Shannon Family of Wines:
A whole family of wines, one simple site

Problem

Shannon Family of Wines had paid for an expensive custom website that its own team couldn’t administer, and that wasn’t accessible to every visitor. The site had a lot to carry: a family of labels, each with its own following; a ranch in the ridges of Lake County; three wine clubs with several sizes and mixes to choose from; and The Shannon Mercantile, the family’s wine bar and gourmet market in Lakeport, which needed more visitors through its doors.

Background

Clay Shannon farms high-elevation vineyards in Lake County, California, and the family’s labels run from Clay Shannon and Shannon Ridge to Buck Shack, Ovis and 13 Rams. The brand is hardworking American farmers: rugged and generous, and ever hospitable. The family engaged us in November 2024 to rebuild the site.

Solution

We started with digital and brand discovery, a customer experience strategy and an accessible style guide, then designed and built a new WordPress site on Commerce7. A complex club offering is streamlined so choosing a club and personalizing to your preferences is without friction. The Mercantile has its own pages for tastings, weekly food nights, live music and private events. Plus, the Shannon team can now easily manage all their content easily, without having to call an agency every time they need new collections or copy!

Three Shannon Family of Wines pages: home, The Shannon Mercantile and the wine club

“Some winemakers follow tradition. Clay Shannon carved his own path.”

Shannon Family of Wines
The Shannon Family of Wines home page on a phone
The Shannon Family of Wines Join the Club page on a phone

Built for a family that runs a ranch

The Shannons wanted a site that sounded like them: down-home, welcoming and unpretentious, and one their own team could run. From November 2024 to launch in March 2025, that meant discovery, an accessible design, a simpler path into the club, and a reason to drive to Lakeport.

Discovery and strategy

Mapped how customers move between the labels, the clubs and the Mercantile before a single page was designed.

Accessible brand guidelines

Set color, type and contrast rules in a new style guide, so every page was built to conform from the start.

One shop for every label

Brought every Shannon label into one shop, with filters, prices and Add to cart on every wine in the grid.

A simpler club

Set the three clubs side by side, so size, frequency and reds, whites or mixed become a single choice.

The Shannon Mercantile

Gave the Mercantile its own pages for tastings, weekly food nights, live music and private events, to bring visitors to Lakeport.

WordPress and Commerce7 build

Built the site in WordPress on Commerce7 and trained the team, so the family edits every page themselves.

Accessibility and testing

Tested across platforms, browsers and beta users before launch, then audited the live site for ADA conformance.

Technical SEO

Mapped every old address to its new page and set up technical SEO so search traffic carried across the move.

Pieces of the Shannon Family of Wines website and phone screens, from The Mercantile’s tastings to the shop and the three wine clubs

Before and after

The Shannon home page now: Rugged land, rebellious spirit, real wine The Shannon home page in March 2025: a rancher in a hat over the vineyards and an organic certification headline Before 5forestsAfter 5forests
The Shannon shop now: Shop Shannon Family Wines with filters and the first wines The Shannon shop in March 2025: an introduction and a row of brand tabs Before 5forestsAfter 5forests
The Shannon club page now: Join the Club with Become a Member and Member Login The Shannon club page in March 2025: a wine pour under Access exceptional wines crafted in an earth first way Before 5forestsAfter 5forests

Project details

Client

Shannon Family Wines

Region

Services

Winery websites, Commerce7 websites, Winery website hosting and maintenance

Website

Visit Shannon Family Wines