Organic Orange winery See Saw Wines set to open its first cellar door

See Saw produces organic and vegan wines and as another point of difference the cellar door will have a seasonal focus with new wines on offer each season so there will be a different experience every three or four months.

The winery started in 1999 and sells wine in family owned bottle shops across Orange.

However, co-owner Justin Jarrett said the cellar door, which will open on Wednesday, February 1, will be its first cellar door.

"In our tasting each season will be our Fulcra range, which is our top range which we've never had available anywhere so they are wines that have generally been aged for five years, for instance, when we open we will have a 2017 Chardonnay," Mr Jarrett said.

"It's a wine we made five years ago with the whole purpose of only being available cellar door only when we opened."

Located in the former Racine Restaurant building on Lake Canobolas Road, the cellar door is surrounded by vineyards and close to Lake Canobolas.

"We've been growing grapes and making wine since 1999 and we really feel that the time has come for us to to have somewhere where people can touch and feel the brand and get a lot more about organic farming systems and how we make our wines and opportunities for people to really immerse themselves into the See Saw brand and philosophy," Mr Jarrett said.

"We got a design done for our own build pre COVID but obviously during COVID, and then with the cost of building, we decided to lease a premises and that's been about six months in the process.

Mr Jarrett said they were mainly attracted the venue by its location which is about four kilometres "as the crow flies" from See Saw's closest vineyard.

"[It's] on a vineyard in beautiful scenery where you can see the hills of Orange and it's on the way to the lake, it ticks all the boxes for where we would like to have our cellar door position, so close to town but not too close and in the right setting," he said.

"As you drive in the driveway you can see our Balmoral vineyard, which is where Forage starts."

Event and marketing manager Alice Jarrett said people have been inquiring for years about a cellar door.

"I think my brother will be excited not to have people driving into his house turning up for a wine tasting every second weekend because it's the address that's on Google," she said.

"We've had a lot of people asking us when we would be open a cellar door or where they can come and taste our wine and learn about our farming system and organics and who we are as people and a brand.

"It is exciting, and also exciting to be getting involved in a tourism, hospitality business in the Orange region that are just firing on all cylinders at the moment."

Ms Jarrett said See Saw has Orange's only prosecco and all the wine is certified organic and vegan.

She said they will also be releasing a new range of wines for the cellar door called Invergo and it includes some new varieties that they hadn't yet released, or hadn't for a while including a Riesling and a gamay, which is a light-bodied red wine.

The winery also has the Incubator range, which features "skin contact".

"When you are making white wine you normally press the juice straight off the skins," Mr Jarrett said.

However, with the "natural touch" wines the skins are left with the grapes to ferment.

"It's like you are making a red wine but with white wine grapes. You end up with a lot more natural tannins and structure, which is a lot different to a beautiful clear, crisp, sav blanc, or even a chardonnay.

"You completely change the profile of the grapes to make a very different wine."

Cellar door manager Matthew Eustice said it will be open seven days a week.

"We are going to do tastings between 11am and 3pm, all bookable," Mr Eustice said.

He said they will also be serving grazing boards focussed on local, seasonal produce from Orange suppliers.

"It's going to be bookings recommended but we will obviously take walk-ins if there's room.

"We encourage bookings due to expectations of being quite busy."

Mr Eustice is a qualified chef from the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, another wine growing region, but moved to Orange about two years ago and has changed direction to work at the cellar door, which he had been preparing for the opening for about two months.

"I'm passionate about food and wine and the combination of the two, so food and wine paring," he said.

"I've worked in the hospitality industry my entire life, I'm now 32 so I've been in hospitality for about 15-16 years now.

"[I] worked around Australia working as a chef, really enjoyed that for a long time and then have recently started working at a few different cellar doors to really hone in on my wine knowledge as well."

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