Warm Welcome

Seated tastings proved popular at Cloudy Bay over summer. Photo Richard Briggs

BRENDA WEBB

SEATED WINE tastings appear set to remain at Marlborough cellar doors. Under Covid-19 Alert Level 2, cellar doors were forced to implement the seated system, and it’s proving a popular shift.

Nanette Kirk, acting cellar door manager at Whitehaven, based at the Vines Village, says seated tastings offered an improved encounter for both customer and cellar door hosts. “We’ve pretty much kept to that model as it provides a much nicer one-to-one experience,” she says. “It’s far more satisfying, because you can have a two-way conversation rather than it being pour, pour, pour as it was previously, especially on busy cruise ship days.” Tastings are not just about the wines, she says. “People are fascinated with our region and we now have the time to talk about that as well as the soils, the geography, the vineyards and of course the wines.”

Domestic tourists visiting Whitehaven post-lockdown are spending more, and Nanette is hopeful the opening of the Australian travel market will also result in good sales. “The average domestic spend has doubled, with Kiwis valuing quality wine,” she says. “And Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has long been a favourite with Australians.”

Customer experience manager at Framingham, Elgee Leung, is heading into winter buoyant after a successful summer, and is optimistic about the Australian travel bubble opening up. “After lockdown we found Kiwis were travel crazy so I imagine the Australians will also be craving travel and we (New Zealand) are their first choice,” he says. Framingham is also continuing with seated tastings as they provide a more in-depth experience, according to Elgee. “I think the quality of the tastings has definitely improved with the seated tastings,” he says. “It allows staff to explain our philosophy and tell our story which we simply couldn’t do in previous summers as we were so busy.”

Seated tastings were introduced at Hunter’s Wines about five years ago and Jane Hunter says they noticed a difference straight away. “The experience was far more relaxed, people didn’t have to line up and there was no pressure on staff,” she says. “It made the visits enjoyable again – people started taking their time, having a glass of wine, walking in the garden and there just wasn’t the rush, rush, rush there used to be.”

With fewer staff available this past season – Hunter’s typically taps into the backpacker market – Jane says the seated system worked really well. She also notes that domestic travellers spent more as they were driving and could take wine with them. Jane predicts the opening of the Australian tourist market will have an impact next summer. “I don’t think it will be immediate, but New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has such a good name in Australia, we will surely get independent travellers coming through again.”

Wither Hills enjoyed a busy summer at both the cellar door and restaurant. Manager Marcus Simmerlein says staff were able to give visitors a better experience without the huge tourist numbers of the past, especially during busy cruise ship days. “You’d get 4,000 to 5,000 people hopping off the ship at the same time – that’s a massive number of people coming through the region and it’s very hard to give them a good experience,” he says. “It certainly helped us to offer a better and faster service this season not having cruise ship visitors.” With reduced tourist numbers this season, and seated tastings at their cellar door, Wither Hills was able to give an enhanced experience, says Marcus. “We noticed we were getting a higher value tourist – Kiwis who are not able to travel overseas were certainly spending in New Zealand.”

Cloudy Bay’s cellar door was “very busy” over summer, with seated tastings proving popular. They will continue, says Nicky Hewett, customer experience manager. “I’d say it’s generally true that seated tastings work well for most cellar doors – for us it meant we could manage visitor numbers and staffing and communicate capacity clearly to customers,” she says. “It meant people had a more consistent experience than what was possible in the much busier days of the past. If we were busy, people could buy a glass of wine and enjoy the grounds.”

While cruise ship days were a challenge for many cellar doors, they could be lucrative, says Nicky. “Potentially cruise ship visitors will feel motivated to return at a later date on longer stays so we want to provide a great Marlborough experience, but that can be difficult with such large numbers,” she says. Nicky says Cloudy Bay is well set up for Australian travellers when they come, with contact tracing, sanitising and seated tastings. She is not anticipating a huge rush of visitors initially. “I think people will be cautious – they will travel for family and business reasons first.”