Orange's 2022 Cellar Door of the Year goes to Swinging Bridge Wines

Swooping on seven trophies at the 2022 Orange Wine Show, the family-run Swinging Bridge Wines has taken out the title for Orange360 Cellar Door of the Year.

With its crew feeling "starstruck" at the recent results, cellar door manager Wil Arnold said the title is one that Swinging Bridge now holds close.

"We're super proud of our efforts, especially during a bit of a transition period for us going from a smaller cellar door to something a little bit bigger," he said.

"We entered our cellar door into the competition and they [Orange360] effectively sent a mystery shopper to the vineyard, which we had no idea of at the time.

"They did a pretty good job at disguising themselves."

But that secret was out once employees received a jam-packed email filled with positive feedback from the popular tourism destination group.

This boasted of the vineyard capturing "the beauty" of the Central West's elevated wine region, along with championing the site's newly-renovated space.

"We were judged on the quality of our wines right through to the knowledge of the cellar door and the quality of how we presented our product as a team, there were all sorts of boxes there," Mr Arnold said.

"There were a heap [of items] across general presentation as well, from the driveway coming in and even the bathroom facilities."

Finishing their last renovations in October of 2022, Mr Arnold said that business was mainly operating out of a marquee at the time.

Which is also why the crew is feeling extra humbled to grab the honour.

"It was definitely something that we were just taking in our stride, we were always doing our best regardless [of renovations happening]," he said.

"We must've had it looking as good as we possibly could, so it's pretty nice to know that we'd left that impression and through the efforts we went to last year."

That hard work ended up speaking for itself at the 2022 Orange Wine Awards, with Swinging Bridge Wines picking up awards in the following categories:

With honours pinned across the board, the cellar door manager is feeling optimistic about business moving forward.

He remains positive that Swinging Bridge will float to the top when it comes to those "must see and do" picks on the tourism list.

"It's a pretty competitive market because you've usually got people travelling to Orange just for the weekend, so there's not enough time for them to travel to our region's 40-odd cellar doors," Mr Arnold said.

"So hopefully this title gives people that added confidence in booking with us and the different experiences we offer, because we've taken a big step since expanding the cellar door last year.

"As a team, we're just feeling really humbled and proud to be in this position."

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