AWARD-winning Two Rivers Wines may need a third river soon as the Hunter and Pages begin to dry up, leaving Glenbawn Dam at much lower levels than usual.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After taking home four honours at the KPMG Sydney Royal Show last week, Brett and Linda Keeping have returned to the harsh reality that the drought hasn’t been broken and their main water source is draining fast.
Mr Keeping recalls a time not too long ago that Glenbawn was sitting at 87 per cent, but it has now dropped to 65 and the winery owners fear their property may face water restrictions for the first time since 2008.
Mrs Keeping said while having the irrigation system had helped them push through so far, it’s not a long-term supplement for rain.
“Our yields will probably be light and we will be impacted by the drought just due to the fact that we’re not getting that natural rainfall to supplement,” she explained.
“And, whatever the rainfall has in it that’s different to irrigation you do notice the difference.”
Mr Keeping said they has specific challenges at a winery, and some of those make it very difficult to change the way things are managed, even if it is a dry year.
“We really don’t like sacrificing our inputs into the vineyard because that’s a further impact on the vineyard,” he said.
“The impact of the drought is enough and, as Linda said, our yield will be reduced next year, no doubt.”
However, they understand that compared to others, they’re still fortunate though.
Both agree there are others in the area much worse off than them.
“Given that we’ve got the irrigation infrastructure and so on, I think there’s a lot of people doing it a lot tougher than us,” Mr Keeping added.
While Two Wines isn’t eligible for government relief, Mrs Keeping doesn’t think they’ve been left out of the conversation and knows they can cope while others are struggling to keep afloat.
“You could probably say that we’re managing our risk because of the irrigation, so that probably mitigates us,” she said.
Mr Keeping said even though they’d love the money to upgrade their systems and become more efficient, he hadn’t looked at getting help at this stage.
He added while they may not be able to produce the same quantity of wine as usual, they’re confident they will still be able to produce the same sort of quality that made them big winners at last week’s showcase.