(Wine-Searcher) - A vandal causes thousands of dollars' worth of damage at an Australian winery, but the owner is breathing a sigh of relief.

Barossa Valley winemaker Mark Pearce isn't crying over spilt wine.

But winery owners everywhere will be shuddering at the thought of what happened at Pearce's Kellermeister winery in Lyndoch last weekend – more than $236,000 went down the drain after a man allegedly crept into the winery and opened the taps on four tanks.

About 25,000 liters of wine was released from the tanks in the early hours of Sunday morning. A 57-year-old Barossa Valley man has been arrested over the incident, and charged with property damage. He will appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on March 31.

Kellermeister owner Mark Pearce said he discovered the damage on Sunday morning.

"We're pretty lucky that the wine that was affected was some of our Chardonnay and back-vintage wines, so all of our higher-value wines were unaffected and, you know, are safe and sound," Pearce told Daily Mail Australia.

"It is what it is. We can't do much about it, it's in the hands of the police now."

He declined to comment about whether he knew the man charged with property damage, or whether the man was a disgruntled former employee.

A spokeswoman for the Barossa Grape and Wine Association said "it's disappointing that it's happened" but declined to comment further as the matter was now before the courts.

Since taking over Kellermeister from founder Ralph Jones in 2009, Pearce has led the winery to global success, in particular with his range of Shiraz varietal reds and Shiraz blends, winning a string of awards at London's International Wine Challenge in 2012 and 2013.

The winery's 2011 Wild Witch Shiraz won gold at the Syrah du Monde International competition in 2014 and previous vintages have been highly rated by Australian wine writer James Halliday. The Black Sash Shiraz – made from century-old vines – has also won medals and achieved high scores from critics.

At least Pearce can take comfort from the fact that publicity following crimes such as this has often resulted in a boom in sales and support. That happened with Katie Jones of Domaine Jones, after her winery near Fitou in southern France was vandalized in 2013. While she was absent from her winery at a trade fair, someone broke into her winery and emptied 3000 liters in what was believed to be an act of jealousy against an Englishwoman working in France.