Matthiasson Wines

A VineSpring Story

Founded in 2003, Matthiasson Wines is a farm-forward, family-run winery based out of Napa, California. Steve and Jill Matthiasson are the husband-and-wife team behind the label and consider themselves farmers first. Their combined passion for the intersection of nature and culture has been the driving force behind their brand and the style of wines they produce.

Pioneers in the farm-to-table movement, they think of themselves as a different kind of winery and have cultivated a following among those who appreciate the ‘freshness’ in food and wine. What that translates to is grapes that are picked earlier, which produces brighter, more acidic, and ultimately more expressive grape-driven wines.

“WHEN YOU HAVE REALLY GOOD QUALITY INGREDIENTS, YOU DON'T NEED TO DO MUCH TO THE GRAPES TO MAKE GOOD WINE.” - JILL MATTHIASSON, OWNER

For Steve and Jill, winemaking is a natural extension of farming, and most of their grapes come from the seven vineyards that they farm in Napa and Sonoma. They use site-specific farming methods to grow intense fruit, coupled with careful restraint in the cellar, resulting in wine that is full-flavored but impeccably balanced.

In addition to guiding sustainable farming practices at Matthiasson Wines and in the community, Jill also runs the business side of the family farming and wine business, overseeing all wholesale and direct sales operations.

The Problem

In the early years, Matthiasson Wines was strictly a wholesale operation, distributing through restaurants and retailers. Realizing the benefits that direct sales could bring to their business, they introduced a direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales offering through their website in 2006 and launched their wine club program in 2011.

“WE WERE SMALL AND WANTED TO BUILD A DIRECT BUSINESS SO THAT WE COULD GROW OUR BRAND AWARENESS AND CAPTURE MORE OF THE MARKET. SELLING AT WHOLESALE, THE PROFIT MARGINS ARE LOWER.”

As Matthiasson Wines’ following of enthusiasts grew, so did their need for a better, more scalable solution to manage their online sales.

“WE NEEDED TO UPDATE OUR WEBSITE AND ALSO NEEDED A PLACE FOR THE ORDERS TO GO THROUGH AND KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF THE CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT DATABASE. WINE CLUBS CAN BE COMPLICATED AND WE NEEDED SOMETHING THAT WAS EASY TO USE.”

The Solution

Matthiasson Wines adopted VineSpring in an effort to streamline their front-end and back-end DTC operations. A few noted improvements that their system upgrade brought include a newly branded website, easier member login, enhanced shipping estimator, and an overall better user flow for buyers. They are also leveraging the VineSpring MailChimp email integration for more streamlined member communications.

“LOGGING IN IS EASIER AND MORE INTUITIVE. WE CAN SEND AN EMAIL TO SOMEBODY, AND THEY CAN JUST CLICK IT AND GET STRAIGHT INTO THEIR ACCOUNTS.”

With their wine club, they offer two shipments per year. Members can choose either six or twelve bottles per shipment. The six-bottle club includes six different wines, and the twelve-bottle club includes two bottles of each of the six wines. In addition to the wine club offerings, Matthiasson also produces assorted homemade jams that can be added to any of their wine club memberships. With all of these options, their business relies on VineSpring’s wine club management tools to manage member enrollment, list segmentation, and order and shipment processing.

As Matthiasson Wines continues to grow -- they’re planning to open their first official tasting room in Napa in mid-2018 -- they will be looking to scale their technologies to meet new demands. This includes Square POS integration and enhanced lead capture tools using tablets (no more pen and paper to gather names and emails).

“RIGHT NOW, SOMEBODY'S WRITING IT DOWN AND THEN SOMEBODY'S MANUALLY ENTERING ALL THE DATA IN, AND THAT'S A LOT OF LABOR THAT I WANT TO TRY TO AUTOMATE. AND NOW, IT'S NOT A HUGE AMOUNT, BUT WE'RE GOING TO HOPEFULLY BE DOING THREE TASTINGS A DAY INSTEAD OF ONE A DAY. THAT'S GOING TO GET TO BE A MUCH BIGGER JOB.”

See more craft producers that use VineSpring to power their clubs, eCommerce, and more.