When Boomtown owner Tim Sproal heard the Harcourt Cooperative Cool Store had been destroyed by the Ravenswood fire, he decided to throw a free lunch and donate the proceeds from booze sales to support the town’s recovery.
“We’d had cancellations all weekend, so we had all this food,” he says. But almost immediately after posting it to Instagram, he was inundated with donations from local wine, beer and spirits producers, offers of help from chefs, and over $25,000 worth of auction prizes from local businesses. “It just came together in this insane way,” Tim says.
“This old guy from Campbells Creek showed up and goes, ‘I retired earlier in the year, I was in the CFA for 27 years, I just feel fucking useless, I want to help’. He ran the auction and he ran it like a cattle sale, it was just wild. We raised like $135,000 in the end. It was the best thing I’ve ever been involved in.”
It’s testament to the strength of a community reeling in the wake of Victoria’s devastating bushfires which, at the time of writing, had decimated almost 400,000ha of land across the state and which are not yet contained.
The Harcourt Cooperative Cool Store lay at the heart of the Harcourt township, about 10 minutes’ drive north-east of Castlemaine. The refrigerated facility was established in 1917 to provide cool storage for the region’s apple growers, but had grown in recent years to accommodate local wine, cider and beer producers, among others. Before fire destroyed it on Friday afternoon, around 90 businesses used it to store their goods.
“The facility was second to none,” says Alex Stevenson of Macedon Ranges winery Hesket Estate, who lost nine pallets of ’02 and ’03 pinot noir plus some back-vintage chardonnay and shiraz. “It’s just devastating to think of what has happened… and it’s probably only coming out now what a pivotal facility it was for the community.”
John Monteath of Killiecrankie Wines agrees. “It was a really big hub. I’d flippantly say we’d go there for a bit of gossip… you’d go to pick up wine and end up staying for a chat with whoever was there. Us males don’t look after ourselves enough sometimes mentally, having a place to communicate was always good.”
John, who only had about a third of his stock (approximately 300 cases) stored at the Cool Store, considers himself lucky. Others weren’t so fortunate. Tom and Charmaine Handyside from Still Moon lost four years’ worth of wine (around 6000 cases), including their ’24 Shiraz, “which we were really excited to get out there, hooley dooley, it was just so good,” says Charmaine. Neil Walsworth and Erin O’Brien also lost the bulk of the wine they’d made under their brand-new label, Merth Vineyard – ironically, they were celebrating the inaugural release at a launch party in Trentham when the fire hit. “To wake up the next morning and see it was all gone was pretty devastating,” Neil says.
Sutton Grange, Dilworth & Allain, Ian Leamon, Antcliff’s Chase, Passing Clouds, Lome Vineyard, Bress Wines, BlackJack Wines, Guildford Vineyard, Farmer and the Scientist, Glenwillow Wines and GilGraves have also reported significant stock losses. As has famed Macedon Ranges producer Joshua Cooper: “Sadly, I lost 10 pallets of back vintage wine in the Harcourt Cool Store fire, including the entirety of my museum library of wines going back to the first vintage in 2012,” he says. “It’s honestly taking some time to comprehend.”
For Maison Lapalus and Bertrand Bespoke winemaker Gilles Lapalus, who not only stored wine but made wine at the Cool Store, the damage is irrevocable. “All my winemaking equipment, lab, bottling, packaging etc... all my stock, museum stock, my personal cellar – all of this is gone,” he says. “I have a little bit of wine with distributors in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, but basically Maison Lapalus and Bertrand Bespoke is no more.”
Maidenii, the craft vermouth brand Gilles co-founded with bartender Shaun Byrne, was also impacted – some equipment, around 30 barrels of vermouth, botanical tinctures and a 10-year-old solera of Nocturne amaro were destroyed – but thankfully, most of the bottled stock was stored elsewhere.
Unfortunately, due to the high costs associated, most the wine in the Harcourt Cool Store was uninsured.
“Funny thing was I never ever thought the place was high risk,” Alex Stevenson adds. “It wasn’t surrounded by trees, it’s an open area, and I am just bewildered at the damage that has happened.”
The fire that originated in Longwood on Wednesday in the Strathbogie Ranges, about 150km east of Harcourt, also wrought devastation. Fowles Wine, outside of Avenel, lost 300 acres of vines, hundreds of sheep and the family home, although by some small mercy, the winery, cellar door and restaurant were spared. Although “the 2026 vintage will be a 100 per cent crop failure,” the Fowles family said in a statement, “we fully intend to continue the business we have worked so hard on and loved for so long.”
Neighbouring winery Elgo Estate also lost their vineyard, and Sam Plunkett of Wine x Sam reported significant property damage.
How you can help
Boomtown’s Harcourt fundraiser isn’t the only heartwarming story to emerge from this crisis. Many producers have been gifted barrels of finished wine to bottle and sell under their own labels to cover, at least partly, what they lost. Matt Fowles has had offers of fruit from other growers to get him through the upcoming vintage. In Castlemaine, a couple bought six cases of Gilles Lapalus’ wine from the local IGA and dropped it at his house, which not only made Tim Sproal "lose my absolute shit" when he heard it, but also consider organising a buyback scheme to encourage collectors to donate or cheaply sell any wines they may have back to their makers so they can rebuild their back catalogues.
But for an industry already doing it tough – on top of the consumption, export, oversupply and other financial challenges plaguing Australian wine, many in the Strathbogie Ranges are already facing lower than average yields due to frost damage – assistance needs to come from outside the local community.
The simplest way to help is to buy wine direct from affected producers (and sign up to their wine clubs). “Having experienced the trauma of having a vineyard burnt (2006) and smoke tainted (2025), I know the value of keeping cash flow going with cellar door and online sales,” says Grampians Estate winemaker Tom Guthrie. “It gives you the encouragement and the finances to rebuild and get on with it.”
“If people see wines released earlier than normal from central Victorian producers in bottle shops and on wine lists, buy them as their hand has probably been forced,” adds Cameron Leith from Passing Clouds.
Maintaining visitation to affected regions is also crucial. “The fear around fires has a really negative impact on tourism in regional Victoria,” Cameron says. “While we all need to be cautious and reasonable, the majority of country Victoria is business as usual.
“It is safe to travel to the vast majority of country VIC now and throughout summer – people just need to check the apps and plan appropriately.”
It’s also important to recognise the ongoing impacts this devastating event will have on the producers and their communities, and be sensitive in any conversations you have with them or their staff. “It's going to be an emotional rollercoaster for some time,” says Tahbilk CEO Alister Purbrick. “Months... probably years.”
“We’re feeling very vulnerable,” confirms Gilles Lapalus. “The fire is still burning, the summer just beginning.”
But while it will take some time for the dust to settle, and for the scale of destruction and loss to be understood, Aussie winemakers are nothing if not resilient.
“We’ll survive,” says Ken Gilchrist of GilGraves. “It’s a kick in the guts but you get up and you carry on.
“GilGraves will rise from the ashes.”
Buy direct from the affected wineries or donate here
Antcliff’s Chase | Bertrand Bespoke | BlackJack Wines | Bress Wines | Dilworth & Allain | Elgo Estate* | Fowles Wine | GilGraves | Glenwillow Wines | Guildford Vineyard | Hesket Estate | Joshua Cooper Wines | Killiecrankie Wines | Lome Vineyard** | Maidenii | Maison Lapalus | Merth Vineyard | Passing Clouds | Still Moon | Sutton Grange | Wine x Sam
*To buy direct from Elgo Estate, email info@elgoestate.com.au.
**Lome Vineyard's website is currently under construction. To order, contact Tim on 0438 544 313 or Chris on 0437 493 303.
You can also donate to the CFA here, or to BlazeAid here.
Donate to Gilles Lapalus' crowdfunding page here.
If you are or you know of a winery impacted by the fires who's not on this list, email annawebster@hardiegrant.com.
