See Saw ships Orange wine to the US

Orange’s See Saw Wines have shipped off what could be the first many shipments of wine to the US market.

The export contract had been in the planning for about 14 months, said See Saw vigneron Justin Jarret, but then the outbreak of the global pandemic put everything on hold.

“Just as the lockdown started, we had actually received the order and labelled and packaged it all and then it got postponed due to the lockdown,” he said.

“We thought that was the end of it, but then they came back and said, let's get on with it and the wine left last week on the boat.”

The initial order was for 330 cases, comprising of chardonnay, shiraz and pinot noir. A welcome sale given the near complete shutdown of the hospitality industry in Australia.

 “Domestically, See Saw gives mostly to pubs and restaurants that's where we sell most of our wine, so this is actually great to have picked up a little bit of extra sales from an export order,” said Justin.

He believes the fact they are an organically certified vineyard selling originally certified wine has driven the interest from the US market.

Like many other local wineries, See Saw has also been working on pushing online sales, encouraging people to buy tasting packs, then join in virtual tastings on social media.

“They are good fun. They are not going to replace the loss of pubs and bars, but it certainly has grown and has pushed us to concentrate and look at that area where we weren’t really worrying about it much,” said Justin, who is still confident there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“From a business point of view things have changed, but as we get back to a bit less social distancing and a bit more back to what it was, people will still want to buy wine, people will go to bars and restaurants in the same numbers they did pre-coronavirus. And if the dollar stays low then exports have got a place as well.”