With little rain in sight just prior to next month’s bud burst, the region’s wine producers are poised to start irrigating vines in preparation for the 2018 vintage.

Keith Tulloch of Keith Tulloch Wine said in a perfect world he would like to see about 50 millimetres of rain prior to bud burst.

“We had about 10 millimetres last week which was a good start but no where near the ammount we would like to see in the lead up to Spring,” Mr Tulloch said.

“These conditions affect all varieties equally but it could result in Chardonnay starting to shoot a little earlier and then Semillon straight after that,” he said.

“I think everyone would smile if we had 50 millimetres of rain in the form of nice steady rainfall over a couple of days.

“Rain would give a helpful supplement, and that would provide another boost to vine growth into mid-Spring.”

Mr Tulloch said Hunter Valley vineyards are “insulated” from drought with the Pokolbin district able to obtain water from the Hunter River.

“All vineyards in the valley are prepared, in case we don’t get enough rainfall, to start irrigating to get the grapes to the best standard they need.

“That’s an important message to get across that even though we haven’t had rain it doesn’t stop the start of the season from being a successful one. We do have a lot of vineyards that have available water in dam storage as well as water from the Hunter River pipeline to maximise our opportunity.

“In other words even though we are going through dry times there will be no shortage of good quality Hunter wines come out of the 2018 harvest,” Mr Tulloch said.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Meteorology said August looks slightly better in terms of rain.

In July Cessnock received just 2.4 millimetres of rain. So far this month Cessnock has already received 8.4 millimetres (not including Tuesday’s sprinkle), however the forecast for the next week includes a 30 percent chance of rain on Wednesday and a 70 per cent chance of rain on Saturday.