’23 pinots, expect to see the ‘24s coming on stream. With noted consultant winemaker, Doug Neal, at the helm, Hesket has made serious inroads into quality Macedon Ranges pinot noir, chardonnay and Heathcote shiraz.

Hesket estate offers cellar door sales and accommodation.
Buy online at hesketestate.com.au

Joshua Cooper Wines

Macedon Ranges

One of the rising stars of the Victorian wine industry, Josh Cooper, has been around wine his entire life. He grew up on Cobaw Ridge vineyard in the Macedon Ranges, owned by his parents, Alan and Nelly Cooper. Influenced to seek out more sustainable methods of viticulture and winemaking, young Joshua now looks to sourcing that includes some of the most prized winegrowers across Central and Western Victoria. He is a master of classic varieties such as chardonnay, pinot noir, shiraz and cabernet. The maker lost 10 pallets of back vintage in the Harcourt Coolstore fire, including his entire museum library of wines back to the first vintage in 2012. He waits to hear how Dash Farms vineyards on the slopes of Mt. Alexander have fared post-fires.

Buy online at joshuacooperwines.com.au

Killiecrankie Wines

Bendigo

Established in 2000 at Ravenswood, north of Harcourt, Killiecrankie is run by John Monteath, a winemaker who has worked at some of the biggest wine names in Victoria including Heathcote Estate and Balgownie. You’ll note the Gaelic name, Killiecrankie, a reminder of the origins of the Monteath name. The maker sources grapes from across Central Victoria for a range of well-priced Lola Montez and Crankie wines with a top tier limited release range of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz cabernet and pinot noir.

Killiecrankie Wines has a new cellar door operating at 30 Main Street, Maldon, open Fri-Sun and include Sunday music sessions
Wesbite: killiecrankiewines.com

Ian Leamon

Wine Importer

Ian Leamon, formerly of Chateau Leamon, Bendigo, and a wine importer, is sadly counting some significant losses in the Harcourt Coolstore fire. He lost his latest shipment of Champagne imported for sale under his company, Champagne Collection, in addition to a rich trove of Chateau Leamon museum wines and his personal wine collection.

Lome Vineyard

Bendigo

Lome Vineyard in Harcourt North alerted wine lovers everywhere to its intentions when in 2017 at the Ballarat Wine Show its 2015 shiraz won three trophies, including Champion of Show. For Tim and Di Robertson, it was a moment to savour and they have continued to work hard planting a trio of white Rhône Valley varieties – viognier, marsanne, roussanne. In 2020, they joined Chris McCormack as business partners to run Bress which is a neighbouring vineyard close by.

Lome offers cellar door visits and a wedding venue.
Website:lomevineyard.com

Maison Lapalus

Gilles Lapalus needs no introduction. Burgundian-born and raised, he travelled the world making wine before settling in Victoria in 2001, where he established the award-winning winery Sutton Grange. Later, he went on to found Bertrand Bespoke, Maidenii, and Maison Lapalus. Chances are you’ve had one of his wines, or a glass of his vermouth, made in collaboration with seasoned bartender Shaun Byrne, at least once, if not more. The fire at the Harcourt Cool Store, where Gilles stored his equipment and wine stock, showed no mercy. “Maison Lapalus had all the equipment, stock, museum, personal cellar there. All gone. No wine for sale and no cellar door. Maidenii vermouth had some equipment, stock including reserve wines, 10-year-old solera, botanicals library. All gone, too.”

So, what can you do?

Most of the vermouth is still available, and who knows, we may all need a little more of that on weeknights, at least before dinner. Otherwise, contribute what you can to their GoFundMe campaign via their Instagram accounts, @maisonlapalus or @maidenii.

Merth Vineyard

Macedon Ranges

Merth Vineyard is a small family-run vineyard in the Macedon Ranges. Winemaking is low intervention and a small range of wines including riesling, roussaane viognier and pinot noir, are made. Little is known at this stage regarding their losses in the recent bushfires, but it is believed the owners lost stock stored in the major Harcourt Coolstore fire.

Website: merthvineyard.com

Sutton Grange

Bendigo

The horse and rider logo on Sutton Grange wines is in keeping with the blended equine and vinous interests of the property. In addition to operating a vineyard/winery/cellar door, the large property in the foothills of Mt. Alexander (Leanganook) is a horse training facility. While fire spared the vineyard, Sutton Grange sadly lost a significant amount of stock stored in the nearby Harcourt Coolstore, including the ’22 and 24 vintages of its top-selling Fairbank syrah. Fortunately, a second warehouse site in Harcourt was saved. With ex-Blue Pyrenees Estate winemaker, Chris Smales, at the helm Sutton Grange produces a range of Estate and Fairbank wines which capitalise on Burgundian grape varieties so well-suited to the climate in addition to some up-and-coming Italian varieties led by fiano and sangiovese.

Buy online at suttongrange.com.au

Still Moon Wines

Tom and Charmaine Handyside created Still Moon Wines as a labour of love and passion. Tom tends the vines, while Charmaine transforms their fruit into wine. Whenever practical, they adopt organic and biodynamic principles, with everything meticulously done by hand in the vineyard. Drinkability sits front and centre as both a stylistic choice and guiding philosophy.

Like many other producers who relied on the Harcourt facility to store their wine stock, Tom and Charmaine lost “over 70,000 bottles, including new release wines that were resting prior to launch”. Beyond the immediate numerical loss, recovery from devastating events like this is slow and painful. And as often happens in a climate saturated with tragic news, public attention quickly shifts elsewhere.

Tom and Charmaine invite us to reflect: “Each bottle is a multi-year investment of money, time, skill, love, and patience.” With Still Moon’s remaining stock now extremely limited, you can make a meaningful difference by adopting a vine through the homonymous program they have recently launched to help overcome this delicate financial moment.

“We are hoping this will allow us to complete the full 2026 vintage and relaunch.”

You can adopt a little fella at: stillmoon.com.au/shop

Wine x Sam

Strathbogie Ranges

The Plunkett family saw the potential of the Strathbogie Ranges as a serious producer of quality wines back in the 1960s, planting some of the region’s earliest vines in 1968. With winemaker, Sam Plunkett, at the helm, Plunketts became known in the 90s for its arresting cool climate styles of riesling and shiraz, before going into a partnership with the Fowles family, creating Plunkett Fowles. When the partnership dissolved, Wine x Sam was created and, needless to say, a strong suit of wines continues to be led by riesling and shiraz. Sam with his business and life partner, Bronywn Dunwoodie, takes in fruit from across Victoria led by the affordable The Victorian range and a range of single vineyard wines. Sadly, their home farm, in addition to two farms owned by Sam’s father and brother, in the Bogies suffered major fire damage during the recent bushfires, losing structures, sheep, fencing and more.

Wine x Sam does not offer cellar door sales but holds 6-10 events each year. Check the website for details.
Buy online at winebysam.com.au

Tony Winspear

Winemaker

Tony Winspear, long-time winemaker at Balgownie Estate, Bendigo, who left the winery in 2024 when it was sold for housing, lost virtually all of his stored Balgownie wines collected over 30 years as winemaker at the Estate. Also lost are most of his personal collection of European wines and wines associated with a new project he is working on.

Working Dog Wines

Bendigo

Working Dog Wines was gearing up for a launch in February/March of this year when the fires struck the Harcourt Coolstore, destroying the producer’s 24,000 bottles of wine, its entire bottled stock made in the last four years. For Brooke Honeyman, who has been studying winemaking at Charles Sturt University while making small batch wine in Faraday, it was a bitter blow. The Working Dog Wines website was still under construction and she was thinking about opening cellar door when fire struck, but there is some good news. The 2025 vintage was safe and still in tank and can be bottled, but everything else that was set for the launch is gone.

Zig Zag Road Winery

Macedon Ranges

Henry and Harriet Churchill had sold their Macedon Ranges winery and were working in their vineyard in Languedoc, the south of France, when the Victorian bushfires struck. They became another victim of the Harcourt Coolstore devastation losing four pallets of their Macedon Ranges wines. They were also owed a significant amount of money from a wine producer who also lost stock in fires. For Henry Churchill, who plans to continue operating Zig Zag Road wines in Australia it was a bitter pill. However, he concedes that others have been worse affected. He now has plans to sell the last of the Australian stock, now very limited, and bring in wines from his Languedoc vineyard for sale in Australia. The French wines sail by water for Australia in February.