TWO Granite Belt wineries have been chosen to go head to head with producers from other Australian states as 12 judges select their top wine of the night for an SBS Food Network series currently airing.

Ballandean Estate and Just Red Wines will feature in Battle of the Vines, competing against West Australian wines, next month where their top drops of white and red will be judged by a team of 12.

There will be six professional industry judges and six "punters” or everyday people from across Australia, including well-known Stanthorpe man Sam Giacca, owner of Sam's Fruit Shop at the Summit, whose job it is to pick "blind” their favourite wine - not knowing if it comes from their state or not.

Tony Hassall, who runs Just Red Wines with his wife Julia and son Michael, will feature in the sixth episode on July 17, and said he would "definitely” be having "a glass of merlot and some crackers” on the night to toast the occasion.

"It'll be fun,” he said. "We have our fingers crossed. It's good to get the publicity and it's good for the Granite Belt. We're just pleased to be in the show.”

Mr Hassall's 2014 merlot, which was created from vines planted in 1999 and had its first vintage in 2003, will be pitted against a West Australian merlot.

"We thought our merlot was pretty good,” Mr Hassall said.

He said leading wine expert James Halliday had previously given the wine "92 points” when it was first released, declaring it "an outrageous bargain”.

"It's lovely to be chosen - 2014 was quite a good year for our merlot. We make it most years but we haven't actually made one since. We've tended to make cabernet merlots since, which seem to sell a bit better. This one seemed to attract the attention of the French sommelier on the program - he was the one that was advocating it.”

Mr Hassall said there were various criteria that had to be met, and for the category in which he was competing, the wine had to cost less than $20 retail.

Meanwhile, over at Ballandean Estate, business manager Robyn Henderson this week said the family owned and operated winery was "pretty impressed and glad to be included in the six-part series. hosted by young Frenchman Arthur Robert.

Her dad, Angelo Puglisi, and sister, Leeanne Gangemi, feature on the show in Episode 5 with their winery's 2017 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc.

Ms Henderson said the family would definitely celebrate the national wine battle with a get-together on July 10, the night their show is aired.

"We're so lucky that we have amazing tourism in our region. We've had to build our own industry, and what we've done is 80 per cent to 100 per cent tourism, and we're quite sustainable businesses.” People are on holiday here and just want to have a great time. We give them great experiences and if they love our wine, they buy our wine.

"The show is all about how great the wine tastes on the day and, of course, what the competition is. The only boundary we were given was price, so there could be wines compared to each other that are decades apart in age.”

"Win or lose, it will be a great promotion for our region, and the producers have already ordered pallets of wine ready to be sold to viewers via Wine Selectors, a national wine retailer.”

All the wines that win will go abroad to compete on an international level in a Battle of The Vines style, subject to international rights which are currently in negotiation.

Battle of the Vines is on Food Network, channel 33, Tuesdays at 8.30pm.