Welcome to the first edition of news on thenew St Aidan website.
Well what a time the last few months has been. We closed our doors on March 23 by order of the Prime Minister. That day we had a staff meeting and discussed what next. It became apparent very quickly that we all wanted to continue in some form. After a bit of brainstorming and discussing risks, protocols and procedures we reopened 3 days later for take-away food and wine.
We were overwhelmed by the support and kind words from our local customers, and managed to keep a skeleton crew active until Monday the 18th of May when we were able to re-open for up to 20 people at a time. We are extremely happy to receive Jobkeeper for 7 of our Cellar door staff, and three of our Farm staff. Without this I am not sure that we would have had the appetite to continue trading.
During our “State of Emergency Lock-down” we have been busy working out the way forward for our business. We now have a new sit-down wine tasting system, new wine clubs, a new website, and a new menu.
The new “Sit Down Tasting” offers “Tasting Staves” (a stave is one of the curved oak planks which make up a barrel). They consist of 5 x 30ml samples (150ml standard glass of wine) accompanied with some small food pairings and crackers. This new format not only fits with the Covid 19 regulations, but also offers an enhanced experience in a relaxed atmosphere.
Our old Carton Club will be replaced by the new subscription clubs. We Will of course honour the old carton club vouchers.
The New club offers a safe and easy way to ensure a regular supply of your favorite drops. There are 4 levels to choose from: Wine Club Benefits
Members can choose their own wine or go with the selections of Whites, Reds, Mixed, and sweets: Wine Club. We are limiting the number of members to 75 per club.
Our new website is the platform for our online sales, clubs, newsletters, and soon event ticketing. Mary and Phil have been working hard to get it all up to speed, and this is the result.
Due to the constraints of the Pandemic, we have had to creatively make the menu more appropriate for the times. We now have 4 main/entre dishes with daily specials, and some lighter options as well. We will change the mains fairly frequently for our repeat customers. We will also continue to offer take-away foods from the menu.
So That is our news for late May. We hope to see you soon at the Cellar Door Restaurant, and predict that the number of guests will increase from 20 at a time fairly soon in June.
