Kapp Winery, Where are You!

I don't mean for my first post about a specific winery to be negative, but here it goes.

I was putting the links for Indiana Wineries together so I could add them to the blog. You will find them on the right. I pulled them from the Indiana Wines website, which you will also find in a link to the right.

Creating this list made me even more excited about this blog. It brought back some memories of past visits, brought me up to date on what I have been missing, and gave me some ideas on where to visit soon.

It also let me know who pays attention to their website through regular updates, and who doesn't put much thought into the whole picture. I would also note that if your website has music that scares my sleeping cat, you might want to reconsider the tune.

I was also thrilled to note that every winery also had a website. Well, except one. Kapp Winery in Jasper is the sole exception. Looking at the awards they have won, they seem to be successful at making some interesting varieties of fruit and grape wine (any winery brave enough to try persimmon wine grabs my interest and is almost enough to guarantee a future visit). So why no website? Are the owners not Internet savvy? Surely the owners have a young relative who can whip up a decent site in short order?

Not wanting to leave question marks in the air, I called the Kapp Winery. I kept my questions brief because the owner had some customers tasting. I believe that those at a counter should receive precedence over those who call a business. The owner stated a website is under consideration, but the only employees are her and her husband, and it is just not feasible right now. She said that the winery will be closing after Christmas until April, and they will try to work on it then. She did seem surprised when I pointed out Kapp is the only Indiana Winery with no website.

The answers were not a surprise to me, but I have to ask are they acceptable in 2008? Kapp has been winning awards since 2003. Websites are not difficult to start nor particularly expensive. And the wine industry in particular has been able to take advantage of the Internet to increase knowledge and sales. The only excuse I find acceptable is that Kapp is not interested in building their business-they only want to make wine. I find that difficult to believe.

I have also put in an email to Indiana Wine Grapes Council, asking if they provide website start up support. I will report back when I get a response.

I mentioned in my welcome post that one of the items I would be discussing is the websites of wineries and whether they enhance or detract from the winery's image. Much worse than having a poorly designed or never update website is having none at all.