A plea to the Symingtons

Anything to do with Port.
Andy Velebil
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A plea to the Symingtons

Post by Andy Velebil »

Christopher wrote:Very interesting Julian!
One you missed is Niepoort. I really like the website and the app. They have a simple but stylish front page that allows you to click through straight away to what you want, technical information on the specific vintages fully up to date, harvest reports or news etc
They also generally include production numbers on each vintage, certainly the more recent ones which I find interesting.
+1. Niepoorts website and app are easy to use and have lots of tech info. By far one of the best.
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jdaw1
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

Christopher wrote:One you missed is Niepoort. I really like the website and the app.
Quite right added to the list. Thank you.

But what ‟app”?
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jdaw1
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

For each of the Hall of Shame entrants, should I write to webmaster@, pointing to that post?

Edit: that post slightly expanded. My politeness seems to be diminishing.
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DRT
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by DRT »

jdaw1 wrote:For each of the Hall of Shame entrants, should I write to webmaster@, pointing to that post?
Yes.
jdaw1 wrote:My politeness seems to be diminishing.
The message needs to hit home. Politeness sometimes doesn't have that effect.
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djewesbury
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A plea to the Symingtons

Post by djewesbury »

jdaw1 wrote:
Christopher wrote:One you missed is Niepoort. I really like the website and the app.
Quite right added to the list. Thank you.

But what ‟app”?
They have a very good iPhone app, containing data on all their wines and ports. So an extra gold star to them.
(Not aware of an Android equivalent.)
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benread
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by benread »

djewesbury wrote:They have a very good iPhone app, containing data on all their wines and ports. So an extra gold star to them.
(Not aware of an Android equivalent.)
I am an Android user and this is one of my pet bugbears. Companies that don't look beyond iPhone and yet Android is the growing market. :evil:
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Glenn E.
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Re: Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by Glenn E. »

benread wrote:Companies that don't look beyond iPhone and yet Android is the growing market. :evil:
iPhone development is easier than Android due to fewer platforms. That often outweighs the fact that it also reaches fewer potential customers.

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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

Fabulous — we love declarations. What details have been put on QuintaDoNoval.com? Err, none. At least there is mention of the 2011, even if the picture is of 2008. Really — what a shambles.
PhilW
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by PhilW »

jdaw1 wrote:Fabulous — we love declarations. What details have been put on QuintaDoNoval.com? Err, none. At least there is mention of the 2011, even if the picture is of 2008. Really — what a shambles.
There is at least an announcement on Christian Seely's blog.
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Alex Bridgeman
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

And I've just received copies of the marketing launch. I'll post some details over the weekend.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
LGTrotter
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by LGTrotter »

Looking at the earlier posts on this thread I see a lot of apologies along the lines of 'we are port wonks and our needs are different'.

Well no, I do not agree with this. There may be a big tranche of port buyers out there for the vintage wines who will often and randomly spend £50 and more a bottle on a wine they keep for twenty years but I've never met any of them. Or even for the SQVPs at around £30 a bottle, or the tawnies of greater or lesser age.

Wine buyers at these levels are not stupid and do their research, if not on company sites then on sites like these or in books. I have never used the producers sites as they bore me and contain very little of relavence to me. There may be honourable exceptions, but I've never got past the first blizzard of nonsense which always greets one on entering the site.

Top marks Julian for pointing this out, apologies that this has mostly been said already.
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DRT
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by DRT »

In and email dated 22 Oct 2014, The Don wrote:
Sandeman launches its new website


The House of Sandeman is pleased to announce that its new website is already available. Beyond a new version of the brand’s website, this represents an entirely new online and social media approach.

With the launch of the new website, Sandeman creates an online source of all its relevant information, from new products, to prestigious awards or clippings in general, which will be all presented in first hand. At the same time, it will also gather all Sandeman’s social activity, from facebook, twitter, youtube and even Instagram, where we challenge our clients, consumers and friends to upload their best Sandeman photos.

One other innovation is its convenient responsiveness to different platforms, which makes our website accessible not only from desktop computers but also mobile phones and all types of tablets. Additionally, the new section Enjoy Life will assist you in making the most of the special yet daily moments of your life.

Worth mentioning the appealing mode how Sandeman’s portfolio is now displayed, offering tempting and innovative consumption ways and moments.

Visit us at www.sandeman.com
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djewesbury
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by djewesbury »

Cask 33 sounds exciting. This is the future of port websites.
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by FLOG »

How do you like Sandeman's new website? I see an effort in activating it in social platforms and their decent portfolio presentation...
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Alex Bridgeman
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

FLOG wrote:How do you like Sandeman's new website? I see an effort in activating it in social platforms and their decent portfolio presentation...
I assume you mean this website?

Interestingly, at work I use Internet Explorer 8 and I cannot get past the age check so I can't comment on the website.

I am all in favour of port producers announcing updates and changes to their websites via forums and social media. We like reading about port and may not see an update or a change for many weeks or months without announcements like yours, so thank you for posting.

And can I ask in what capacity you'd like feedback on the new website? Are you involved in writing it or maintaining it? Are you part of Sogrape's marketing team? Or are you just a Sogrape employee who is passionate about Port (like all of us here are) and want to spread the word. Knowing your reason for asking how we like the new website helps us to know how to answer your question on how we like it.

My first piece of feedback is - I don't know. It doesn't work with IE8!
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Andy Velebil
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by Andy Velebil »

FLOG wrote:How do you like Sandeman's new website? I see an effort in activating it in social platforms and their decent portfolio presentation...
Here is my feedback...

The boxes with what appear to be Tweets from people are utterly annoying and clutter the website when trying to find legitimate information I am trying to seek. Please remove them.

For me it's a bit graphic heavy but loads relatively quickly, which is good. However, clicking on the short one or two line sentences to get to the next sentence in the story about the history of the House is annoying. It's also could use far more detail than just a few lines of history, where I then have to go to the next section to keep reading about the history. Can it please just be all in one place where I can quickly and easily read about the company's history in some detail?
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jdaw1
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

It has lots of heavy graphics, beautifully presented, that are utterly unsuited to the web.

Starting at the front page, it takes three clicks to reach Sandeman Porto Vintage. Why do I need to click on “Description” to reach two low-fact sentences. Then I have to click “Back” to reach the buttons. At least “Tasting” has some content, even if in a hard-to-read typeface. “Back again”, and to the next.

If you have thin content, don’t make the reader work to get to it. Lots of clicks are fine if each click leads to lots of information. It doesn’t.

Let me summarise. Sogrape commissioned a new website. It didn’t know what it wanted, so vaguely waved hands in the crucial meeting. The contractor has done lots of polished bells and whistles to justify charging a fortune. Nobody thought about the user. Typical example of a website that pleases PR but users hate and from which users quickly click away. A website expensively designed for command-W/control-W.

Solution. Start again. Start with pen and paper. Write pages of well-written well-considered content. The stuff that you might tell your importers. Design the organisation with pen and paper, writing boxes and arrows. Implement that cleanly and unfussily (which would have the extra merit of working on every browser on every OS on every hardware). It would be more work — because real content is work — and a lot less money.

(You did ask, and you did ask in this thread in which I have been as blunt about other websites.)
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by LGTrotter »

FLOG wrote:How do you like Sandeman's new website? I see an effort in activating it in social platforms and their decent portfolio presentation...
It looks very nice. It is largely content free. I do not need I feel I need advice about what to drink when asking for a pay rise or sealing a deal. I may of course be the wrong demographic. Julian makes good points about content, this does look as though it was made by people who liked web design rather than port. It is all rather incomprehensible. Being sold a lifestyle is starting to look a bit frayed round the edges, as is the shoehorning of port into various unlikely settings. Less bothered by the twitter stuff than others.

Look on the bright side, Sandeman make lovely port, I'm drinking the 09 LBV. Bit of a beast but very good.
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jdaw1
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

jdaw1 wrote:It has lots of heavy graphics, beautifully presented, that are utterly unsuited to the web.
Start again.

A potential customer is standing in Oddbins. Oh look, Quinta do Vau 1988! What’s that? What does it taste like? Is that the same as the Sandeman Vau 2000 also being sold by Oddbins? The new website is a disaster on a phone (if it works at all), and says little-to-nothing useful. Whilst PR are swooning at the website designer’s 27″ screen, the customer — sorry, potential customer — has closed that tab and is finding useful stuff elsewhere.

Sandeman make some lovely Port. A potential customer might learn that on :TPF:, but not on Sandeman’s over-scripted under-contented website. Start again.
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by Andy Velebil »

Don't try it from a mobile. I just did and it's 10 times worse to try and navigate and slow download due to heavy graphics. I love Sandeman Ports but the website needs a total do over.


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jdaw1
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

What is it with these people? I’m most of half a century old: is that why I fail to understand the rank stupidity of modern webmasters? When I was young, nobody would start with a perfectly reasonable website, and then delete most of the content. For various reasons, the more tiresome of which need not be mentioned, it just wasn’t done.

So, Davy’s had a good website. It had content about each location. Ahh, actual content! So last season. So passé. Nobody is still wearing that, darling. Now there is a new website, all sparkly and clean and doubtless £££ of money that once belonged to customers, which now has this little about the B&F.

(Please do praise my self-restraint: I haven’t ranted about the inconsistent presentation of phone numbers. Though I should — there’s so little other content on which to comment.)
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DRT
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by DRT »

Presumably you didn't follow the links to this?
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jdaw1
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by jdaw1 »

DRT wrote:Presumably you didn't follow the links to this?
So what was a website, each location having a page with its own link, has become a six-megabyte PDF. Forget mobile-friendly: that’s not even desktop-friendly.

(No, link not seen. Was it hidden by a script?)
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by flash_uk »

jdaw1 wrote:... is that why I fail to understand the rank stupidity of modern webmasters?
Someone at Davy's has got carried away with Wordpress I think.
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DRT
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Re: A plea to the Symingtons

Post by DRT »

jdaw1 wrote:
DRT wrote:Presumably you didn't follow the links to this?
So what was a website, each location having a page with its own link, has become a six-megabyte PDF. Forget mobile-friendly: that’s not even desktop-friendly.

(No, link not seen. Was it hidden by a script?)
I am not defending the method, simply pointing out that the information you say has been removed is in fact still there.

The PDF is linked to from the bottom of this page.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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