Summer is just around the corner and we'd really like to put together some special mix packs for you to enjoy. Below is a poll where you can choose which wines you'd like in a summer mix. Click on the links to go to each wine page and find out more about it.
This is purely to get some feedback from you before we start pre-packing some mixed cartons, get your votes in now! If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Some new additions to the catalogue
We've just received our September shipment, and are pleased to announce the addition of three new wines to our online catalogue:
A typical Rhein style wine, from the heart of the Rhein valley in Germany, the Rheinhessen. Spicy & fruity, this wine is always very popular and suits most people’s palates. Keeps well in the fridge after opening, upto 3 weeks. Take this to your favourite B.Y.O. Thai restaurant and enjoy the blending of flavours.
This is Germany’s classic Riesling from the Mosel valley, light, crisp and dry but the fruit of the grape is truly captured. This one is a fine example in an elegant blue bottle. Enjoy this wine with most foods, will cellar well for a few years.
Light and elegant, a wine of high manner. Fresh and crisp apricots, juicy white peach and delicate pears on the nose. This Dry Pinot Grigio is specially selected, the highest quality wine from the famous Venetian region in northern Italy. Serve with salad and fresh seafood or enjoy at any alfresco occasion.
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Oppenheimer Kroetenbrunnen Kabinett
A typical Rhein style wine, from the heart of the Rhein valley in Germany, the Rheinhessen. Spicy & fruity, this wine is always very popular and suits most people’s palates. Keeps well in the fridge after opening, upto 3 weeks. Take this to your favourite B.Y.O. Thai restaurant and enjoy the blending of flavours.
Mosel Gold Riesling
This is Germany’s classic Riesling from the Mosel valley, light, crisp and dry but the fruit of the grape is truly captured. This one is a fine example in an elegant blue bottle. Enjoy this wine with most foods, will cellar well for a few years.
Kaefer Pinot Grigio
Light and elegant, a wine of high manner. Fresh and crisp apricots, juicy white peach and delicate pears on the nose. This Dry Pinot Grigio is specially selected, the highest quality wine from the famous Venetian region in northern Italy. Serve with salad and fresh seafood or enjoy at any alfresco occasion.
Buy European wine online ☞
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Payment methods
We've launched with PayPal as our only payment option at the moment, but going forward we'd like to offer as many options as people need.
Please take a moment to let us know which payment option you'd prefer to use:
Buy European wine online ☞
Please take a moment to let us know which payment option you'd prefer to use:
Buy European wine online ☞
Monday, August 24, 2009
Announcing the launch of the European Wine Cellars online catalogue
European Wine Cellars are proud to announce that as of Monday the 24th of August 2009 our online catalogue is open for business.
Specialising in offering imported wines to the Australian public, the new website is designed to make it easy to try a single bottle of anything in our catalogue. These are wines you probably won't find locally, so we want to make it as simple as possible to order a bottle, try it with friends, and if you really love it come back and order a carton of 12 direct from our warehouse in Sydney.
As a special introductory offer, delivery on all single bottle samples is free to anywhere in Australia!
Click here to see a preview video of how to try single bottles.
Click here to go to our online catalogue now.
Buy European wine online ☞
Specialising in offering imported wines to the Australian public, the new website is designed to make it easy to try a single bottle of anything in our catalogue. These are wines you probably won't find locally, so we want to make it as simple as possible to order a bottle, try it with friends, and if you really love it come back and order a carton of 12 direct from our warehouse in Sydney.
As a special introductory offer, delivery on all single bottle samples is free to anywhere in Australia!
Click here to see a preview video of how to try single bottles.
Click here to go to our online catalogue now.
Buy European wine online ☞
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Getting more Google love
At the risk of attracting hordes of SEO marketing types, I'm going to flaunt a little story of a small SEO success story. At this moment, Googling "european wines sydney" shows a nice titled link to our website with the postal address and phone number. Screenshot:
Couldn't say for sure, could be by following sensible web development practices such as using valid, semantic XHTML, using the keywords "european" & "wine" in the page title, H1 tag, and domain name, and I guess also including the postal address on the page in easily machine readable format. Other than that, I couldn't tell you. Perhaps this blog and our accompanying Twitter account (http://twitter.com/europeanwineaus) are also contributing to our search ranking.
I'll tell you what we didn't do: pay anyone with "SEO Expert", or "Internet Marketer", or in fact anyone at all, any sums of money. We haven't worried about things like "keyword density" or "meta tags", that's all a load of bollocks. Just build a site that's focussed clearly on a niche topic, fill it with relevant content, follow sensible web development practices, and install Google Analytics from day one. Could be that by the time you read this we've since been supplanted by someone else, but it seems to be working for us so far.
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How's that done then?
Couldn't say for sure, could be by following sensible web development practices such as using valid, semantic XHTML, using the keywords "european" & "wine" in the page title, H1 tag, and domain name, and I guess also including the postal address on the page in easily machine readable format. Other than that, I couldn't tell you. Perhaps this blog and our accompanying Twitter account (http://twitter.com/europeanwineaus) are also contributing to our search ranking.
I'll tell you what we didn't do: pay anyone with "SEO Expert", or "Internet Marketer", or in fact anyone at all, any sums of money. We haven't worried about things like "keyword density" or "meta tags", that's all a load of bollocks. Just build a site that's focussed clearly on a niche topic, fill it with relevant content, follow sensible web development practices, and install Google Analytics from day one. Could be that by the time you read this we've since been supplanted by someone else, but it seems to be working for us so far.
Buy European wine online ☞
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Gary Vaynerchuk on Late Night with Conan O'Brian
These videos crack me up, I love the way Conan is skeptical of GV's attempts to train his palate using techniques such as eating cherries with dirt and cigar crumbs, but very enthusiastic about drinking wine!
To be honest, on a scale of Conan to GV my palate training is closer to Conan's - I love wine but don't have any training on the finer points of how to appreciate it. I do have a good nose though, so maybe it just needs some more experience. Will draw the line at sucking asparagus sticks through a sweaty sock however...
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GV: "Don't be scared!"
CB: "Yeah, this really scares me - I just ate a cigar!"
To be honest, on a scale of Conan to GV my palate training is closer to Conan's - I love wine but don't have any training on the finer points of how to appreciate it. I do have a good nose though, so maybe it just needs some more experience. Will draw the line at sucking asparagus sticks through a sweaty sock however...
GV: "I might be on the thunder show and say, this smells like Conan O'Brian's arm pit, I just did that"
CB: "You didn't really get the armpit, that's the armpit right there"
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Monday, July 27, 2009
Mixed feelings on mixed cartons
From some of the feedback we've been getting, it's seems the default perception amongst people who are in the market to buy wine online is that most wine sites are some kind of monthly wine club that sell random mixed dozens. In all fairness, a lot of the wine sites out there do seem to fit that description. It's also quite common for wine clubs to sell extremely cheap cartons of clean skin wines, for as little as $50 each.
So from the outset we're trying to differentiate ourselves from that particular market sector as it is already amply serviced. If we're not a wine club, and we don't sell mixed dozens, what are we?
To dozen, or not two dozen
As mentioned previously, we're going to launch with a small selection of imported wines (and one local preservative free...) which we will be selling in cartons of 12. This has worked well for us in the past, but we're yet to find out how well it carries across to our soon to be released online catalogue.
Initial reactions from people are that you might prefer to be able to order wines in quantities of 6 bottles at a time, either 6 of the same wine, or a mix of 6 different wines of your choice. Logistically it's all the same to us, so we'd really love to hear your feedback on which you'd prefer. Please feel free to leave a comment, or vote on the poll below.
Thanks!
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
Welcome to the interwebs
Nearly ready to go live...
We're very close to launching the European Wine Cellars online store. The site itself is ready to flick the switch, we're just sorting out logistics like getting nice boxes made to deliver our fine wines in, and setting aside inventory.
Quite some time in the making
The idea has been brewing for a couple of years actually. My uncle has been running a small, successful business for 30 years importing wines, ports, liqueurs and even some beers into Australia and selling them direct to the public from his warehouse, but until now with zero web presence. I've been building web applications for years, and my brother who works as the warehouse manager is also quite a geek, so we got talking about the idea of us all putting something together.
Until recently it had been a side project I'd put a few hours into here and there in my spare time, but recently I've had a good solid month or two to put into it, so we've made some real progress. Hired a designer to make it look really professional, invited some people into a closed beta version to get some feedback, and have managed to come up with something I think people are going to really enjoy using.
It's about how it tastes to you
Our uncle is very passionate about quality, and about taste. In the past, most of their success has come from taking a booth to various events, such as the royal easter show, and giving out taste samples. People are so impressed that they will often order an entire carton of 12 bottles right there on the spot! The challenge in building this website has been in finding a way to replicate that experience online.
What we've done to try and make the wines more accessible to a first time visitor, is to make it really easy to order a single bottle of anything in the catalogue and have it delivered for free. We want you to try the wines for yourself, see what you think, and if you fall in love then it's easy to order some more. If it doesn't suit you then you're only out of pocket for the one bottle of wine.
Just flick the switch already!
Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, is quoted as having said:
"If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late."
What we have ready now is really just the simplest thing that works - an attractive site that makes it easy to sample and buy imported wines. We really want to get it out there already so we can start working on some of the other exciting ideas we have to build more of a community around it and take it to the next level!
So in the meantime, please email any questions/comments/criticism (constructive or otherwise) to info at europeanwine dot com dot au, and follow us up on Twitter at http://twitter.com/europeanwineaus.
Buy European wine online ☞
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