The Yarra Valley Grape Grazing Festival has been postponed and will not proceed on its traditional date in February.

The Yarra Valley Winegrowers Association, which manages and owns the event, has decided to review the format of the Festival and consider alternate dates that will move it away from the bushfire season.

The Grape Grazing Festival was held in April 2009 after the original event planned for February was cancelled due to Black Saturday and the ongoing threat of bushfires in the Yarra Valley.

Richard Howden, General Manager of the Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association said that the wineries wanted to take this time to assess all aspects of the Grape Grazing event.

"We will be meeting with wineries in the near future to discuss the format of the festival and select an appropriate new date.  We are looking at moving in a new and exciting direction to offer the ultimate fine wine and food event for the Yarra Valley.

"We have celebrated the Grape Grazing Festival for 22 years and it has become the benchmark regional food and wine festival in Australia, so we are determined to continue to improve the Festival to ensure it maintains this status.

"We are all excited about the chance to review some new ideas and ensure the Festival reflects our position as Australia's leading fine wine region.

"In the meantime we would encourage everyone to come to the Yarra Valley and support the Yarra Valley community and local wineries that were hit hard by the bushfires.

"We think that February will be a time that people will want to reflect and remember Black Saturday.  At some stage we would like to see a small community based Festival in February, but it would be a low key event that honours what people in the Yarra Valley have gone through.

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