Twitter Review: C. Donatiello

Continuing with my offer of free Twitter winery Web site reviews, here's my 140-character review of C. Donatiello Winery:

Clean design, but a little sterile:what do I do next? Flash-based.Must log in to order. No links for trade or media. Text hard on old eyes.

A somewhat longer explanation:

• The layout of the page is very clean, and to me feels a little sterile.  The colors don't seem warm and inviting.  There's a lot of whitespace on a standard 1024x768 display, so it appears small.  It is nice that the home page fits on a single page (no scrolling required).
• There's no clear call to action, and the menu choices are muted, leaving a visitor to wonder "What do I do next?"  Missing full contact information on the home page -- people do use your home page as a phone directory listing.
• When I originally reviewed the site, the central image was a Flash movie.  This isn't a bad thing per se, but it does cause problems for people looking at your site on an iPhone.  It appears that (since I did this Twitter review on February 1st) the issue has been resolved.  Note: there is a way to have a Flash movie for those who have Flash, and a static image for those without:
• You should require as little as possible for someone to order wine from your site.  Requiring them to log in before they can do anything erects one more obstacle to making a sale. 
• I recommend that winery Web sites have navigation elements for buyers, browsers, the media, and the trade.  This site lack top-level navigation for the trade and media.
• I found the text to be small, which makes it less inviting to read.

I'd like to thank Chris Donatiello for his willingness to let me do this.  He also asked me to take a look at Bradford Mountain and Healdsburg Ranches.  Still game, Chris?

So, now's your chance to weigh in.  Agree? Disagree?  What did I miss?  Can you do a better review in 140 characters?

Remember, if you'd like to receive these Twitter reviews, please follow wwsr on Twitter.

(PS - if you haven't already done so, please take my one-question survey before it closes on Monday!)