Selling direct without hiring: the setup of a Graves wine estate

The real problem isn't the website

Most estates have a website and an online store. What's missing is the link between the two and everything else: the cellar door customer file, orders taken at wine fairs, the ERP that tracks stock, the content that tells the story of the vintage. Each tool does its part, poorly connected to the others, and someone copies by hand what the systems should be exchanging.

At Château Cazebonne, the goal was simple: sell more direct without adding a position. The website had to become a self-sufficient sales tool, not one more showcase to maintain.

Building block 1: a single source of truth for stock and orders

Orders used to go through CSV exports. We replaced them with two-way synchronization with the wine ERP Baqio. Website orders flow up in real time, stock flows back down continuously, and the online catalog reflects what is actually in the cellar.

It's the least visible building block and the most profitable: no more re-keying, no more cuvée shown in stock when it's sold out, no more orders to sort out by phone.

Building block 2: knowing who buys

An estate sells to three very different audiences: consumers, trade buyers (wine shops, hotels, restaurants and cafés) and influencers. On the Cazebonne website, each contact is automatically classified based on what they read and how they answer the estate's wine quizzes. The classification is synchronized with the marketing tools.

The result: the same message is no longer sent to a restaurant owner and to a wine lover. And when the team opens the CRM, it knows who it is talking to.

Building block 3: a customer relationship that runs on its own

The estate's CRM triggers messages at the right time, without anyone having to think about it:

• a message on the customer's birthday;
• a post-purchase follow-up to collect a verified review;
• an alert when a new vintage is released.

Sending frequency is capped, so as not to wear people out. And deliverability was configured properly, because an email that lands in spam sells nothing.

Building block 4: a website that advises like the cellar door

At the cellar door, people get advice. Online, visitors are often alone facing the range. We added two aids:

• an AI sales advisor, trained on the château's biodynamic sales pitch and technical sheets;
• a recommendation engine that suggests the complementary cuvée at the right moment.

On the customer journey side, logging in to the customer account requires no password, using a link sent by email. And automatic checks prevent a promo code from being applied to an incompatible or out-of-stock product.

Building block 5: content that brings in buyers

An estate has a history, grape varieties, a terroir. It still has to publish about them regularly. The Cazebonne website has an editorial back office where AI prepares first drafts and the team approves them. Linking between articles, cuvées and estate pages is handled automatically, so that every piece of content points to a page that sells.

It's also what makes the estate exist in AI answers: when someone asks ChatGPT which estate works with a given grape variety, the answer relies on what the web says about the estate, starting with its own website.

An admin designed for the team, not for a developer

None of this is any use if the team depends on a contractor to change a price or publish an article. The website's administration was built for the estate: the team is autonomous on 95% of day-to-day operations.

In what order to proceed

If you are starting from a standard website and online store, the order that works is the following:

1. Connect the store to the ERP, to stop re-keying. It's what frees up the most time, right away.
2. Unify the customer file: cellar door, wine fairs, web and export in a single CRM.
3. Automate three follow-ups: vintage release, post-purchase, birthday.
4. Publish regularly, with a workflow where AI prepares and the team approves.
5. Add online advice once the cuvée sheets are complete.

Key takeaways

Selling direct without hiring isn't about a miracle tool. It's about connections: between the store and the ERP, between the website and the customer file, between content and the pages that sell. Each building block strengthens the others.

Want to know where to start for your estate? We run a half-day diagnostic, then a full audit from €1,000 excl. VAT. The details of the Cazebonne setup are in the full case study, and our support for wine estates is on the Wine estates page.