The popular event, formerly known as the Gibbston Harvest Festival, will be hosted by neighbouring valley wineries Mt Rosa and Brennan Wines and include stalls run by a dozen Gibbston and Central Otago wineries and a dozen gourmet eating establishments from 11am.
''It should be good. It's a good low-cost family day and lets people meet people in the wine game,'' Mt Rosa co-owner Jeremy Railton said. Almost 40ha of grapes were likely to be harvested in six weeks, with up to 50 people hired in the picking team.
About 60% of the harvest would be for pinot noir production and 40% for riesling, pinot gris, pinot blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer.
Mr Railton said the consistent summer season had benefited his crop as ''we can add water, we can't take it away'' and made up for the frosty start to spring.
''It'll be good to end on a good note,'' he said.
Gibbston Valley Winery, at the other end of the Gibbston Highway and the first and largest producer in the Central Otago sub-region, predicted the start of its harvest in about a week's time, also due to a cool start to the spring.
However, the summer had bolstered growth and caused an even flowering and the winery was pleased with the expected yield, which was likely to be on a par with last year's.
''We're cautiously happy at this point and hope the warm and dry spell continues,'' Gibbston Valley Wines winemaker Christopher Keys said yesterday.
''Even if it does rain now, it'd probably be more helpful than anything.
''It's a nice sized season that's ripening at the right time.''
Mr Keys said he thought a harvest of the fruit for sparkling wine might begin in the last week of March. Red production for pinot noir might begin after the first week of April.
A picking team of 40 to 50 people, plus an extra three or four staff, in addition to the three staff in the winery, would be hired for the harvest across the winery's 60ha.
Vintage 2013 would be ''one to remember'' if the grapes already harvested in northern regions were any indication, New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan, of Auckland, said this week.
''We understand the pain the current drought is causing in the pastoral sector, but the warm, dry summer of 2013 has been absolutely perfect for growing and ripening grapes.
''As we move into autumn, still with warm days and now slightly cooler nights prevailing, the prospect is for an outstanding vintage in all our grapegrowing regions.''
