Have you ever taken the time to check out other winery websites? Look familiar?
Maybe your website has a beautiful picture of your vineyard, some Flash imagery of your wine being poured gracefully into a glass, a funny snapshot of the family dog, a few frames of people tasting your wine and having a great time. Sounds good, looks good, covers all the bases. It covers everybody's bases, because most likely, other wineries are using the exact same cookie-cutter imagery, just at different locations.

For years now the most prominent demographic for the wine industry has been older adults between the ages of 50 and 64. This age group purchases the most wine, but has proven to be difficult to market to because, more often than not, they have already established brand loyalty and there are limited ways to reach them from a marketing standpoint.

Many wineries sacrifice usability for the sake of design, while others sacrifice design for the sake of usability. Neither of which are necessary. Design is absolutely essential, especially when dealing with a product that is highly tied to sensory perception. However, As the provider of a valuable service and product, your online goals should evolve around what your customer would want from your site, as well as what you want your site to do. Customers want to access information quickly and easily, without having to jump through excessive hoops. As such, usability is extremely important for many factors of your web portal.