Goosecross Cellars: Winery "Wow-Factor" Enhanced by Community of Customers and Fans

NAPA VALLEY, Calif.-(Business Wire)-September 10, 2009 - Goosecross Cellars has dramatically transformed its website into a social hub that aggregates all of the winery's valuable content into a central multi-dimensional platform for people to share ideas, learn more about wine, and discuss their passion for it. Along with the website launch, an elegant embossed label with a "wow-factor" was also unveiled for Goosecross wines. Both were created after extensive consultation with the winery's customers and longtime supporters.

The new easy-to-use website (http://www.goosecross.com) gives Goosecross fans what they requested: an intersection of information, content-sharing and relationship-building, along with frontline visibility into industry trends and education.

"Our customers told us they wanted a place where they can share their passion for wine with others, continue their pursuit of knowledge about wines and winemaking, further explore the art of food and wine pairing and – of course – have access to purchase our excellent wines and related products, all from a trusted source," said David Topper, co-owner of Goosecross Cellars. "We previously had seven bridged websites that were not easily recognized as Goosecross, and therefore the total value we offered was often missed. So, we combined them into one multi-dimensional site."

Unmatched by any other Napa Valley winery, Goosecross' wealth of online resources - its popular blog, podcast Internet radio show, video library, recipes, eCommerce and an extensive educational database - are now tightly integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, CellarTracker and social bookmarking sites. "With this new website, our goal was to make our early adoption of social media and that involvement more accessible,” Topper added.

The new Goosecross wine label, which will debut with the release of the 2006 Napa Valley Yountville Estate Petit Verdot, was created by famed label designer Jeff Caldewey. The goal was simple elegance. "The result is a beautiful foil-stamped and embossed label, which tends to inspire a 'wow' when people look at and touch it," Topper said. “It communicates the sophistication of the wine's multi-dimensional flavors and the satisfaction of the consumer. We made the subtleties count."

Customer Input and Trusted Relationships

These two changes at Goosecross Cellars have one thing in common — they both were generated by consumer feedback, based on a long-standing winery conviction that customer input, trusted relationships, a deep commitment to customer service, and world-class wines are critical to its success.

“Customer-driven branding and marketing is not new, but the recent fervor around social media makes clear something we’ve always known at Goosecross,” said Topper. “Your customers are a community of supporters who, given the chance, are happy to direct you down a path that brings you closer to them and makes you a meaningful part of their lives.”

Relationship-building has always been important to Goosecross Cellars, which is proud to be widely known as a Napa Valley pioneer in direct-to-consumer conversations and an early adopter of Internet technology. With these legacy initiatives, Goosecross was:

The first Napa Valley winery to use social media to communicate with its customers on CompuServe and Prodigy (1985)
The first Napa Valley winery to place a non-paper label on a bottle (1992 ÆROS)
The second winery in Napa Valley to launch a website (1994)
The first Napa Valley winery to put a toll-free number and a website URL on its corks (1994)
The first Napa Valley winery to launch eCommerce on its website (1994)
The first Napa Valley winery to create a podcast Internet radio show (2005)

This progression matches the growth of the winery itself. "Our winery has evolved from a producer of a single Chardonnay in 1985 to a producer of over 12 varietal wines today," said Geoff Gorsuch, winemaker and co-owner of Goosecross Cellars. "At Goosecross, we focus on the basics - sustainable farming with attention, care, and diligence in the cellar. For us, wine has always been an art and a passion, but we have never forgotten that wine is meant to be enjoyed."

"We hope you'll have a moment to visit soon, to relax, laugh a little, and enjoy the wine in good company," said Topper. "You'll see the same familiar faces, year after year, and know you are appreciated and welcomed whole-heartedly."

About Goosecross Cellars

Goosecross Cellars is a family-owned and operated winery founded in 1985. Located in Yountville, Calif., in the heart of Napa Valley, Goosecross Cellars sells about 10,000 cases annually and all wines are sold exclusively direct-to-the-consumer. It owns and operates a second tasting room and wine bar, Wineries of Napa Valley, in downtown Napa.

Consumers can interact with the winery at http://www.goosecross.com, on Twitter at @goosecross and on Facebook at facebook.com/goosecross.

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