Frosts have wiped out crops across some of Australia's premier wine regions, including the Barossa and Riverland

As the dawn breaks over the vineyards, there's an icy chill in the air and on the ground. Overnight sub-zero temperatures in recent days have hit many areas including the wine growing regions of the Riverland, Clare Valley and Barossa. Fifth generation Barossa grape grower Adrian Hoffmann is among many assessing the damage. “You can see a little bit of damage around the bottom there from the other morning, so a little bit of browning and tinging around the bottom." With a warm and dry season, the buds are growing earlier than usual and are very susceptible to frost damage. Mr Hoffmann estimates he'll lose about half his crop. "It's like telling someone in the city go to your job for half your pay for the rest of the year, knowing that you can't swap jobs you can't do anything else for that period of time. You know you've been dealt a fairly rough hand and now you have to play it out." And that's after a big investment in frost mitigation some are faring even worse... with entire crops likely to be wiped out. "Unfortunately I know neighbour friends of mine are looking at that already which is very tough, it's difficult and all I can do is ask them to ask for help, ask for support and talk to their fellow growers about it." "This will be the third year we miss out on some of the varieties coming in as well, which is really heartbreaking |cut| but we've always got hope." There is some relief on the way with the frosty conditions likely to subside later this week. "We've got a cold front moving across the south so we'll see windier, cloudier conditions move across and so the minimum temperatures will be quite a bit higher from Thursday morning onwards." But it may be too late for some growers who will be counting their losses for the season.