While Hunter Valley wine exports may not be enormous on a global scale, in challenging post-pandemic trading conditions any income stream is a welcome one. To envision just how valuable the change may be, we simply need to revisit how onerous an obstacle the tariffs were upon their introduction.

Speaking in 2021, when the taxes were ostensibly locked in for five years, Tyrrell's Wines managing director Bruce Tyrrell said China was "being the schoolyard bully because Australia won't do what they want or tell us to do".

Before China's export ban, Tyrell's was selling wine to China worth $750,000 to $1 million a year. That level of sales followed the Australian wine sector securing a free trade agreement with China in 2015.

Hunter wineries exported 135,000 litres of wine to China in the 12 months to April 2020. China had been the Hunter Valley's major export market, worth $1.8 million a year or 46 per cent of Hunter Valley wine exports.

Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association chief executive Amy Cooper said at the time China had been the region's biggest wine export market in the Hunter and across Australia.

"From our perspective, it's a very disappointing outcome. Particularly because a number of our wine producers have invested a lot in developing their China markets," Ms Cooper said.

"Now they need to look for other opportunities either domestic or exporting to other countries. That will be a significant investment for them."

Hunter wineries have persisted despite the challenge, which heaped upon years of difficult weather including fire, smoke taint and flooding that made harvests and vintages anything but certainties.

So, what was it all for?

China gave a range of reasons for the tariffs, which remain on products including beef. Its rationales included claims they were an anti-dumping protection, but Chinese leaders have always denied that the tariffs were related to then prime minister Scott Morrison's call for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

Whatever the case, the tensions of the trade war that emerged in 2021 have yielded little fruit for either side. Diplomats and the government deserve credit for managing to reach a calming of relations that allowed such measures to ease.

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was bullish during his Pokolbin visit, arguing wineries could see even better results than pre-pandemic once exports were unshackled, others said it wouldn't happen overnight. Asked when the Chinese market would recover to its $1.1 billion peak, Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres said it was going to take time for networks to re-establish even with "an enormous appetite for high quality Australian wine".

Now, at least, the path towards rebuilding a valuable market seems clear. Hopefully Mr Albanese is right, and absence has helped make the heart grow fonder of Hunter wines. Either way, the ability to trade on even footing again with one of the world's largest economies is a worthy achievement we can all raise a glass to celebrate.