Comments on: Does a winery still need a web site?

By: randy

randy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:15:39 +0000

Incidentally, here is one of the articles that stimulated the discussion chez nous that may have resulted in this post:

Sure, you'll need a site to sell wines and give practical info. The real content though will be elsewhere, IMO,, and that elsewhere may be partly out of your control. That is the part many of us will have a hard time getting used to.

By: Evelyne Resnick

Evelyne Resnick — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:50:37 +0000

Thanks for all your comments! I answered through a post and hope we'll keep the discussion open.

By: Drew Neisser

Drew Neisser — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:25:20 +0000

Probably the biggest problem for a wine brand without a website will be natural search performance. All those other social media links need to point somewhere. Without a website, consumer & trade searches on google could come up empty handed and that could cost a wine brand dearly.

By: Alison Worth

Alison Worth — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:30:56 +0000

I agree with your thoughts about needing to have a clear presence on the web. I think this is going to become more and more important as the years pass: people will need to be faceboking, twittering in order to keep an engagement with the brand.
For wineries this is only an opportunity to create a closer dialogue with enthusiasts.
A wine blog I discovered and appreciate is Château du Petit Thouars ( http://chateaudupetitthouars.wordpress.com ) in the Loire Valley/Touraine. They have chosen to present themselves in a very personal and relaxed way. I think it's an example for other wineries to follow.

By: Chateau Chambert

Chateau Chambert — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:01:58 +0000

Here is my 2 cents,

I'm a winery and agree with Wink and Bobby. I see all the Internet tools to be fine used this way: The Web site is like the roof; it covers all links to different info users may look for.

Under that roof, you find:
a) Static info: basically the winery history, the vision, the wines, contact form. All this is good-old Web pages, maybe updated once a year

b) Then you have a link (and idealy a menu tab too) goigin to a blog. The blog holds the news, ideally updated weekly if possible.

c) Then a link to twitter...for those looking for daily news and chat room. While twitter can be accessed directly, having the link on the web site makes only one URL to remember; my web site!

d) FaceBook:...well for my own case, it duplicates whatever I post to my blog. I wanted the blog because anyone can read it while FaceBook requires login...and I want to respect privacy, not force people to register to my community, they can always do it later...

At the end, I see the Web site as the new "bricks & mortar" place to all social tools I can use...funny to see the web site turn that way!

Philippe Lejeune
http://www.chambert.com

By: Evelyne Resnick

Evelyne Resnick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:23:04 +0000

While writing this article I knew I was going a little too far. Of course, a winery needs a website for the reasons you clearly and rightly posted, Wink. But it needs to be updated regularly. What I do regret is the trend of a lot of wineries to have a site in Flash - very pretty - but not informative at all. The consumer can't find any uptodate information on the wines or the most recent vintages.

A winery, a brand need to present themselves clearly to the consumers. On the other hand, the consumers don't need to go through millions of motions to get information. It is very pleasant to watch a nice video but why the complexity?

FB, Twitter could easily complement the web site, but only if the web site is uptodated regularly. If not, I'd rather use all the search tools now available to find information on a winery.

By: Bobby Cintolo

Bobby Cintolo — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:03:42 +0000

To really establish a highly recognized brand a winery needs a website.

While I agree that social media, forums, blogs, and other channels are extremely important communication tools when it comes to building a brand it all starts with a website.

Does anyone disagree?

By: Wink Lorch

Wink Lorch — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:31:57 +0000

I do agree with the point you are putting across about wineries needing to find the time and ability to generate content for blogs, twitter, FB etc.

However, I simply cannot agree that they don't need a website as well. A website is still the best way to illustrate the basic offer they have - it replaces a paper brochure. Wineries should focus on producing a simple website they keep up-to-date with information on what wines they have available (with technical sheet downloads), information for visitors (if indeed they welcome visitors), contact details etc. Get rid of the flash, the sound and all the other silly bells and whistles and keep it clear and simple. From there they should send people to their blog/twitter/FB accounts if they have them and vice versa.

Certainly as a writer/editor and as an educator I need this sort of inoformation and can never find it easily on a blog or an FB page. Please can we campaign for simple informational, fuctional websites rather than putting wineries off just when they've got started (or even before they start).