A few years ago at the DTC Wine Symposium, a panelist joked about the modern winery website formula: the guy, the dog, the truck, and the vineyard. Beautiful backdrop, strong lifestyle photography, a thoughtful founder story. Polished, absolutely. Strategically distinct, rarely. The critique wasn’t about branding. It was about structure. Most winery websites aren’t broken, but they aren’t built as decision environments either. Calls to action are unclear, revenue pathways are buried, shipping surprises appear late, and wine club often lives in isolation instead of throughout the buying journey. After auditing winery sites across regions and production sizes, the pattern is consistent: performance is constrained by friction, not effort. Most wineries don’t have a traffic problem. They have a conversion architecture problem. Before increasing ad spend or launching another promotion, run a winery website audit — on your phone. Start at the homepage and move t

Afternoon Brief, September 6th

Renowned International Winemaker Files Lawsuit Against Napa County over Denial of Water Rights: Jayson Woodbridge, owner and winemaker of one of the world’s most sought-after wines, has filed suit against the County of Napa after the county refused to issue permits for water wells on Woodbridge’s vineyard properties, in violation of state and federal law...