BUY LOCAL

During the recent lockdown period there has been (unsurprisingly) a noticeable increase in online traffic for the purchase of almost everything deemed essential from firewood to flour. Wine was thankfully identified as an essential item, and online sales increased by as much as 40 per cent for some New Zealand wineries, in some way mitigating the heavy losses these producers would have seen through the loss of on-premise opportunities. We all need to be focused on giving fellow Kiwis our robust support.

I spoke with Ben Glover from Zephyr Wines in Marlborough – as a relatively small producer he would have struggled to increase sales significantly through traditional channels, so found the fastest way forward was to develop direct-to-consumer online sales channels. This appears to be happening in many cases across all regions – good old Kiwi ingenuity to the fore. I have noticed a large increase in the wineries using social media channels (notably Instagram and Facebook) to reach both existing and potential new customer bases. On Ben’s Insta page you’ll find a great video promo to that end.