Good vibes and great wines at Heathcote Food and Wine Festival

Award-winning Shirazes, delicious whites and juicy rosés flowed freely as about 2500 people came through the Heathcote Showgrounds during the weekend event.

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The event showcased wines from 43 wineries from the Heathcote wine region, with more than 250 wines available to taste.

Heathcote Winegrowers Association Ian Hopkins said after a challenging 2023 harvest, it was nice for local winemakers to get together and celebrate a more positive-looking 2024 harvest.

"[The] 2023 harvest was challenging because of all of the rain and across the whole raft of the wineries," he said. "The crops were down in 2023 because of the weather conditions."

"We're now heading for the '24 vintage and the rain this week, a bit over 60 millimetres for most wineries, [was] absolutely perfect timing and sets it up for what hopefully will be a great harvest."

"It's never over until the grapes are in the bin, but at the moment it's looking really good and the vineyards look absolutely fantastic; growth is very vibrant."

Mr Hopkins said the Heathcote Food and Wine Festival was one of the region's two feature events, the other being Heathcote on Show during June.

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