Western Victoria MP and Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford announced the grants to 10 wineries on Friday at Blue Pyrenees winery near Avoca.

Grampians Estate winery at Great Western received a grant to develop a feasibility study for the extension of its cellar door.

The Grampians Tourism and Visit Ballarat groups will use their funding to hire a project manager to implement its Grampians Pyrenees Wine Tourism and Culinary Master Plan.

Pyrenees Grape growers and Winemakers association received money to promote the 2018 Avoca Wine and Food Festival.

Ms Pulford said the grants would help maximise export and marketing opportunities.

“Wine from the Grampians and Pyrenees region is loved in Victoria and across the nation and is renowned for its quality – now we’re taking it to the world,” she said.

The grants were provided through round two of the state government’s ‘Wine Growth Fund’.

One of the smaller wineries on the list of recipients, SubRosa at Eversley, will use its $10,000 grant for ‘digital marketing upskilling’ and a website upgrade.

The winery grows more high-end varieties like Viognier and Nebbiolo to restaurants, specialty bottle shops and direct to consumers.

SubRosa co-owner Nancy Panter said the winery did not have a cellar door and its improving its online presence would be key to generating more sales.

“Creating awareness online will help us to build our brand,” she said.

“We applied for a grant to assist with some digital marketing training and to re-do our website.

“We don’t have a cellar door that people can visit, so our website is our cellar door.

“In order to grow our business, we need to work on our marketing and digital positioning.”

Ms Panter said the grants would help the Grampians and Pyrenees wine regions.

“It’s really a great opportunity for wineries to grow their businesses,” she said.

“For us, it was a project that we wanted to do but now we will prioritise it thanks to the grant.

“It’s great for the region as it encourages business to do projects that they might not have got around to.”