Richard Kihl
Fine wine brokers
Industry: Fine Wine Trade
Location: Aldeburgh, Suffolk
Redesign and rebuild existing website
BRANDING | UMBRACO CONTENT MANAGEMENT | BESPOKE DEVELOPMENT | HOSTING
CONTEMPORARY
Design
WINELIST
Upload Feature
ADVANCED
Product filtering
WINE
Investmnt Opportunities
The Challenge
The challenge was to modernise Richard Kihl’s established website without losing the depth of content and functionality customers already relied on. The new site needed a fresh, contemporary design, improved features and, crucially, a highly efficient administration system capable of handling multiple updates every day.
A major requirement was streamlining the management of the extensive vintage wine list, which is updated daily and needed to be imported through a single, simple interface, while remaining searchable and downloadable as an Excel file.
The offers section also required a more sophisticated approach, combining wine details, producer information and bottle-level availability in one clear, accessible experience.
Our Solution
Ease of use was central to the website transformation, both for the client managing content and customers searching for wines. Upgrading the Umbraco version delivered a significantly improved administration experience, making everyday updates faster and more intuitive.
A bespoke import routine reduces the daily wine-list update to just a few clicks, while advanced search filters make finding specific wines straightforward. The redesigned Offers section also removes unnecessary repetition through a central producer library, allowing producer information to be reused across multiple offers while maintaining consistency.
Combined with a clean, minimalist interface, the result is a website that is simpler, faster and more efficient to manage and navigate.
The Result
The result is a modern, streamlined website that delivers a significantly improved experience for both the client and its customers. The upgraded Umbraco platform makes day-to-day management faster and more intuitive, while bespoke functionality has transformed how the extensive wine catalogue is maintained.
Daily imports now take just a few clicks, with advanced search making it easy for customers to find wines by their specific requirements. The restructured Offers section provides greater flexibility and consistency, with reusable producer information eliminating repetitive data entry.
Combined with a refined, minimalist design, the new website is easier to manage, easier to navigate and far more effective at showcasing Richard Kihl’s offering.
"We would certainly recommend them to anyone managing a similar project."
Timothy Wood, Richard Kihl Ltd
Richard Kihl
Fine wine brokers
Project Scope
Richard Kihl has been a customer of Rade for a number of years so when it was time for a website revamp, we were pleased to be able to help with a new Umbraco website.
The new site needed to mirror much of the content from the old but with a fresh modern design, improvements to the features and functionality and an efficient administration system that allows the site to be updated multiple times per day.
A key feature of the site is a list of vintage wines available for sale, which is updated daily. The ability to do this via one simple import interface was a prerequisite of the new website. The list needed to be searchable and also offer the user to option to download the list as an Excel file.
Another major feature of the site is the offers section, a part of the site where the latest special offers and product alerts are featured. The offer not only needs to include information about the wine itself, but also provide information about the producer and a list of bottles on offer.
Solution
The existing site had been developed on an early version of Umbraco which made the use of Umbraco 8 (the latest version at the time) an obvious choice. With a new interface and a vastly enhanced features list, it was able to deliver the transformation in functionality and ease of use the client was seeking.
A fresh modern design in keeping with the brand was created. Taking a minimalist approach, the design features a simple colour palette of black and white supported by gold used as an accent colour.
A new routine was written to enable the wine list import to be a matter of a few simple mouse-clicks. The ‘Advanced Search’ allows the visitor to choose from a series of drop-down selectors to filter the wine list based on their interest.
Restructuring the offers section ensures that the client is able to enhance each offer, with additional information added from a library of producers. The producer library ensures that, once created, they can be added effortlessly to multiple offers without having to recreate every time and ensuring consistency across the site.
Profile
Richard Kihl specialises in selling to the UK and international fine wine trade. The company has private customers, both in the UK and overseas, who buy from en primeur and use a wine cellar service. In addition, the company has a small retail fine wine shop in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.