As vines get older and winegrowers tune in to their vineyards the sub-regional and vineyard differences are emerging and we are seeing more single-vineyard wines.
As in any marginal area, site selection is important, with north-facing, free-draining slopes highly sought-after. Water for irrigation and, increasingly, for frost-fighting, is important.
The weather has not always been kind.
Ash from the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 hung in the atmosphere causing difficult conditions for the 1992 and 1993 vintages, and in 2006 and 2007 late frosts decimated the potential crops and increased the sales of frost-fighting windmills.
Phylloxera, the louse that kills vines by eating the roots of vinifera vines, was discovered in the region in 2002 and many of the older vineyards are slowly being replaced with grafted stock that is resistant.
Along with wine, vineyard restaurants and artisan food producers have sprung up in the region, among them Gibbston Valley Cheesery and Provisions in Cromwell.
Pheasant and partridge are farmed and wild rabbits processed at Bendigo Station, koura (native freshwater crayfish) are farmed at Alexandra, and nuts and olives are now widely planted.
And, as there has been for a long time, there is still fruit and honey - and sheep.
