Formerly McGuigan Simeon Wines Ltd, Australian Vintage booked a $1.3 million net profit for the year to June 30 compared with a net loss of $5.9 million in the previous financial year.
The maker of the McGuigan and Tempus Two brands, which changed its name in January 2007, has not paid a dividend since December 2005.
Chief executive Dane Hudson confirmed that the dividend drought would continue until the company made a "solid profit".
The company also flagged an expected "small growth" in its 2008/09 operating net profit, subject to any changes resulting from a wine glut in the local market, softening demand for Australian wine, and effects of the drought and strong Australian dollar.
"Industry sales offshore were soft over the last six to seven months, but we bucked the trend," Hudson told reporters on Wednesday.
He said sales of private label wine were the hardest to make.
Australian Vintage's performance was buoyed, in part, by a bumper 1.9 million-tonne grape harvest and restructuring of its asset portfolio and offloading its Griffith and Hunter Valley wineries for $20 million.
Hudson said further asset sales were off the agenda while the company completed the $57 million sale of its Loxton winery, 90 minutes drive from Mildura in Victoria's north-west.
"Nothing else is planned," he said.
"We sold our assets early so we're glad about that," he said an investor presentation in Sydney.
The larger than expected 2008 vintage crop had many industry players buying temporary water, many brands being offered for sale and some vineyards mothballed, he said.
"The industry is pretty tough," chairman David Clarke said.
He said Australian Vintage only operates one large winery now.
A $9.2 million spend on water during 2008 will curb future investment in the company's Buronga Hill winery in southern NSW to around $5 million, down from $15 million planned originally.
Australian Vintage plans to pay down some of its $150 million in debt from the proceeds of the Loxton winery sale and keep some funds for acquisitions of brands, Hudson said.
"We get calls from other companies looking to sell and we prefer a brand without a winery connected to it.
"There is overcapacity in the industry, so if we can get the brand without owning the asset then that's a win," he said.
Earnings per share were one cent, up from a loss of 4.8 cents per share for 2006/07, while net tangible assets softened from 2.13 cents per share ito 2.09 cents per share.
Declines in revenue from the private label wine division and bulk wine and processing unit hurt top-line revenue, while total branded sales rose 10 per cent on higher margins.
Exports of branded wine increased by 22 per cent.
