The Wine Palate
The Brief
The Wine Palate is a new digital wine publication founded by Master of Wine Lisa Perrotti-Brown. With a mission to deliver rigorously judged, data-driven wine recommendations, the client needed a website that could handle a large volume of expert reviews while helping subscribers find wines tailored to their personal taste. We were brought on to design and develop a modern, high-performance WordPress website and web app, incorporating advanced search functionality and subscriber features.
Our Approach
To meet the complex requirements of this project, we focused on building a clean, intuitive website that could support deep wine review content and a robust subscriber experience.
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Designed ~20 custom WordPress page templates to support varied content types including wine reviews, winery stories, and vintage reports
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Integrated a paywall system for tiered subscriptions: personal (monthly/annual), commercial (annual), and gift options
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Enabled email list integration to automate weekly email digests for subscribers
On the technical side, we developed a scalable backend system designed to handle tens of thousands of tasting notes efficiently.
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Built a custom database import tool to regularly upload reviews via spreadsheet
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Developed a powerful, attribute-based search engine to match user preferences with wines
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Created admin dashboards for managing reviews, reviewers, and subscribers with export capabilities
The Result
TheWinePalate.com is a user-focused, visually distinctive site that stands apart from traditional wine sites. It’s teal and green palette offers a fun, calming aesthetic aligned with the brand’s personality.
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Fully functional WordPress site paired with a high-speed web app
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Backend tools allow seamless publishing, review editing, and member list management
The proprietary Palate Matcher is a cornerstone feature, enabling users to find percentage matching wines based on tasting attributes like body, tannin, and oak influence. The groundwork has also been laid for future personalization features, such as saved favorites and behavior-based recommendations.
This solution empowers The Wine Palate to launch confidently, scale content efficiently, and provide meaningful value to both casual wine drinkers and professionals seeking tailored insights.
Industry
Food & Beverage
Our Role
Custom Theme, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, Responsive Design, Sign Up / Enrollment, Web Design, WordPress
Launch
June 2, 2025
From the Client
I have been very impressed working with [Smack Happy] and look forward to continued collaboration in the future for enhancements and other projects. I interviewed five different web developers to do this project, and chose Smack Happy because of the Team! They are very professional, with a positive attitude and a high level of responsiveness. Thank you all!!