The incident happened overnight on Thursday and the vehicle was ''long gone'' by the time the damage to 10 rows of Grasshopper Rock's grapes was discovered yesterday morning, Mr Moffitt said.
Senior Constable Mike Colligan, of Alexandra, said it appeared the vehicle had left Earnscleugh Rd and ''launched into the air, before landing, hitting a pole, taking out the vines and causing all the damage''.
The distance between the road and the first vineyard pole which was hit was about 20m and the damage extended for another 20m.
''Speed has probably been a factor; there's no brake marks on the road, and there's a possibility alcohol was a factor in the crash as well ... obviously the driver didn't stick around, or report the crash,'' Snr Const Colligan said.
He appealed for information from the public and said the car was a dark blue colour but he had no further detail on the make or model.
''The vehicle will be badly damaged, so it would have had to be towed or trailered away from the scene and maybe someone's noticed a damaged car that might have been hidden away. The driver and occupants of the car, if there were any passengers, must've been lucky to avoid any injuries.''
Mr Moffitt said the damaged pinot noir vines were 12 yearsold and were among the 38,000 vines that were the source of several national wine awardsfor Grasshopper Rock. While some would survive the damage, most would have to be re-planted.
He estimated the cost to the vineyard to repair the damage, including repairing fences and wires and replacing the vines and about 15 posts and eight strainer posts, would be about $5000, including labour.
''There's a crop on the vines now, so it's not very good timing for us.''
He lives beside the vineyard but heard nothing suspicious that night and none of the other neighbours heard anything unusual.
''A lot of time was spent by whoever crashed, clearing things up a bit and it would've been a massive tangle of wires to get the car out of - it would have been like hitting a spider web,'' he said.
''The posts are buried 1.2m in the ground and they've been broken off.
''The first I knew of it was when one of the workers coming into work from the Clyde side mentioned the damage - we heard nothing in the night.''
The car had gone through a wire netting fence before entering the vineyard.
