How wineries fund vintage, and carry the wine until it sells

Most businesses can adjust their spending to match their takings. A winery cannot. The grapes come in over a few weeks, the costs land in a heap, and the revenue they create is spread across the next one, two or three years. The skill is in carrying that gap without choking the rest of the year.

This guide looks at how Australian wineries tend to fund it, what has changed for 2026 and 2027, and what lenders want to see.

Why is vintage such a cash-hungry time?

Vintage compresses a year of production cost into a few weeks. In most regions harvest runs through summer and early autumn, so the heaviest spending falls in the first months of the calendar year, long after the last big cheque from the previous season has been spent.

The costs usually include:

• grape purchases, or picking and haulage if you grow your own;
• casual labour and overtime;
• yeast, fining agents, filtration and lab testing;
• power for cooling and pumps;
• new barrels, which for a small premium producer can be a large single line;
• bottles, closures, labels and cartons later in the cycle.

Then comes the part that makes wine unique. The product sits. A crisp white may be on shelves within months. A red can spend a year or two in barrel and another stretch in bottle before it is released. Every month of that is stock that has been paid for and not yet sold.

What does your style mix do to funding?

The lender question beneath every winery application is “how long until this turns into cash?”. The answer depends on what you make.

Wine style	Typical time from vintage to sale	Funding effect
Young whites and rosé	A few months	Short, fast cycle; modest working capital
Medium-bodied reds	12 to 18 months	Money tied up through a full year
Premium reds, cellared releases	2 years or more	Larger, longer facility, and stock held as an asset
Bulk or grape sales	Weeks to months	Fast cash, but at lower margin

The cash cycle for a winery selling mostly young whites can look more like a seasonal retailer’s. A winery building a library of premium reds needs funding more like a property developer’s: heavy up front, paid back as stock is released. The timing assumptions in your forecast should reflect that, and your seasonal funding plan should be built around your own release calendar.

What is changing for wineries in 2026 and 2027?

Two developments are worth building into your numbers.

A higher WET producer rebate cap. The wine equalisation tax producer rebate lets eligible producers recover some of the tax, up to an annual cap. The ATO lists the cap at $350,000 for 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2026 and $400,000 from 1 July 2026, and says the higher cap applies automatically. Associated producers share one cap, so group structures do not multiply it. Eligibility depends on meeting the criteria, which for 2018 and later vintages include sourcing at least 85% of the wine’s volume from source product you own. If the cap increase raises your expected rebate, treat it as a forecast item, not a promise, and ask your accountant to confirm your position.

A mandatory winegrape purchase code. In December 2025 the government said it would introduce a mandatory Code of Conduct for Winegrape Purchases by 1 January 2027. The government has not chosen to mandate a specific payment term. Instead, winemakers covered by the code are expected to publish their payment terms. The older voluntary code set a staged minimum, with payment spread across three instalments from the month after delivery to September. Where growers are choosing between buyers, shorter or clearer terms may win you fruit. If you decide to pay faster, you need working capital to match.

How do wineries usually fund the gap?

Banks, including the agribusiness desks at the major banks, tend to be the cheapest source of funding for wineries with good trading history and property to back it. They understand the seasonal cycle and may offer seasonal limits. If you fit, take the offer seriously.

If your bank has said no, the cycle does not suit its products, or you need to move faster than its process, the common alternatives are these:

Option	Typically used for	Points to check
Working capital loan	Covering vintage costs before bottling	Repayment timing against your release calendar
Seasonal or revolving facility	Peaks in labour, packaging and freight	Annual review and any clean-down requirement
Equipment finance	Presses, tanks, bottling lines, tractors	Matching term to the asset’s life
Property-secured loan	Larger vintage and stock build	See using rural property as security
Invoice finance	Trade and distributor sales on terms	Concentration limits; not all sales qualify

Wine stock itself can sit inside a facility as supporting security, but lenders often discount it, because it is harder to value and sell quickly than land. The more you can show about age, varietal, release price and sales history, the stronger that part of the story becomes.

What do lenders want to see from a winery?

Expect to be asked for:

• BAS and financial statements for the past two to three years;
• a vintage plan: tonnage, costs, expected production and release dates;
• a stock schedule showing volumes by variety, vintage and location;
• sales by channel: cellar door, wholesale, export, online;
• evidence of insurance, including stock cover;
• your WET and excise position, and any rebate claimed;
• title details if land or buildings will be security.

A lender that understands wine is looking at one thing above all: whether the stock you are about to fund is likely to sell for more than it cost. Show your cost per case or per tonne, and the price you actually achieve.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real producer. A family winery in a cool-climate region makes about 6,000 cases a year. It buys in half its fruit and grows the rest.

Cost at vintage	Amount
Purchased grapes	$160,000
Labour and winery costs	$70,000
New and replacement barrels	$45,000
Total vintage outlay	$275,000

Revenue from that vintage arrives gradually. About a third is sold within twelve months, mostly whites. The rest flows over the following two years.

The owner has $90k of cash reserves and a $60k overdraft. That leaves roughly $125k to find, and the gap lasts about nine months before sales catch up. A seasonal facility drawn in the first quarter and repaid by the end of the calendar year would cover it, with the cellar door peak helping. If the bank limit will not stretch, a working capital loan or property-backed facility can fill the same gap at a defined cost. The sensible comparison is the dollar cost over nine months against the margin on the wine it makes possible.

For a winery weighing up exactly that choice, a one-minute enquiry gets a person looking at the numbers.

What mistakes catch wineries out?

• Sizing a loan to the peak and forgetting the tail. If sales run three years, a twelve-month loan will squeeze you before the stock sells.
• Counting the WET rebate before it is confirmed. Treat it as likely, not certain, until your claim is lodged.
• Letting stock records lag. Lenders cannot value what you cannot count.
• Mixing cellar door and vintage cash. Keep them separate in the forecast so each is understood.
• Leaving it until vintage has started. Facilities arranged during harvest are rushed and pricier.

Getting the numbers right earlier is covered in inventory management and cash flow, and seasonal stock funding explains how lenders see stock cycles in general.

Planning your next vintage?

Vintage rewards the winery that arrives with money already arranged. If your plan shows a gap and the bank has not been able to help, or the timing does not suit its process, we can talk through what else fits.

The enquiry takes about a minute, and enquiring does not touch your credit file. We keep your details with us instead of broadcasting them to a list of lenders, so it will not set your phone off. A real person reads what you send and calls you. Please describe your vintage plan, stock and security carefully, because accurate details point us to the right option first time.

Talk through your vintage funding →