The upcoming re-opening of Sydney to the regions will perhaps serve no industry better than the Hunter wine region.
The lift of the COVID-19 lockdown last year resulted in a huge boom for the industry as state and international border restrictions turned residents to look within their own state for a getaway.
While restrictions have lifted on businesses like cellar doors, some have chosen to stay closed until Sydney-siders can visit again on November 1.
But one winery that has already opened its doors to regional NSW is Glandore Estate Wines.
The business managed to keep afloat during the lockdown thanks to an innovative virtual experience.
"We turned our attention to online specials but also interactive tastings," Glandore Estate Wines general manager Duane Roy said.
"We did a thing called Glandore at home and that was four separate wines in small 100ml vials, a tasting card, four matching chocolates and you get that hosted by our cellar door manager or myself or one of our other winemakers.
"That was hugely successful. We originally tried to do it for corporate thinking of it as a team building exercise and we soon found out that it was more families getting together.
"I had one Zoom where we had two people in Brisbane, we had someone on the Sunshine Coast, three couples in Melbourne, a couple in Sydney and one in Adelaide.
"It was great fun and I must say it was really humbling to be a part of that, because a lot of them were just families getting together so it was quite beautiful to see all these families who hadn't seen each other.
"There were some tears, lots of laughing, but it was a lovely thing to be a part of."
Through that and the wine club, Mr Roy said they managed to retain all of their staff from before the first lockdown last year.
The cellar door has now re-opened on weekends, and Mr Roy said trade was slowly picking back up with tour group bookings.
To cater for COVID-19 restrictions, the business is not allowing walk-in tastings, with people needing to book ahead. Mr Roy said this would help them plan and maximise visitation while adhering to the one person per four square metre rule.
The business will also be supported when cruising re-starts again, not only due to increased visitation but also being a partnered supplier to the P&O Cruises Australia fleet.
"We've done a lot of wine training with their staff members and we were the first ever company in conjunction with P&O to have a cellar door on board a cruise ship," Mr Roy said.
While Sydney visitation will no doubt boost trade, Mr Roy said he didn't expect numbers to be quite as strong as lockdown's end last year.
"When we opened on the June Long Weekend last year there was zero COVID in the country," Mr Roy said.
"There will be people who are still hesitant to travel even if they're double vaccinated, and I think that will probably curtail the madness that there was last year when everybody got out."
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