TWO decades ago, contractor Robert Gaspari was busy deep-ripping and cultivating ground to establish vineyards.
Today, he is seeing some of those vines pulled out of the ground, or the grapes left on the vine to rot.
Based at Whitfield in North East Victoria, Mr Gaspari said he has noticed more and more vines being taken out of production.
"I even know of some vineyards that have had stock turned on to them," Mr Gaspari said.
In many cases there is simply no market for the crop, Mr Gaspari said.
"I have been pre-pruning for the past couple of weeks and some of the jobs still had the grapes on the vines and some vines had simply been cut just above the ground," he said.
"Depending on the variety, the vines may go back into production at some stage in the future, or they will be removed for good.
"There's not a lot of confidence in the market at the moment. I know some grape growers who have had vines for 10 years and now they are walking away from them."
Mr Gaspari has diversified his business to cope with the trend away from vines and now grows pasture and lucerne. He also trades hay and provides contract services for grape growers.
The plight of the wine industry was highlighted recently by a survey by Murray Valley Winegrowers, which showed more than 30,000 tonnes of grapes from this year's harvest were unsold by wine grape growers in the Murray Valley region.
The 2009 harvest survey, based on responses from 430 growers, also showed more than 80 per cent of chardonnay and 80 per cent of colombard variety grapes were sold for less than $300 tonne.
