2020 BackSA Gift Guide

SidewoodEstate Owen and Cassandra Inglis bought Sidewood Wines in the Adelaide Hills in 2004 as a retirement plan, but soon turned it into an award-winning sustainably certified winery with four vineyards, a bottling plant, a bustling cellar door and restaurant. South Australia is home Owen: “My father was born in Adelaide and my school holidays were spent here on my aunt’s farm in Clarendon. I’ve always wanted to come back to the Hills [after years of working overseas]. More than 90 per cent of our fruit is sourced within our estate-grown vineyards. We also make wine for other Adelaide Hills producers and employ dozens of people from the local community.” It’s been a year! “We were trying to recover from the fires at the start of the year when COVID-19 hit. Exports represent a quarter of our business and from March to June, our exports were zero. On-premise sales were non-existent and the cellar door also had to close. But since reopening, cellar-door sales are up significantly and we’ve sold strongly to our wine club members. SAGourmetMeats With a butcher for a father, Ben Gordon is no stranger to the meat industry. Since opening in 2001, he has built a mini retail empire of seven butcher shops around Adelaide, where old-school values rule. Nothing without the customer “We’re just your local butcher; we still keep those values. We know where the meat comes from; we know what to do with it. In every one of our shops, [the meat] is cut onsite. Our whole business is local customers. Without them, I don’t have a business.” Kids come first “A visit to the butcher always comes with a slice of fritz! Every kid at every one of our shops gets fritz. That’s part of the local butcher experience.” Local love “If you’re shopping with someone like us, you’re keeping the jobs local and the money is staying local as well. All our products come from South Australian suppliers; we put our money back into the community. And the busier we are, the more work we hand out to local companies. That’s really important.” At the festive table “We make all our own red gum smoked ham – the orders are pouring in. There’s some great pork Scotch fillet roast. And fresh seafood like Spencer Gulf prawns and Coffin Bay oysters are always great for summer.” Visit: sagourmetmeats.com.au It’s been one hard knock after another, but we’ve had great support locally when we really needed it. Without that, we’d be struggling.” Long-term growth “Growing the business at an average of 30 per cent a year is very cash-flow intensive – it needs a certain amount of working capital and BankSA understands that. My experience with them has been long-term and it’s been great.” Taste of SA “A gift guide such as this broadens our reach to people across the state. We want to encourage new customers to find out what makes this part of South Australia so special.” Visit: sidewood.com.au Sidewood 2015 Sparkling Chloe Cuvee, $32 “We’ve hadgreat support locally this year, whenwe really needed it.Without that, we’dbe struggling.” Ben Gordon Cassandra and Owen Inglis BANKSA.COM.AU  11 Portrait photography: Kate Dyer / Styling: Alexis Teasdale / Hair & make-up: Kelly Allison / Still-life photography: Liam West / Words: Alexis Buxton-Collins, Samantha O'Brien