GROWER Joe Callipari says he might have to make the hard decision to not redevelop his family’s vineyard in Nichols Point after it was inundated last week.
Mr Callipari said 99.9 per cent of the vineyard was overwhelmed with water that was likely to kill the majority of his vines.
He said over the past week and a half the floodwater had moved through the vineyard and surrounded the house, where his parents, Giuseppe Sr and Giuseppa Callipari, lived.
The property was cut off by floodwater on November 24, and Mr Callipari, who owns Callipari Wines, expected the water to sit on the property for an extended time.
“From what we have been told, there is more water to come,” he said.
“(The water will stay) anywhere from four to six months, best guess.”
Mr Callipari said his family now had a big decision to make about the future of the vineyard, which it has owned for 24 years.
“It would be a full redevelopment if we were to go ahead, but given the current returns we will be unlikely to replant or redevelop,” he said.
“Given the 1973, 1974 and 1975 history, what’s to say we won’t get consecutive years of flooding? Then it would be far more disheartening than it already is.”
Mr Callipari said it was a hard time for the family and “very emotional”.
“More for Mum and Dad, who pioneered the land, given the plantings have been there 24 years.”
Mr Callipari’s parents were the pioneers of the college lease property, growing fruit and vegetables in the early years to generate an income, before developing the vineyard in the late 1990s.
Mr Callipari said since it was planted, the vineyard had been through a lot of ups and downs, especially in the past 20 years, with the wine grape industry taking some hits.
He had already replanted a number of vines following damage from big rains in 2010 and 2011.
He said about 1000 vines died due to being too wet for too long.
“It wasn’t as bad back then,” he said.
“But was painful enough having to interplant vines that had died.”
During this time Mr Callipari used money made in his contracting business to rebuild and sustain the farm, hoping it would “come good at some point in time”.
He said in 2017 returns escalated, but only for a short period, and this year returns had plummeted again due to a wine glut.
Mr Callipari had hoped the vineyard would at least break even in 2023, with a potentially better vintage in 2024.
He said it was frustrating to have suffered further damage that would be much harder to recover from.
“It just won’t work this time because there will be a lot more vines that may not recover this time around.”
Mr Callipari said other growers along the river would be affected and many of his neighbours had been.
He recognised that while it had been a hard time for his family, many had had it worse.
“Others have lost far more in these floods,” he said.
“They had to wake up to water in their houses or houses have been washed away.
“We have had time to prepare and get as much as we can out of the way of the water and protect our house by way of small levees. We still have a dry bed to sleep in and food on the table.”
