Generation Y-ine - Samantha White

SAMANTHA WHITE took over the helm at the Whitehaven cellar door just weeks before Covid-19 closed its doors. But the new customer experience manager is swiftly adapting Whitehaven’s Vines Village operation to meet Alert Level 2 requirements, while creating “memorable tasting experiences” for local and domestic visitors. The new landscape – with borders closed to international visitors - is an opportunity to develop unique and personal offerings for those closer to home, says Samantha, excited to be continuing the legacy her parents established 26 years ago.

In the 1990s, Greg and Sue White decided to shed corporate lives and explore the Pacific on their 48-foot yacht Chanticleer, meaning Samantha spent the first six months of her life on board. In 1992, the White family sailed into the Marlborough Sounds to avoid the Pacific cyclone season, and set a new course in their lives. When Samantha was two, in 1994, they founded Whitehaven, naming their wine company for the importance of family and the calm port they’d found in the region.

Twenty six years later, Samantha has returned to the family business, joining the cellar door in early March to cover a maternity leave position. She had helped establish the cellar door in 2015, so swiftly found her feet this season, joining a high-performing cellar door heading towards a record March in terms of visitor numbers and revenue. But within weeks, Covid-19 saw the doors shut on the thriving operation.

Whitehaven’s cellar door reopened under Alert Level 2, but Samantha says closed borders and the ever-evolving Covid-19 situation has required her to quickly reposition

the space as a destination for a New Zealand audience, “whereas prior to lockdown, international and cruise ship customers made up 80% of the cellar door’s visitors”. There are vintage workers and tourists still in the region as a result of being stranded when New Zealand’s borders were closed, but Samantha expects the number of international visitors to slowly diminish as stranded internationals return home.

She is investigating ways to target local visitors and domestic tourists to generate foot traffic to the cellar door. She is also collaborating with other cellar doors and businesses to provide package experiences, such as bed and breakfast with a wine experience as part of the offering. “It’s about making sure we cater to their customers.”

The Vines Village Café closed for good during Alert

Level 4, so the Whitehaven cellar door is already providing light bites for its guests, while exploring more substantial food options such as platters of local produce. Other addons that will create a unique stop for visitors are also in the pipeline, including the chance to pair tastings with food, or to do comparison tastings of, for example, different styles of Sauvignon Blanc, says Samantha. She may be new to the cellar door role, but notes that everyone is new to the transformed landscape of Covid-19, “so it’s kind of perfect timing”. Tastings at Whitehaven are currently by appointment only and can be booked online.

Paying it forward During the Covid-19 lockdown, Whitehaven purchased $10,000 worth of vouchers from local hospitality providers, to donate to essential workers who remained at the front line. Sue White, who is Whitehaven’s managing director, says the idea was to generate some income for hospitality businesses from day one, and to support essential workers. “It’s basically a way to pay it forward and thank frontline staff who have provided services and help to us all through the lockdown.”

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