For Scion Wine's Rowly Milhinch of Rutherglen, and Blackwoods Distilling Co's Leigh Attwood of Yackandandah, the sale was a chance to secure prized pieces to help their businesses.

"I've got a boutique winery and we've got some 60-year-old muscat casts we'll repurpose for my own muscat," Mr Milhinch said.

"It's part of the regional vernacular clearing sales... there's some real goodies here for people who have a purpose for them but it's also social, you get to see a lot of people."

Mr Attwood said clearing sales were also about keep the region's history alive.

"My business, we're built on the success of the wine region up here, so to pick up little bits of wine history from the region is perfect, it's part of our story and it continues the story of the successful wineries," he said.

"We're here trying to pick up a few bargains and things that can help you along, because it's not cheap making wine and making whisky."

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For owner Jim Sawyer and Trevor Manning, who has been with the business from the beginning, it was tough to watch parts of the Mt Prior legacy being sold.

"It's a bleeding heart job, a lot of nostalgia," Mr Sawyer said. Everything from machinery and full barrels of muscat, which sold for thousands, to a small Mt Prior hanging sign, which sold for $110, were auctioned off.

The sale's attendance exceeded expectations, with hundreds of cars and people coming and going across the morning.

"There's a big variety of people," Mr Manning said.

"There's a lot of farmers here looking for bits and pieces, there's gardeners here looking for barrels, there's definitely wine people who have liquor licence and want to blend product with very old stock and there's people with antique shops.

"It's the end of an era."