As vineyards and cellar doors start to welcome tourism back across Ballarat and the Pyrenees, there is still a long road for many producers to return to what normal was like.

Winemaker Sasha Fair, from Sally's Paddock at Redbank Winery near Avoca, had a great long weekend's trade. She was looking forward to welcoming more visitors to the Grampians as people start to venture afield on weekends and holidays once more.

Sally's Paddock remained closed during lockdowns in the interest of staff and public safety while other vineyards in the region had facilities or innovative new ways to keep trading. Sales to restaurants dried up with restrictions but the vineyard managed to keep staff working.

The vineyard also already had an effective online presence and opted to step up its marketing on social media and via its customer data base.

But the near-halt in exports was hurting.

Ms Fair said the domestic and even European markets were somewhat satiated in wine needs. Export to China remained a key part of the vineyard's business model.

"A lot of export orders in the pipeline have stalled...A couple of orders have been ordered to China but are still here because shipping has slowed down. China's cranky," Ms Fair said.

Australian trade tensions with China started to escalate when the Australian government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in April.

Wine is one key industry Chinese officials are reported to have flagged for potential higher tariffs.

China is now the world's third-largest market for imported wine, boosted by a growing middle class with a taste for foreign wine, according to the ABC. Australian Trade and Investment Commission shows Australia is the second-largest supplier of wine to China, after France, with exports worth $1.25 billion last year.

Wine Victoria chairman Damien Sheehan, a viticulturist at Mount Langi Ghiran, said China remained a hugely important market to Victorian producers.

Mr Sheehan said the Victorian wine industry had made a big investment, working with the state government, on promoting wine tourism and exports with a heavy focus on China.

Rocky trade relations were going to be felt in the Pyrenees.

"Wineries are affected by the pandemic and this has caused a lot of pain already. The impact of trade issues currently could make this pain last a whole lot longer," Mr Sheehan said.

"We've got our fingers cross at Mount Langi Ghiran in hoping our relationships with China are strong enough to be okay."

Mr Sheehan said wine consumption in countries like Australia and Europe tended to be stable. He said access to growth markets like China were important for Australian producers to survive and thrive together, so there was enough market space for everyone.

The Victorian government's easing lockdown restrictions have been a welcome relief across the Pyrenees.

Mr Sheehan said the big challenge on the domestic front was every winery doing its part to adhere to hygiene and social distancing measures with different visitors' expectations - something wineries, very much a social setting, have never had to manage much before.

A new coronavirus spike or cluster from a vineyard, he said, risked shutting the whole industry down again.

Mark Summerfield has been busy pivoting his focus more squarely on the domestic market and visitors. He owns Summerfield Winery in Moonambel and has been selling pizzas to farmers and locals across the region in lockdown.

Mr Summerfield said he was a "glass half-full winemaker". His location, on the Stawell-Avoca Road, with a takeaway counter had been feeding food-seekers from up to 45 kilometres away.

The shop's 50 to 70-pizza average each weekend ballooned out to 250 pizzas last weekend, the first long weekend with eased restrictions.

Mr Summerfield, like other vineyard owners in the region, used lockdown time to focus on long-planned renovations, including an overhaul to accommodation.

He said with tourism forecasts predicting about two years before international tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels, his focus was on domestic travellers.

"Our biggest tourism comes from Australians and Australians will be looking for places to go," Mr Summerfield said.

"You can't put all Victorians in wineries in the Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula. As soon as we can open up we will."

Ms Fair, at Redbank, said the Pyrenees region was like a hidden gem and she hoped more people from across the state discovered what was on offer.

Both Ms Fair and Mr Summerfield said what had been most pleasing during lockdown was people and businesses in the region looking to support each other, rather than seek convenience.

"For all the tourism, what's most significant to me was to have people back on tables on Tuesday - all the local walkers sitting down for their coffee and cake," Mr Summerfield said. "It's not the big dollars but that felt like normal for me."

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