Is the ongoing drought in Australia going to dry up the country's wine industry? At best, it is likely to drive up prices, and at worst, the quality of wine will suffer greatly. The 2008 vintage is expected to be cut in half due to the worst drought in more than a century. Smaller producers are likely to be forced out of business because they don't have the money to purchase water for their crops.

From The Telegraph:

The most dramatic falls in grape production are likely to be in the drought-affected Murray-Darling basin, a vast area encompassing parts of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

The Murray and Darling rivers are so depleted that some farms in the region have been told they can only take 10 per cent of the water they would normally use to irrigate their crops.

However, all hope is not lost. While it's almost certain that the yield will be reduced, some think that it's a bit premature to declare half the crop gone.

From The Australian:

With his own crop down one-third this year, McLaren Vale grape grower Toby Bekkers knows from experience how tough the drought has been for the wine industry.

But he clings to hope the industry can defy predictions that next year's national wine grape vintage could be down by more than 50 per cent. "To say that we're going to have half a crop I think is probably a bit premature," he said. "There's no frost like we had last year, and certainly water is going to be problematic for some, but even now we don't know how much there's going to be in terms of allocations."

The only thing we can do is wait and see what happens. There will more than likely be a rise in prices and U.S. and U.K. consumers (together, the countries import close to 70 percent of Australia's wine) will feel a pinch in their pocketbooks.