Good summer rain during January, and then dry weather since, has led to good quality grapes which predominantly are disease free.

Local vigneron Mark Renzaglia, from Renzaglia Wines, said his crop is looking the best it has in “five or six years”.

“There hasn’t been much rain and there’s been lots of sunshine so everything is ripening pretty quickly,” he said.

“It’s better to have not enough rain than too much rain.

“If the weather continues like it is most of the grapes could be off the vines by the end of March, which is pretty unusual.”

Though he is excited about this year’s harvest and vintage, Mr Renzaglia said while the crop is on the vines it is still weather dependent.

“We’ve still got over 90 per cent of the grapes to get off so we don’t want to get too excited yet, anything could happen,” he said.

Bathurst Regional Vignerons Association president Tony Hatch agreed that the weather has been kind to local winemakers this vintage.

“It’s good, we had good rain in January. We could do with some more, but it’s ok, the biggest problem is too much rain,” he said.

Mr Hatch said the dry weather can reduce the incidents of disease, and also give the vintage a unique flavour.

“The dry weather tends to concentrate the flavours and you can end up with some pretty fantastic ones,” he said.

Mr Renzaglia said a number of producers have already started to harvest with white grapes the first to be picked, and the red in another few weeks.

He said four tonnes of chardonnay have been harvested and earmarked for sparkling wine, with a small amount of pinot grigio harvested from Vale Creek Wines.