Customer story: meet Emily Swift from Printhie Wines

Meet one of our amazing customers - Emily Swift of Printhie Wines.

What’s your business and what does it do?

Printhie Wines is a family-owned winery located in the Orange Wine Region of NSW. Set on the side of Mt Canobolas at 1000 metres above sea level, guests can enjoy a tasting of our cool climate wines, indulge in a lunch at the Wine Bar overlooking the valley below, or go beyond the cellar door with a selection of intimate journeys of discovery including picnics, Sparkling Masterclass, fly fishing and a helicopter tour. Printhie Wines crafts the Swift Sparkling range which was awarded Best Australian Sparkling at the 2022 Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships in London and has been crowned Best NSW Sparkling for an unprecedented six years in a row at the NSW Wine awards.

When did it start?

The business was started in 1996 when the first vineyard was planted on the family property ‘Printhie’ located near Molong. A winery was added in 2004 changing the nature of the business from grape growing to wine production. The business has continued to grow with the opening of a new state of the cellar door closer to Orange in 2022. Whilst the business has been around since 1996, it was a conscious decision to focus on developing it as a tourism and hospitality business which involved changing the way we look at the customer journey and creating experiences where we can share our journey and love for wine. People are becoming more discerning on how they spend their money and want to find a connection with the product before they buy it. That’s at the heart of our offering – we want customers to feel part of our journey and make their own memories with our brand.

What’s the hardest part of running a small business?

Prior to stepping into Printhie Wines, I had a great corporate marketing career. The migration from suits, 9 to 5 grind, corporate stakeholders and a whole IT department, to the vineyards and the 18-hour days in the family business, was a little testing, to say the least. I think there are many women who marry into family businesses and have to navigate the delicate role of taking up space, gently acquiring responsibility and gaining the respect of older generations. I’ll admit there are days when I miss the corporate perks (especially the luxury of an IT department) but when I reflect on what we have created as a family, I’m incredibly proud.

Together, we’ve endured some serious challenges. In the last five years, we have had to overhaul the business to survive smoke taint from bushfires in 2020 which meant we couldn’t make any wine that year, and then the gruelling punishment of downsizing through Covid. Many tough decisions were made during the last five years but on a positive note it has resulted in a more streamlined and adaptable business structure.

The best part?

It would have to be transitioning the business from not only an award-winning wine business and sparkling producer, to now, managing a restaurant, sharing world-class experiences and running a state-of-the-art cellar door. It was a long, hard journey getting to construction phase and then dealing with difficulties of trying to build during covid. At times it all felt too much but to now stand back and see what we’ve built it’s a very personal career highlight.

Best advice you’ve received?

“Don’t let the great get in the way of the good”. I received this advice from a manager early in my career and to be honest I struggled with the concept and kept trying to say that it should be the other way around – we should always be delivering the absolute best whether it’s a campaign, a new product or experience. However, after being in a small business I totally embrace it now. Don’t get caught up in striving for perfection or you’ll get stuck in the minutiae. Progress, whether it’s perfect or not, is a key component of any successful business.

Where to next?

We have plans to further develop experiences on our site by embracing our rich agricultural heritage. Currently we’re building a kitchen garden so that we can be more sustainable and provide a greater sense of place through our food offerings.

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