Selling direct after the cellar door visit: automated follow-ups and a lightweight CRM for a wine estate

Implementation example. This scenario describes a request we receive in this form. It is not a project delivered to a named client, and no results are claimed.

The context

A family wine estate sells part of its production direct: at the cellar door, at trade fairs, and through a small online store. Marketing rests on one or two people, often the owner and the person in charge of welcoming visitors, who also handle wine tourism, shipping and bookkeeping.

The tools in place are standard:

point-of-sale software at the cellar door, which records sales but rarely contact details;
an online store (WooCommerce, Shopify or a wine-specific solution) with its own customer records;
an email marketing tool used two or three times a year, for en primeur sales or the holidays;
a notebook or spreadsheet where contacts made at trade fairs are written down.

The day-to-day problem

Visitors leave the cellar door with a case of wine, and the estate never contacts them again. Email addresses are scattered across the point-of-sale system, the online store, the trade fair spreadsheet and the inbox. No one knows who bought what, or how long it has been since a customer last reordered.

When a newsletter goes out, it is identical for everyone: the loyal customer who buys the age-worthy cuvée every year gets the same message as the passing tourist. Preparing an email takes half a day that no one has in peak season, so none get sent.

What the estate wants

“I want the people who visited us to get a message that speaks to them, at the right time, without me spending my evenings on it. And I want to know who my best customers are.”

The solution, step by step

1. Bring contacts together in a lightweight CRM. We choose a simple tool suited to the size of the estate (not an enterprise CRM). Contacts from the online store flow in automatically with each order. At the cellar door, a tablet or a QR code invites visitors to leave their email in exchange for a tasting sheet or an invitation to the open days. The trade fair spreadsheet is imported once, then replaced by a form.

2. Record consent. Each contact is linked to its source and to its consent to receive emails, in line with GDPR. Contacts without consent receive nothing.

3. Define a few useful segments. No complex segmentation: cellar door visitors who have never ordered online, customers who bought an age-worthy cuvée, customers with no order in over a year, trade buyers (wine shops, restaurants).

4. Write follow-up sequences. For example: a thank-you email the day after the visit with the sheet for the wines tasted; a reminder before en primeur sales for buyers of age-worthy cuvées; a re-engagement message for inactive customers.

5. Have AI draft the emails, in the estate's voice. The AI writes each message from the wines' technical sheets, the tasting notes and a few past emails that serve as a model for tone. It tailors the content to the segment (what the person tasted or bought).

6. Approve before sending. Nothing goes out without review. The estate receives the drafts in the email marketing tool and approves them in a few minutes. The content complies with France's Évin law: objective information about the wines, the mandatory health warning, no encouragement of excessive drinking.

7. Track the response. A simple dashboard shows the opens, clicks and orders linked to each sequence.

What the AI does, what the estate does

The AI writes the drafts, suggests email subject lines, tailors the message to the segment and summarizes what worked each month. The estate decides on the sequences, provides the information about the wines, and reviews and approves every send. The customer relationship remains its own.

Data and access required

access to the online store and the email marketing tool (or the choice of a new tool if the current one isn't suitable);
the wines' technical sheets and tasting notes;
a few emails or texts already written by the estate, to set the tone;
the list of the year's events (en primeur sales, open days, harvest, holidays).

Customer data stays in the estate's tools.

Project timeline

Weeks 1 and 2: diagnostic. Inventory of contact sources, tools and past sends. This is the format of our audit (8 to 10 days).
Weeks 3 and 4: setup. Lightweight CRM, online store connection, cellar door and trade fair form, import of existing contacts with their consent.
Weeks 5 and 6: first sequences. Writing the templates, fine-tuning the tone, sending the first follow-ups after approval.
Then: ongoing follow-up. Adjusting the sequences based on the response, adding new moments in the year.

Deliverables

a lightweight CRM fed automatically;
a contact collection form for the cellar door and trade fairs;
3 to 5 ready-to-use follow-up sequences;
a tone guide for the AI, built from the estate's own texts;
a tracking dashboard;
a short training session for the team.

Metrics to track

the number of contacts collected at the cellar door and at trade fairs, with consent;
the open and click rate per sequence;
the number of online orders placed by cellar door visitors;
the share of customers who reorder within the year;
the time spent each month preparing emails.

These metrics are recorded at the start, then tracked monthly. No results are promised in advance: they depend on the volume of visitors and on what the estate offers.

Limitations and prerequisites

The project only makes sense if the estate welcomes enough visitors or customers to build a base.
You have to be willing to review the drafts: AI does not replace the estate's voice.
France's Évin law and GDPR rules apply to every send.
If sales go mainly through wine merchants or export, other priorities come first.

Indicative budget

The diagnostic corresponds to our audit, from €1,000 excl. VAT. Setup is quoted on request after the audit, depending on the tools already in place.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to change online stores? No, in most cases we connect the one you already have.

Will the AI write in the estate's place? It prepares drafts in the estate's voice. Every send is reviewed and approved.

What about contacts collected without consent? They do not receive marketing emails. They can be invited to sign up at their next purchase.

How much time per month once it's in place? The time it takes to review and approve the scheduled sends. It is measured at the start and tracked.

What next?

If your estate welcomes visitors you never contact again, the audit shows you in 8 to 10 days what can be set up with your current tools.

Client challenge