Picking for the 2020 harvest started this week at the Wauchope winery with the Verdelho harvest down around a third while the Chardonnay is down almost 60 per cent.

Vineyard owner Jim Mobbs described the drop in volume as "manageable"

"The first picking day - for the Verdelho - was only a small one and while the quality was good the volume was down a little bit," he said.

"The Verdelho is usually about the first grape picked each season and although it was down about a third that is still quite manageable.

"We plan to start picking the Chardonnay (harvest) onb Monday and this will probably take about three days to complete.

"The volume will also be right down on previous years - something like 60 per cent.

"Unfortunately the dry weather and birds are the cause of the loss of volume."

Mr Mobbs admitted it was "frustrating" that you spend all year preparing for a harvest only to see birds and dry weather have an impact.

He said in a normal year, the winery does not get as much damage as experienced in 2020.

"We netted the grapes but because of the dry weather the birds are just desperate for feed," he said.

"They will just keep pecking away at the netting until they create a hole and then grab the fruit.

"Last year we were devastated by flying foxes while we also get some Lorikeets that come in too (for a feed)."

Mr Mobbs said the 2020 harvest would have enough for a straight Chardonnay while some of the other blends will have to change volumes from other varieties of grapes.

"It will be a name (of a wine) rather than a variety of a wine that is on the bottle this year," he said.

"We have some other varieties that are quite useful in volume and we can use these in a name of a wine.

"Despite a drop in the reds (grape harvest), that won't detract from our cellar door sales or people coming out to the winery," he said.

"We have balanced our stock pretty well and won't run out of any of our traditional lines of wines."

Mr Mobbs said the recent wet weather had been welcomed at the winery.

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