XChateau Wine Podcast

Focused on the 20% of the wine market doing things differently, Byron Hoffman and Tyson Caly, co-CEOs of Offset, are focused on enabling “Brand Differentiated Commerce.” At the intersection of design and technology for wine, Offset has significant experience operating allocated offerings of wine. These unique event-based sales methods, which limit how much customers can buy, create new challenges and best practices, unlike other sales channels.  

Detailed Show Notes: 

Byron & Tyson met while collaborating on Last Bottle, combining e-commerce and design

Offset - the intersection of design and technology for wine

• Focused on the 20% of the industry doing things differently
• Most clients in Napa & Sonoma, major ones include Kosta Browne, Aubert, Larkmead, Raen, Bedrock, DuMOL

DTC business models - open cart / online store, clubs, subscriptions, allocations

Allocated offerings (“allocations”) definition - the event-based, controlled release of wine

• Geared around exclusivity
• Offering types - first come, first serve; guaranteed; order request
• Allocation types - individual, group-based, wish only
• Use wish requests to prevent underselling

Differences in doing allocations vs. other models

• A significant effort to decide who gets what, limiting what people can buy
• Timing of sales important - need to consider things like shipping windows
• Checkout experience language is important

Best practices

• “Brand Differentiated Commerce” - how the brand is integrated w/ commerce can be different for every winery
• Simplify and align customer experience w/ the brand
• Full allocation button - can simplify the purchase
• The design flow of customer experience (e.g., initial email, graphics at the beginning of offering) is important
• Invest in website design - many wineries think a lot about packaging and forget about their website or don’t want to appear to be selling wine, but still need a clear call to action
• Too much automation is not always better

Examples of the intersection of design and commerce

• Kosta Browne re-designed how to explain wish requests on their website, reducing phone calls and emails coming in
• Text messaging & magic links (auto-login) enable 20 seconds to purchase, ~98% of texts get read w/in 3 minutes, partners w/ Slick Text

Costs of allocated models

• Similar to e-commerce costs, Offset pricing is a transaction based w/ no monthly fee
• Can have cost efficiencies if wines sell out (e.g., team labor used for other things when not selling, shipping process condensed)

Hybrid approaches

• E.g., Larkmead has a tasting room, club, & allocations
• E.g., Kermit Lynch has clubs, open cart, and behind-the-scenes allocations
• Benefit - providing choices for people w/ different sales models, e.g., clubs for people who want convenience, allocations for VIPs to enable access to special wines
• Cons - a lot more setup
• People want to customize wine club shipments, which is similar technology to allocations and has now been enabled

Allocated offering research w/ professors from Kellogg & Peter - creating the data to get more insight and reduce guesswork for the industry

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With a California-like atmosphere, Texas wine country enjoys a strong local following. Eva Horton, the owner of Flat Creek Estate, shares how they are creating more than a Texas winery but a destination. With multiple venues, including a full-service restaurant and a disc golf course, Flat Creek is getting visitors to come back and enjoy the estate and wines. 

Detailed Show Notes: 

The goal is to be a destination, a real estate development play, not just a Texas winery

Texas wine country - west of Austin

• TX wine trail - 290 corridor, flatter, mostly European & Spanish varietals
• Expanded to Hill Country, NW of Austin
• 3 hrs from Dallas & Houston, 1 hr from San Antonio, 45 min from Austin
• #3 state in US for # of wineries

Visitors to TX wine country

• The majority from Texas come for a weekend
• As Austin becomes more of a definition, it gets more visitors
• Looks California like

Flat Creek overview

• In Hill Country, elevated, grows mostly Italian varietals
• 80 acres, ~26 planted, ~18 producing currently
• Produced ~4,500-6,000 cases, capacity for ~10,000
• Three venues on the property - tasting room, restaurant, pavilion
• The consulting winemaker from CA - Jean Holfinger

Wine pricing - ~$30 whites, ~$40-50 reds, premium to other TX wineries

Estate destinations

• Tasting room - outdoor areas, fire pits, barrel tastings
• Ellera - full-service restaurant, only Flat Creek wines and alcohol
• Pavilion - live music, different food
• 18-hole disc golf course, PGA qualified
• Walking trails - like a winery in a park

Average spend

• $25 for a tasting of 5 wines
• Can range from ~$50-60 to hundreds for higher-end dinners at Ellera

# of visitors - typical weekend - ~400-500/day, special events ~1,000

Sales channels

• 95% sold on site
• 5% online
• Not in distribution yet, but a goal for 2023

Hospitality sales & wine clubs

• ~75% of visitors buy wine
• Loyalty club - get benefits when you buy 12 bottles each year
• “Being part of a destination/club”
• Developing unique members-only benefits to drive membership - e.g., food & wine pairings, creating a VIP room (like a cigar lounge) for higher tier members
• ~40-50% of visitors join the loyalty club 

Capturing non-customer emails - using cards to capture emails, ~50% uptake

~20-30% of customers repeat purchases, using personalized communications to target customers

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In less than three years, Jen & Zach Pelka, the sister and brother co-founders of Une Femme, have taken what was supposed to be an in-house wine brand for their Champagne Bars The Riddler to the fastest-growing sparkling wine in the US. Leveraging data from The Riddler sales with a mission of promoting women and enabling the shattering of glass ceilings, Jen & Zach have taken a CPG approach to rocket Une Femme to become a national player.  

Detailed Show Notes: 

Une Femme launch

• Initially designed as an in-house brand for The Riddler
• Data from The Riddler, from 2 bars, 150-200 wines sold by the glass, 70% women, difficult to find affordable, approachable sparkling rosés by the glass led to Une Femme design
• Launched Feb 2020 - a bad time for on-premise, Covid closures forced more national distribution

Wine portfolio

• The Betty - sparkling white, named after Betty White, no dosage, 80% PN / 20% CH
• The Callie - sparkling rosé from California, 1st wine to take off
• $32 retail 

Product

• Work directly w/ wineries and winemakers, capital-light model
• Mostly Central Coast, CA
• Made in 3 locations w/ a Type 2 winery license
• Made w/ Charmat method (tank) - faster, less expensive, more scalable, spends 1-3 months in tank

Motto - “World-class women-made wines that give back to female-centered charities”

Each wine partnered w/ charities, which gets a lot of press

• The Callie - Breast Cancer Research Fund
• The Betty - Dress for Success
• Limited Edition Wines (Piquettes) - Tree Sisters
• Batonnage Forum (for more detail, see XChateau Ep 40)
• Assesses donations every quarter for contribution amount; can’t tie a specific $ amount to a bottle due to alcohol compliance

Fastest growing sparkling wine brand in the US

• 2020 - 1,500 cases
• 2021 - 5,400 cases
• 2022E - ~100,000 cases
• 2023E - >200,000 cases
• Aspiration - 400-500k case brand to become a “call brand” for sparkling wine, where customers ask for it by name
• Diversity at scale is mostly restricted by access to capital (Une Femme just able to raise $10M Series A)

Packaging

• Multiple formats - 750ml, 187ml, 250ml cans
• Small formats launched to take advantage of events, charities where small bottles (w/ straws) / cans will be photographed/seen vs. drinking from a glass
• 250ml cans driven by Delta - lighter, more scalable, sustainable

Price - will be ~$24.99 from major retail partners as the product scales

• Targeting premiumization categories ($20-40 range) and growing the sparkling category

Promotion

• Brand partners - Marriott (by the glass in high-end hotels - Ritz Carlton, St Regis, JW Marriott), Delta
• Most successful promotion - Hall of Femme awards program celebrated 365 women who have shattered a glass ceiling. Sent them a crate of wine with stunt glass and a hammer to shatter it. Based on the brand name “Une Femme,” meaning it only takes 1 woman to shatter a glass ceiling
• Has done social media, paid advertising, email marketing, & just started text marketing
• Does a lot of events and donations to lots of charities
• Word of mouth from friends in the industry (e.g., wine shop owners, sommeliers)
• Branded credit card - to be part of customers' lives, introducing similar, women-focused, women-owned brands (e.g., Milk Bar), capitalizing on the movement of women supporting women, esp with their wallets
• Brand ambassador program - run through a 3rd party as a way to have affiliate marketing for influencers
• Highest ROI marketing - things that lead to partnerships w/ large national players, e.g., trade shows

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In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Tom Lutz, Founder & Creator of Repour Wine Savor, one of the leading new inventions in wine preservation technology. We discuss the technology, how people have learned about it, the differences between Coravin and Repour, and what the future holds.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Tom is a chemist by trade (he worked in biodiesel and aquarium products)

Repour was invented when he had a newborn son and ended up pouring half bottles of wine down the drain

Technology: 

• It uses food-grade oxygen absorbers
• Binds the oxygen, of which the atmosphere has 21%, does not replace it
• It requires air to exchange and remove the oxygen, so the bottle needs to be stored vertically

The capacity of the stopper

• Built for 5 pours of one bottle, glass by glass - this would expose the wine to 1,500 ml of air
• The max amount a stopper has to handle is 2,000 ml of air

Uses recyclable materials. However, many municipal grids have 3”x3” grids that filter out small objects; for large customers, they do take back repours to recycle

• Pricing
• Consumer: 4-pack ($8.99 / $2.25 each), 10-pack ($17.99 / $1.80 each), 72-pack ($120 / $1.67 each)
• There are often promotions via the email list
• A future target price point is $1/stopper or lower
• Trade: 4x72-pack (288 stoppers) - starts at $0.83 / stopper

Customers 

• Started with on-premise (restaurants)
• With COVID - moved more consumers
• Wineries - have been using them for virtual tastings and wine club gifts, also several doing custom branding

Coravin vs. Repour - both work; Coravin is better for tasting and cellaring wine; Repour is for enjoying wine like you usually would and saving it

Marketing 

• Mostly word of mouth
• After 1 year of testing the science, started with a local somm group that did a blind tasting and Repour worked great
• TEXSOM - gave out samples and many conversations have come back to that event

Duration of effectiveness - weeks or months; Repour has tested out to 6-7 months

The future - potentially replaceable inserts, sparkling wine, and the possibly showing how much oxygen absorbing capacity is left

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review it on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

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Being the lead guitarist of the band, The Strokes, and with a celebrity roster of investors including Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, and Nick Hoult, one might believe that Albert Hammond Jr.’s new wine seltzer, Jetway, should have an easy path to take off. However, creating a product from ideation to quality in a can, starting a new business and raising money, and getting that wine seltzer into stores, restaurants, and people’s hands was more like launching a new band for Albert. It takes a lot of effort, and there are a lot of unknowns as to what might help it stick. Albert tells the story of the first year of Jetway and how celebrity has helped but is far from enough to make the product successful. 

Detailed Show Notes

Albert’s background

• Lead guitarist of The Strokes
• Dad was into French Bordeaux, and Albert really liked the aromas of wine

Jetway’s founding - the idea came from drinking Aperol Spritzes in Italy and thinking it should be canned and modernized

Jetway product

• Ultra-premium wine seltzer, positioned as a new category w/in a category between wine and seltzer
• Wine base with yerba mate and yuzu/ginger/lemon peel (white) or white peach/orange peel (rosé)
• Dry with no added sugar
• Can’s art is trying to be nostalgic and new

Price point

• DTC - $131 / 24 cans (~$5.45/can, incl shipping)
• In-store - $14.99 / 4 pack

Product launch

• Similar to launching a new band
• In 200+ stores
• Available at Disneyland on draft and the San Diego Zoo, both did well
• The goal was to sell 10,000 cases in the first year
• Most people buying are not friends and family

Raising money

• He pitched to friends for feedback, and some wanted to invest
• Investors include Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, Nick Hoult, and Owen Wilson

Leveraging celebrity

• It helps to get in the door for restaurants and stores, but a good product is required to bring people back
• Social media is a “double-edged sword” - it only hits fans of the band, which is not the entire market for the product
• He had Jetway on the road when The Strokes opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a broad audience enjoyed it
• Most of the investors don’t have social media, but mostly have helped provide feedback on product design

Celebrity alcohol brands are growing, partially to diversify business interests and following the success of George Clooney’s tequila brand

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Catching the wine bug from the nudge of a physical trainer, Elton Potts, Founder & Managing Partner of Vine Vault, has built a business focused on enhancing the enjoyment of wine and wine collecting. From full-service wine storage to refrigerated shipping to hosting wine events, Vine Vault has grown rapidly and serves six markets in the US.  

Detailed Show Notes: 

Elton’s background

• A 27-year career in finance & ops ran a global storage and logistics business
• A physical trainer said beer would undo the impacts of training and to substitute it with red wine
• Frustrated with storage and delivery options that existed, he started Vine Vault

Vine Vault

• 1st two facilities launched in Q4 of 2015
• 70% annual revenue growth, doubled in 2021
• Six markets (Napa, LA, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia), >50 team members (incl ~12 sommeliers)
• >75% of wine stored in a full-service storage program

Mission: to enhance the enjoyment of wine and wine collecting (beyond storage)

Additional services 

• Fully refrigerated, door-to-door delivery services 
• Fulfillment service for high-end wineries, incl pick & pack, hand labeling, wax dipping
• Moving cellars
• Wine events
• Sommelier services

Storage basics

• Climate control with low temp fluctuation
• Humidity - too dry dries corks; too humid creates mold
• Security - feel safe and have ease of access
• Access wine - want availability, but doesn’t risk security
• Clean facility - no chemical smells that can damage wine or rodents that might eat labels and packaging
• Location access - ease of drop off / pick up (e.g., ramps)
• No vibration
• Lifestyle requirements - staff to receive shipments, inventory wines

Pricing varies by location

• Self storage - ~$3-4/case/month
• Concierge / full service - ~$4.5-8/case/month

Scale is not that important for only storage

• Scale supports logistics and events
• Plans to expand into more markets 

Arranges pickup & delivery of wines bought from wineries for consumers

• Schedules delivery, refrigerated, no styrofoam 
• Winery avoids breakage, returns, and damage
• Winery knows customers get the best experience of the wine

Inflation and supply chain impacts - price not keeping up with cost increases

• Added a fuel surcharge
• The most significant issues are supply chain, e.g., a truck offline for 4 months waiting for a door latch

Developed boxes for storage & shipping

• Cardboard lays bottles flat, sturdy for stacking, and bottles don’t touch each other
• 40-60% recycled material, no styrofoam
• White color to show confidence in the process, won’t get dirty or damaged

Traveling road show for wineries - organize and plan events

Business breakdown - all segments growing

• Wine delivery 40%, storage 30%, wine moving 20%, events 10%
• The biggest opportunity is delivering wine

Trends

• More women collecting wine
• Post-baby boomers collecting wine
• The storage business is still growing, and people are becoming aware of it

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Library Release - Originally released as episode 26 on Nov 11th, 2020

With a 25-year history, WineBid is the oldest and largest online wine auction site. The original re-commerce platform, Russ tells us about the auction process from the buyer and seller perspective and all the data they collect and display for the wines. This includes innovations such as a 360-degree bottle shot, price history charts, and new functionality like their customized shipping feature. He spills the beans on a few tips and tricks to get the best deals on WineBid!

Detailed Show Notes: 

WineBid - 25 years old, based in Seattle with operations in Napa, the oldest and largest wine auction site

Weekly auctions - open at 7:15 pm PST on Sundays, close at 7 pm PST the next Sunday

• All items open at the same time
• Pro’s get 1st 5-10 minutes to view and place bids
• What doesn’t sell rolls into the following week
• Now introducing some wines mid-week, with most wines going in one week
• Set good reserves upfront

For Sellers of wine

• Consignors are mostly private individuals
• Most sales are for $10,000-$1M+, ideally $100+ average bottle value
• Sellers send their list and get an estimate
• WineBid does the appraisal and after agreeing with the consignor, ships wine to the Napa warehouse
• Wines are inspected, authenticated, and photographed
• Once sold, sellers get a check or electronic wire transfer
• As part of an estimate, for larger cellars, WineBid will help catalog and pre-inspect on-site

Reasons people sell wines

• As in many businesses, the 3 D’s - divorce, debt, and death
• People also have their tastes change and swap out what’s in their cellars
• They move and want to downsize their cellar
• Spouse/partners - may force sales before they can buy more

Consignment vs. cash buyout for wine sellers - generally make more money consigning and capture more upside, but takes more time and can get paid sooner, at a discount, with immediate cash buyout

Business model

• Seller commissions - at most auction houses, 5-25%, the larger the consignment, the lower the premium
• Buyer’s premiums - generally 15-25%, 17% at WineBid vs ~20-25% for live auctions

Buyer demographics - ~135-150,000 registered bidders

• 70% US, 20% Asia, 10% Europe
• ⅔ Male, ⅓ Female
• Upper middle-income with professionals in high-tech, finance, lawyers, doctors, etc.
• Demographics are getting younger, particularly in 2020 -> interested in a broader selection of wines with higher mobile usage
• Most learn about WineBid via word of mouth, recently doing more social and digital advertising and trying to make the experience more personal

WineBid Innovations

• 360-degree hi-res bottle shots
• One of the best for still photography in wine auctions
• Shipping functionality - can see everything you have and pick and choose what and when to ship
• Some of the most detailed condition notes on bottles
• Wine price chart for the history of the bottle

Provenance premiums

• Don’t see significant premiums on provenance
• No significant premiums for original wood cases (“OWC”) - buyers often don’t want to pay extra to ship the wood case
• Certificates of authenticity not seeing significant premiums
• Label appearance is important to many buyers

The proliferation of wine critics and influencers has led to some influencers rivaling and outpacing traditional media

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The wine storage landscape has never been as dynamic as it is today. Primarily due to Vino Vault and its goal of “making wine collecting more enjoyable.” With six facilities today and the goal of getting to 40-50, Jeff Anthony, President & CEO, and Jeff Smith, Chief Wine Officer, describe how scale allows them to offer more products and services to customers. From a soon-to-be-launched marketplace to auction advisory, Vino Vault is taking wine storage to another level.  

Detailed Show Notes: 

Jeff Anthony (President & CEO) - wine enthusiast for 30 years, storage expert for 35 years (Iron Mountain)

Jeff Smith (Chief Wine Officer) - helped father catalog his wine collection and turned it into a business - Carte du Vin Wine Cellar Management and wine storage business that sold to Vino Vault

Vino Vault offerings

• 1st and foremost, a storage company
• Consulting for in-home cellars
• Logistics for wine moving
• Soon to launch a marketplace for storage customers to buy and sell wine
• Auction advisory (Jeff Smith’s role)

7 locations - 3 in LA, Dallas, Houston, NYC, Denver

Storage best practices - temp control, humidity control, security, racking

Wine Owners - proprietary software for full-service customers, can manage collection and schedule delivery

2 types of customers - private locker (~50%) and full service (~50%)

NYC is all full service, trying to get more people on full service

Supply chain and inflation have not impacted business as higher-end customers feel it less

Vino Vault differentiation - national reach, in 6 markets today, will be in 10 by early 2023

Scale benefits - can offer more products & services, can spread expertise and technology across a bigger business

M&A - goal is 40-50 locations, 80% North America, 20% Western Europe (UK), ~8-10 acquisitions / year

Storage market size - ~215-230 Facilities

• NA (US + Canada) - ~135-140 independent storage facilities
• W Europe - ~30-40
• Rest of the World - ~50

Auction services - 20 years dealing with all auction houses

• Handle all the logistics
• Advisory services are free to customers with no obligation
• Get paid a finder’s fee from auction houses

Marketplace

• Focused on the ~80% of wine to sell that is up to ~$100-125/bottle (vs. ~20% that is rare and collectible and should go to auction)
• The benefit is speed to market, and transactions can happen immediately vs. ~4 months for auctions
• Commissions are dramatically lower than auctions

Data insights - anecdotally seeing a move away from high-end Napa Cabs and Sine Qua Non

Wine tastings and events - host some at some facilities, building event space in the flagship LA store (The Wine Hotel)

Storage is a sticky business vs. online wine retail which is transient

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What is the relevance of having 100s of gold medal wines and the competitions that hand them out? According to Doug Frost, MW, MS, it references back to the 19th century, when people were trying to describe what was happening in their wine regions. Doug describes the history, value, drawbacks, and key success factors of wine competitions. He delves into their changing influence in the era of the wine critic and the modern era of the sommelier. He contrasts this with the Wine Pinnacle Awards, now in its second incarnation in Singapore. 

Detailed Show Notes:

Doug’s background 

• Master of Wine and Master Sommelier for more than 25 years
• Restaurant background, has worked in retail, distribution, and now owns a winery (Echolands Winery)

Wine competition history

• Started in the 19th century - attempts to describe what’s happening in a winegrowing region, e.g., 1855 Classification of Bordeaux
• The 1950s-1960s - started to grow, especially in regions outside of Bordeaux and Burgundy, which had classifications to prove wines were high quality
• E.g., 1976 - “Judgment of Paris” tasting where CA wines beat French wines
• The 1980s-1990s - competitions grew to find out the best of the areas w/o classifications, mainly “new world” such as the US and Australia

Competition examples

• Sonoma County Fair - focused on Sonoma
• Decanter World Wine Awards - covers the world, dependent on wineries submitting wines, ranks the best of the wines submitted

Value of competitions - tells you about wines you haven’t heard about yet

Drawbacks of competitions

• Wineries w/ proven track records often don’t submit - more downside than upside
• They usually charge for submissions

Keys to a successful competition

• The quality of judges is key
• Know the purpose of the competition (e.g., examining a specific region, grape variety, etc.)
• Control the style of wines w/in categories, and make sure a particular style does not dominate every flight - e.g., Jefferson Cup controls the # of wines from a region

Competitions vs. wine critics/magazines

• Competitions - no expectation that top brands submit
• Top magazines - top brands must show up

Competitions are still relevant in Australia; in the US, competitions gave way to individual critics, which may now be giving way to others (e.g., crowdsourced scores)

Still in the era of the sommelier

• Somms talk to each other (vs. retailers)
• Somms influence each other (Pinnacle tries to embody the same idea)
• Somms actually sell wine (vs. critics)

Wine Pinnacle Awards

• Co-created by Jeannie Cho Lee MW
• International in scope - dozens of judges from all over the world, each region has equal weighting
• Judges mostly MSs, MWs, and senior wine writers
• Each judge was asked to nominate stand-out wines from a specific region and vintage that stood out in their tastings over the past few years (e.g., best Bordeaux from 2010)
• Target audience - collectors and more experienced consumers
• Trying to not bring up the same wineries every year by highlighting different vintages, including overlooked ones
• Hosts an award ceremony each year where tickets are sold, does not charge for submissions

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“Wine is an emotional sale, not a rational one.” according to Katherine Cole, Communications Director of Vin Agency, making storytelling and the immersive nature of web design critical for DTC wine sales, according to Katherine and Jon Krauss, Creative Director of Vin Agency. They explain how website design can improve brand messaging and create more DTC sales by making websites discoverable, drawing the consumer in, and making it easy to purchase once the thirst is built.  

Detailed Show Notes: 

Jon’s background - founded Vin in 2009

Katherine’s background - “recovering wine journalist,” has written 5 books, was a wine journalist for the Oregonian Newspaper, hosts The Four Top podcast

Vin is a creative agency and brand consultancy for wineries

• The core focus is custom website design
• Winery focus gives Vin deep expertise in the space

Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) - how people find a website

• Has technical elements - e.g., meta descriptions, site maps - Vin uses WordPress that has plug-ins to make this easier
• Has communication elements - using SEO keywords (e.g., Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir) and being strategic around where the terms appear (e.g., in headlines, the size of the words, where they appear on the page)
• E.g., Hibou - re-launched their website Sept 2021, pageviews went up >400%, new site visitors up >200% (shows SEO working), and average session duration up >140% (showing the storytelling is working)

Wine is more of an emotional purchase, less rationale, so more immersive website experiences are powerful

• E.g., Casino Mile Ranch - didn’t have solid website engagement and wasn’t getting their story across; after the website re-launch, customers have kept coming back to the site

E-commerce design is critical for wine websites

• E.g., Seavey Vineyards - their e-commerce was awkward and difficult to navigate (they use WineDirect); Vin re-designed it using WordPress, and it now drills into products to see different formats (e.g., magnums, etc.) and vintages leading to +80% increase in large format sales
• The ability to customize checkout flow depends on the e-comm vendor (Commerce 7 and Offset/Figure are Vin’s favorites for this, Offset particularly for allocated wineries)

New technologies, e.g., chat boxes and texting, can improve performance but depends on the type of winery

• E.g., Silt sales rocketed up when they launched a new website in conjunction with text messaging which linked to the site

Visitation/hospitality best practices

• Immersing visitors to the feeling of being at the winery
• Having photography without people in it helps people imagine that they are in it

Website costs

• It can range from $5-100k depending on the size of the winery and the scope of the website, and the normal range is ~$12-30k
• Some sites can be built over time
• Better to start with a wine-focused developer, people who try non-wine template sites often come to Vin because their e-commerce doesn’t work properly

Highest ROI areas

• Eliminate dead ends on the site for the path to purchase
• Create a call to action at the bottom of each page

Website trends for wineries

• Some language cues being used with consumer psychology in mind, e.g., “discover” vs. “home page”
• Scroll animation
• Drone videos and videos in more creative ways
• “Photography will never go out of style” some luxury wineries use immersive art photography

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