According to Wine Australia, this figure is significantly larger than estimations made at the start of the growing season, and is in fact almost double some early predictions.

It reports that in 2008 the Australian wine industry's winegrape intake increased by almost 31pc over the 2007 vintage.

"The concern about the impact of the drought and water shortages in the lead-up to the 2008 vintage saw intense speculation about the potential of Australia to supply some of its international markets," AWBC general manager market development Paul Henry said.

"This vintage result should allay any concerns about the maintenance of supply in the short-term.

"The economic climate that Australia now competes in will continue to exert pressure on the future sustainability on some sectors of the industry.

"It is imperative that we gain wider international acceptance of Australia's more premium and regionally distinct wines.

"Our focus must remain on building value into our proposition with the quality dimension of Australia. It is simply not sustainable to compete on price alone."

Wine Australia reports that the 2008 season was a season of contrasts – across the continent and through the season – with significant impact from climatic factors in some regions.

South Eastern Australia experienced generally good seasonal conditions, with some regions in South Australia challenged only by a freak heatwave event lasting two weeks towards the end of the ripening season.

On the east coast, excessive rain fell in January and February, particularly in the Hunter and Mudgee regions.

Meanwhile, Tasmania and the majority of regions in Western Australia experienced their best vintages in years.

For growing regions close to Adelaide, the season was divided into two parts: ‘before’ the heatwave conditions which were conducive to very high quality, and ‘after’ conditions which presented some logistical challenges.

The heatwave's impact on quality was significantly reduced by the fact that the 2008 harvest began as a very early season overall, and it is assessed that only 15-20pc of the total crop remained on the vine at the time of the heatwave.

On the assumption that the diminishing effect on tonnages was in the order of 10-20pc of that, any loss of national tonnages would be just 2-4pc.