Black Hills Estate Winery:
A Commerce7 migration grounded in strategy, design, and enablement
Problem
Black Hills has made Nota Bene on the Black Sage Bench since its first vintage in 1999, and it carries one of the most established identities in Canadian wine. Andrew Peller Limited was moving its British Columbia wineries onto Commerce7, to bring sales, clubs and visits onto one modern platform. Moving Black Hills meant more than a new store. The brand’s identity, its logo above all, had been set years earlier, and the new site had to make it feel at home today without losing what made it Black Hills.
Background
Replatforming touched every part of APL: inventory, finance, visitation, club and direct-to-consumer sales. So the work began with people, not pixels. We flew to APL’s head office for a three-day workshop with the leaders of every business unit in the room, and mapped what each of them needed from the new platform. We completed a full content inventory of the old site before anyone picked up a pencil. Black Hills was built in tandem with Tinhorn Creek, and the move to Commerce7 took close to a year.
Result
We worked closely with Black Hills’ own design team on a site that is intentionally austere: black, white and a single red, with the wine given room to stand on its own. The design lets the established logo read as confident rather than dated. Behind it, the technical SEO work carried every old address to its new home, so Black Hills kept its place in search through the move. The result is a site that is easy to run day to day and built to sell wine, fill bookings and grow the clubs. It also prepares Black Hills to use more of Commerce7 as it goes. We trained staff across departments, so the Black Hills team manages the site itself.
A Canadian classic on a modern platform
As part of a multi-brand engagement with Andrew Peller Limited, 5forests worked alongside internal teams over the course of a year to plan and implement a seamless migration to Commerce7. Our role began long before development—with deep discovery, cross-department workshops, and platform scoping designed to set the foundation for long-term success.
Before and after
Project details
Client
Black Hills Estate Winery
Region
Services
Commerce7 websites, Winery website hosting and maintenance, Strategy and communication workshops
Website