After wildfires destroyed his home and vineyard, an Australian winemaker looks to rebuild | Canada Voices

Bushfires that ignited across Victoria, Australia in January tore through more than 435,000 hectares of land, causing significant damage to farms and vineyards in the Strathbogie Ranges and central Victoria regions.

“Horror visited us on the vineyard in the past few days,” Fowles Wine owner Matt Fowles wrote in a Jan. 10 Facebook post. “We lost our home, sheds, vineyards and livestock. We are heartbroken.”

Fowles told Australian news site The Age it took less than an hour on Jan. 8 for the Longwood bushfire to raze 300 acres of vines, 1,500 acres of grazing land and 1,200 sheep on the property. The fire also affected properties where Fowles’s parents and uncle lived.

Wine Victoria, the regional winemaker association, says more than 20 wineries were affected and 250,000 bottles of wine stored in warehouses were destroyed. The fires also affected local breweries, cider producers and distilleries.

Heading into the 2026 harvest, which is expected to start in March, Fowles is left with no crop. All the vines, posts and drip irrigation systems were scorched by the heat and flames.

Spokespeople from the winery believe the majority of the vines will not recover and replanting will be required, but they are prepared to wait and see. “Mother Nature is incredible, and she could surprise us in a few blocks,” says Georgia Veit, Fowles Wine’s sales and marketing manager.

The winery, tasting room and restaurant were spared and reopened for business days after the devastation.

Veit says the winery has received many offers of grapes from other Australian wineries and anticipates producing a small 2026 vintage with fruit from other vineyards.

Fowles, who distributes wines through agents in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, says the best way to support the rebuilding efforts is by buying wine. He hopes tourists will return to help the local community recover.

Fowles’s popular Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch Wild Ferment Shiraz is featured in the current LCBO Vintages release. The wine has made a name for itself based on its whimsical art deco-inspired label, designed by Fowles’s wife, Luise, as well as its lighter, savoury and spicy flavours that offer a pure taste of the grape variety and the Strathbogie Ranges, a cooler wine growing area located 90 minutes from Melbourne.

When Fowles was in Ontario in 2013, he told this reporter in an interview that it was crucial for his labels to stand out on shelves, but he needed to make sure the wine inside those bottles was even more remarkable.

Farm to Table and Are You Game? are other eye-catching labels from the Fowles fold that have helped attract attention to the rugged region, which is less well known than other wine-producing areas in Victoria, such as Yarra Valley, Rutherglen and Mornington Peninsula.

Many wineries want to appeal to 100 per cent of the market, he said at the time. “I think it’s better to follow your heart and people with the same hearts will follow you.”