The Winery Web Site Report

What Wine Goes With An In-N-Out Burger?

 

Do you believe that wine is fun?  Learn About Wine does.  Here's the promotional blurb for their BLIND DATE Cab + Burger event:

Hey, we can pour great wines and you can take them all on a cheap date! Speed date, whatever… let’s get together and taste 20 really interesting wines and see which one you like best.

This is a small 1 ounce pour but… you will taste an entire bottle by the end of the tasting! All wines are pre-poured, but we will not tell you which one is which until you have tasted them and noted your favorites. Then we will unveil the wines…. One at a time…

Who is the best in this line up? Taste-date them all and see which one you like the best.

Seriously folks – this is a lot of fun and the wine list is “ridiculous good” !

And the Cabs (mostly from the 2005 vintage) do seem interesting.  The event appears to be a series, each one featuring a different varietal paired with In-N-Out's deservedly-famous Double-Double.

Wine and food is a natural, and the fast-food angle is an easy way to draw attention.  Consider working with a local restaurant (fast food or otherwise) and promoting it via your Web site (of course) and social media.

Man, I'm hungry!

(via Iconoculture)

Who Links To Your Winery Web Site?

 

It's interesting to see what other sites link to your home page (or actually, any page on your site, such as the product page for your best-selling wine).  It's free and easy .

1. Go to http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
2. Type the URL of your Web site or Web page into the box at the top and click "Explore URL."
3. A new page will display.
4. Click on the Inlinks button near the top of the Results box.
5. Select "except from this domain" from the Show Inlinks: drop-down box.

You should now see a list of sites which link to yours.  If you like this sort of information, you should sign up for Google's Webmaster Tools (free!), which offers even more details to validated site owners.

Ah, To Be Harlan Estate

 

At the Direct To Consumer Symposium last Tuesday, I ate lunch at the same table as three emissaries from Harlan Estate.

First of all, it was interesting to see Harlan representatives at a show where, ostensibly, people are trying to figure out how to sell their wines direct, a problem which Harlan doesn't appear to have.  Perhaps it's related to their recent acquisition of Diamond Oaks.

Second, they make 2,000 cases of a $500 a bottle wine ($6,000 a case).  About 60%, or 1200 cases, is sold to their mailing list.  30% goes to the trade, and the remaining 10% is donated or placed in their wine library.

(I'm probably overstating things, since 600 - 800 of those 2,000 cases are significantly-less-but-still-expensive The Maiden, not the Proprietary Blend).

If they have real costs of $100 a bottle (hard to imagine, even with the fancy stationery), that's a  very nice profit. $5.76 million from the mailing list alone.

Nice work if you can get it.

Final Day for 2010 Winery Sales Survey!

I'll be closing the 2010 Winery Sales Survey tomorrow, so if you are a winery owner and you haven't yet taken the survey, this is your last chance to help me out.  As I've mentioned, the results will be summarized in a future post (no individual winery information will be released).

Thanks for helping me out!  I really appreciate it.

A Gentle Reminder: Time Is Running Out!

If you're a winery owner, please take the survey .  If not, please pass this post along to any winery owners you know.

THANK YOU!

(sticky note image creator)

2010 Winery Sales Survey

If you own or manage a winery, I'd really appreciate it if you would take the following survey.

It's easy: there's only one required question (and only four questions total).  There are no dollar figures, just percentages.  You can do it anonymously.  And all the information you provide is completely confidential: I will not share or publish your individual response.

Clarification added on 2010-01-10: I plan to summarize the results of this survey in a future blog post.  I'm trying to gain insight into how wineries think about the various channels through which they sell wine (and receive income).  I appreciate your help.

If you know winery owners/managers who don't read this blog, please pass the survey along to them by sending them this URL:  http://tinyurl.com/wwsr-survey.

Questions? Drop me a line at mike@winerywebsitereport.com

Don't forget to click Submit Your Answers at the end!

This Is Your Web Site On iPhone

The iPhone is a best-seller (despite AT&T).  As a single phone, it is probably the dominant US-based mobile phone today.

If you haven't yet taken time to see what your winery Web site looks and feels like on an iPhone, please do (I'm sure at least one of your family or friends owns one).  Some sites are truly hideous. Flash-based sites don't work at all.

This has been a public service announcement.  Thank you.

PS - the Apple tablet computer (the iSlate?) appears to be coming soon.

PPS - Everflight does mobile winery Web sites.

2009 Best Of Wine Online

If you haven't already done so, check out Jeff Lefevere's two-part awards post at Good Grape: Part 1, Part 2.

I think Jeff deserves some recognition as well for taking the time to consider thoughtfully the state of wine online.  Please take time to read and comment on his posts.

Thanks, Jeff!  Looking forward to more Good Grape posts in the new year.

WineRelease.com Surveys Winery Mailing Lists

 

Neil Monnens at WineRelease.com recently conducted two surveys on winery mailing lists (one for consumers, one for wineries), and he's now released the results.  To encourage you to go look, here are the questions:

CONSUMERS (435 responses):

1. How do you feel about the following winery mailing list practices? (6 practices to rate)
   
2. Should US wineries adjust their pricing, as Bordeaux does, depending on the quality of the vintage?
3. If a winery gave a discount to long-time list members who consistently purchase, would you { purchase every year, increase purchase amount, not change }?
4. What is a reasonable shipping/handling cost, per bottle.
5. If a winery has more wine to sell, which method do you recommend?
6. Do you ever resell wines you're forced to take in order to stay on a winery's list?
7. Are you on any mailing list with the intention of reselling the wine for a profit?
8. Over the past year, have you { increased, decreased, not changed } your mailing list purchases?
9. What percent of the wine you purchase is purchased direct from the wineries?
10. What method do you prefer for receiving information from wineries?

 see the results

WINERIES (155 responses):

1. Do you offer a mailing list?
2. Does your mailing list require any of the below? (6 potential requirements)
3. Should US wineries adjust their pricing, as Bordeaux does, depending on the quality of the vintage?
4. What do you charge for shipping/handling, per bottle?
5. If you have more wine to sell, which method do you use [to distribute the excess to your list]?
6. What is your method of communication with your customers?

see the results

One of the nice things is that Neil includes the verbatim comments for each question, which makes the survey results much less sterile.  This is a great way to see how mailing list customers view the world, and how other wineries handle their lists.  Go read them.

I also wanted to call your attention to Neil's site, WineRelease.com.

WineRelease.com informs wine enthusiasts about upcoming North American wine release dates.

(Like this blog, WineRelease.com is a labor of love, aided by a handful of winery sponsors and some advertising.)

Neil has about 2,000 subscribers, and he strives to make sure that people who subscribe do, in fact, actually read the newsletter by periodically re-qualifying his list.  Here's an example of the monthly newsletter Neil sends out to his list. 

Astonishingly, only 1,519 wineries use WineRelease.com to distribute information about their new releases For a winery, signing up is as easy as sending an e-mail to Neil (see here for the address), and it's free!  

Why wouldn't you take advantage of one more way to let people know about your wines?  By implication, if you are telling people when your wines will be available, they must be worth knowing about.

Lazy Sunday: Judging Wine

From this excellent Wall Street Journal article on wine judging, it appears that wine critics aren't particularly consistent, nor do they share the same opinions of a given wine.

Francesco Grande, a vintner whose family started making wine in 1827 Italy, told me of a friend at a well-known Paso Robles winery who had conducted his own test, sending the same wine to a wine competition under three different labels. Two of the identical samples were rejected, he said, "one with the comment 'undrinkable.' " The third bottle was awarded a double gold medal.

So, drink what you like, medals and points be damned!

WinesTilSoldOut.com

WinesTilSoldOut.com (WTSO) is very much like wine.woot: A new wine goes on sale each day at 12 AM.

Paul Mabray of Vintank tweeted about WTSO the other day, wondering who is behind the site.  The site itself is a bit coy:

WTSO.com is an online store that focuses on selling wine at 30%-70% off store and internet site prices. It started as an in store department of the parent company that will remain nameless so we can continue to get all these great wines at ridiculous prices and pass them on to you!

 So, I put my Internet Detective hat on and went to work.  Turns out, it's not much of a secret.

The man behind the WTSO domain registration is Joe D. Arking, who LinkedIn reveals to be an executive vice-president at Roger Wilco Wine & Spirits in scenic Pennsauken, NJ.

Free Book

I'm a great believer in non-fiction books as a very cheap way to get smarter.  So, when a book is *free*, I'm inclined (a) to get a copy for myself, and (b) tell other people about it.  This is part (b).

Sam Carpenter wrote a book called Work the System: the simple mechanics of making more and working less.  Now you can get it for free (as a PDF).  Why free?

If the book resonates – you’ll know one way or the other by the end of the introduction – consider buying a hard copy for yourself and maybe another copy as a gift for someone else. 

The short version: send an e-mail to pdf @ workthesystem.com with the words simple mechanics as the Subject: of the e-mail.  You'll get the PDF by return e-mail.  Note: your e-mail will automatically be added to their mailing list, although you can unsubscribe at any time.

Let me know what you think of the book by leaving a comment.

Oh, Dear!

The economy is still moribund:

BFS-175918: Winery - Custom Crush Facility Location: Other California (Sonoma, CA) Asking Price: Between $2.5 Million and $5 Million ($2,750,000) Summary: 65,000 case custom crush facility with existing, long-term clients. Room to expand. Profitable. Owners looking to retire. The equipment is in excellent condition. Business is mostly small-lot producers,...

BFS-175915: Wine Estate in Distress Location: Other California (Sonoma, CA) Asking Price: Between $5 Million and $7.5 Million (Make Offer) Summary: Beautiful 80+ acre wine estate located in Sonoma, California. 14+ acres of planted vineyard. Approx 20+ plantable acres. Main house + guest house. Ample water supplies. Private lake on property..... As always, the details are at MergerNetwork.com

Giving Through Growing: An Analysis

Giving Through Growing is the name of a partnership between Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge brand and the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA).  Here's the full press release from June 19 of this year.

The basic idea is that Woodbridge will contribute $1 to the ACGA for every "e-seed" sent from the Giving Through Growing Web site, up to $40,000.  A e-seed, it turns out, is an e-mail message which you send to your friends with a picture of a packet of seeds (tomato, basil, carrot, or radish) that you select, plus the following copy:

For every virtual eSeed I plant, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi will donate $1 to the American Community Gardening Association, a nonprofit group that supports community gardens around the country. And I think that′s a great cause – community gardens encourage neighbors to work together to grow fresh produce and flowers in unused outdoor spaces.

Send your own free eSeed and help support community gardens

Since this falls in the category of "online winery promotion" (the broader topic of this blog), I took time to visit the site, and send myself an e-seed.  Having done that, I'd like to offer my thoughts for other wineries that consider doing this or similar promotions for good causes.

• The first thing I encountered was the 10-second wait for the Flash-based site to load.  And I've got a blazingly fast cable connection to the Internet.  There are probably good reasons from Mondavi's point of view, but not from the perspective of someone who is waiting to the site to load.

• The second thing I encountered was a roadblock: the dreaded "you must be 21 years or older to enter this site" check.  In this particular case, there doesn't seem to be a need for it, other than the fact that it's part of the Woodbridge site infrastructure.  Once inside, there isn't any wine-related copy that I can see, so why restrict it to 21-year olds (other than the desire to add people who can drink to your mailing list).

• From a PR perspective, I couldn't locate the press release announcing the partnership on either site.  The link above is to Reuters.  Why?  Isn't this important to both participating groups?

• The domain name GivingIsGrowing.com is available. Why didn't somebody spend $10 to register it for the next year?  This isn't rocket science, folks.

• There's no link from the ACGA site to the Giving Is Growing site.  Woodbridge features it on their home page.  This makes me feel that its not something the ACGA cares much about, although it's precisely because of them that people are motivated to participate.

• What will be done with the e-mail addresses I provide after the e-seed message is sent?  Although the form provides an opt-in "to receive news and product announcements from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi," and it does say "We will not share your contact information with third parties," it doesn't say the thing I want to hear:  we will forget we ever saw your friends' e-mail addresses once we send this e-seed.

• Is this really necessary?  The fine print mentions that $1 will be contributed to ACGA, "up to the guaranteed $40,000 donation."  If it's guaranteed that ACGA is getting $40K, what am I doing here giving Woodbridge my friends' e-mail addresses?

• Finally, you can send an e-seed to up to 5 of your friends at once.  If you do, however, each recipient gets a message with all the e-mail addresses visible in the To: field.

 In my mind, the biggest issue is not clearly addressing how my friends' e-mail addresses will be used, followed by revealing the addresses of people I sent e-seeds.

One last thing: I hope that I will receive a message at the end of this campaign letting me know how many e-seeds were sent (and how much was donated to ACGA).  I should be able to opt-in to that separately from other promotional messages from Woodbridge.

I'm all in favor of wineries promoting causes in which they believe to their customers and fans.  I just think you need to be mindful of the details when you do it.

What do you think about wineries promoting good causes?  How does your winery do it?  Please leave a comment.

 

(Incidentally, this is the kind of consulting work I do -- helping people to have a more effective online presence.  That'll be 5 cents, please.)

 

(thanks to Jon Bjork of Pantheon Cellars for passing along a copy of the press release)

Gitcher Wineries Here!

From The Merger Network, signs of the economic times (free registration required to view full listings):

BFS-172810: Cult Winery Napa - One of a Kind Location: Other California (Napa) Asking Price: Between $10 Million and $15 Million (15,000,000) Summary: Extremely rare opportunity: Cult Winery for sale. The owners are retiring and this is an opportunity to own one of Napa's finest cult winery estates. Turn-key operation, very profitable. Expandable...

BFS-162369: Custom Crush Winery 200,000 Gallons Capacity Location: California (California) Asking Price: Between $2.5 Million and $5 Million (4,750,000) Summary: This is a complete package. A Winery with up to 85,000 cases capacity, 200,000 gallons of stainless tanks, 2,000 barrels and ample facilities for managing in excess of these amounts. The Winery has a...

BFS-172809: 180,000 Case Winery - Growing and Profitable Location: California (Sonoma County) Asking Price: Not Disclosed Summary: 180,000 case winery & vineyard on well-known road in Healdsburg. Very profitable business with opportunity for continued growth. Excellent reputation and turn-key operation. This offering is highly...

BFS-172808: Sonoma Winery, 10 Acres Vineyard, Home Profitable Location: California (Sonoma County) Asking Price: Between $2.5 Million and $5 Million (3,650,000) Summary: 10 acre winery estate on a beautiful wine country road. Open hours tasting room permit with 25,000 gallon winery permit. Turnkey, profitable business with opportunity for expansion. Great for your...

Any guesses on who's who?

Help!

I've had a pretty good run of posts lately, but the well has temporarily run dry (in part due to business travel earlier this week).

So, Faithful Readers, I turn to you.

Do you have a question or need advice related to your winery's online presence?  If so, please leave it in a comment.  One way or another, I'll answer it (either in response to your comment, or as a whole post here).  Think of it as Dear Abby for your winery Web site.

(you can also drop me an e-mail if you'd like to keep our exchange confidential)

...And thank you for your support!

What Wine Goes With Rubber Chicken?

Only one such as El Jefe would dare to ask such a question. Worse, he's trying to answer it!

Help him out with a link to  his post on this classic food-andwine pairing.

Fun With Google Suggest

Google has a feature built into the search box that suggests search phrases based on what you've typed thus far.  Of course, someone recognized the opportunity for humor.

I couldn't help but add my own small attempt:

Feel free to suggest your own questions in the comments.

Winery Profitability

What winery isn't interested in that topic?

I just ran across a new blog called, in fact, WineryProfitability.com.  Steve and Kelley Richards have been posting since February of this year, and have about a dozen long-form posts on a variety of topics.  I particularly like Kelley's "customer perspective" posts.

Steve works for Farm Credit in western New York state, and has a Winery Benchmark program which may be of interest to my readers in that area of the country.

It's worth checking out their blog -- with only a few posts, you can scan through it pretty quickly and see if it interests you.

(Remember, if you use a blog reader, it's easy to follow lots of blogs because you don't have to check each blog yourself.)

My Fourth Anniversary

Today marks the 4^th anniversary of The Winery Web Site Report blog.  Just in case anyone was wondering.

Thanks to everyone who has read, commented on, linked to, and otherwise offered their support to my little project.

It's Sheer Lunacy!

If you like the idea of biodynamic wine, you're gonna love drinking wine by the lunar calendar.

Where'd I leave my cow horn?

You Probably Already Have A Job, But...

This one looks like fun!

TTB USA AVA FYI

An up-to-date list of American Vinicultural Areas, courtesy of The United States Government and Lew Perdue (whose Wine Industry Insight blog is well worth your time).

Living in western Sonoma County, on the edge of the Green Valley appellation, I am amused by the name change from "Sonoma County Green Valley" to "Green Valley of Russian River Valley."  It's all about the Benjamins.

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Steve Bachman of The Wine Collector for winning The American Wine Blog award for Best Business/Industry Blog.

I read Steve's blog, and so should you.

Don't Forget to Vote for The Winery Web Site Report

Today and tomorrow are the last two days to cast your vote in The American Wine Blog Awards, where this blog is nominated for "Best Business/Industry Wine Blog."

If you find this blog informative and useful, I'd certainly appreciate your vote.  Just click the badge:

Voting ends tomorrow night (Wednesday, March 4th) at midnight, so cast your vote today.

"And thank you for your support."

w00t! I'm a finalist!

This showed up in the mail this morning:

Congratulations!! You are a finalist in the category of "Best Business/Industry Wine Blog" in the American Wine Blog Awards. I will be sending you a badge you can use in any way you see fit. The voting begins tonight at www.fermentation.typepad.com and will end at 11:59 on March 4. Congratulations!! Tom.... Tom Wark Wark Communications

(I'm grateful just to be nominated.  But if, after you look at the other nominees in this category, you feel that it's warranted, I'd appreciate your vote!)

French Wine In One Minute

Hilarious.

The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of The Winery Web Site Report (except maybe that bit at the end).

 

(stolen shamlessly from the Sandihurst Wine blog, an interesting blog about making wine in New Zealand which just got added to The List)

This is the kind of wine video that could go viral.  Anyone care to try this for their region or varietal?  Even better: Biodynamic Wine in One Minute (Laurence Sterling, I'm talking to you).  And it's just the sort of thing that Tom Wark might do.

My (early) Birthday Present from Adegga.com

OK, I've probably worn out my welcome with four posts in a single day, but it *was* my birthday after all.

Here's a early-birthday present from a couple weeks back from Adegga.com: Meet-A-WineBlogger: Mike Duffy from The Winery Web Site Report.

Thanks for the nice words, guys.  It's nice to be recognized so publicly.

Yay, me!

Need A Chart?

LovelyCharts is something I posted about over at Northbay biz (I write a monthly business-and-technology column for them called Tech Talk), but since wineries sometimes need to make flow charts and organization charts, I thought this might be of interest to my readers here.

LovelyCharts makes attractive looking charts (e.g. flow charts, site maps, wireframes, org charts, and network diagrams) which can be exported as JPEG or PNG images.  You can use the wireframe feature to prototype Web site designs.

Best of all, it's free.

(PS - if you haven't already done so, please take my one-question survey)

My One-Question Survey: How Do You Read Blogs?

Since you're reading this blog, I'd really appreciate if you would take my survey.

If you have a wine-related blog, I'd appreciate you sending other people to my survey.  The link is

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bszk0DP9pAszDw57PmawgQ_3d_3d

which you should just be able to cut and paste into your blog post.  Thanks!  (and if you'd like, please leave a comment)

The 2009 American Wine Blog Awards

Although I can't imagine that anyone who reads this blog isn't also reading Fermentation, allow me to help get the word out for Mr. Wark.

NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2009 AMERICAN WINE BLOG AWARDS ARE NOW OPEN!

The following categories exist:

• Best Wine Blog Graphics & Presentation
• Best Industry/Business Wine Blog
• Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog
• Best Overall Wine Blog
• Best Single Subject Wine Blog
• Best Winery Blog
• Best Writing On a Wine Blog

All categories require at least 52 posts between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.  You can nominate up to three in each category.  Click one of the links above to add your nominations as a comment.

If, by some chance, you'd like to nominate this blog, I suspect that "industry/business" and "single subject" are the appropriate categories.

Everything's A Special Case, Including Wineries Online

I'm continuing my annoying habit of pointing to insightful posts from Seth Godin by linking to That's a special case:

The new business isn't the same as the old business, just with computers.

The same is true of taking your winery online.

As an example, what would your wine club look like if it were truly Web-enabled?  It's not just your old wine club with computers.

It takes work to really think about this sort of thing, but I believe the payoff can be enormous.

Should Winery Employees Like To Drink Wine?

Maybe.   

Just a thought for the first day of a brand-new year, courtesy of the irrepressible Seth Godin.

Best wishes to all my readers for a happy and successful 2009!  Thank you for your time, attention, and comments during the past year.  I truly appreciate it.

The Goal of Your Winery

I was talking with someone in the wine business about a new project yesterday (over a nice lunch at K&L Bistro in Sebastopol), and it was a great exchange, riffing back and forth on winery Web sites, online marketing, direct-to-consumer, blogging, social media, and what I might contribute to the project.

Eventually, I asked the question I always ask people I'm thinking of working with: "What are you trying to accomplish?"

In other words, what's your goal?  What does success look like?  Because without a pretty clear articulation of that answer, a lot of effort can be wasted.

And it strikes me, that for wineries, the (annual?) business goal is to sell everything you produce at a price that is as close to your suggested retail price as possible.  Unsold inventory is expensive, and you obviously need to cover the fully burdened cost that each bottle represents (otherwise, you're selling at a loss).

I'm asking my winery and industry readers: is that a fair and accurate statement?  If not, how would you describe the goal of your winery?  Please leave a comment.

I'm Not Sure How I Feel About This...

On the one hand, I'm glad my writing is accessible.  On the other hand, I'd like to feel like that college education wasn't a complete waste.

Try it on your winery blog.  Just click the image above.

Volute, In The Teeny Aluminum Bottle

In an effort to stay on the cutting edge of wine packaging technology, I've ordered the sampler of three 185 ml aluminum bottles of Volute Wine, one each of their Red, White, and Rose wines.

Their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) seems to be the "greeness" (greenitude?) of their aluminum bottle, along with the convenience of single servings.  A case of Volute (equivalent to three 750 ml bottles) costs $49.  The wines themselves are sourced from Bordeaux.

Trivia point:  Volute is the Latin word for "scroll."

(Volute also has a brand-new blog, which has been added to The List)