CUSTOM HOME BUILDING · 2025 - ONGOING
Cullen
Wines
One of Margaret River's most storied wineries. A website that made it hard work to find any of it.
A pioneering biodynamic winery with over 50 years of history, a wine club, a cellar door and a calendar full of experiences, all buried in a site that had become clunky to use and harder to maintain. This is the story of a full Shopify rebuild designed around clarity, from a simplified navigation that funnels visitors to the right place, to seamless booking and wine club journeys, and a backend the Cullen team can manage without a developer.
ENGAGEMENT
trategy + Build + Support
PLATFORM
Shopify
ROLE
Strategy · UX · Design · Content · Integrations
TIMELINE
2026 · Ongoing
SECTOR
Wine & Hospitality
01 Background
Cullen Wines has been making wine in Margaret River since 1971, a family-owned winery recognised worldwide as a pioneer of biodynamic winemaking.
Three generations of the Cullen family have shaped the estate, now led by Chief Winemaker Vanya Cullen OAM. Certified biodynamic, carbon neutral and consistently rated among Australia's best, with a cellar door, dining offering and calendar of experiences that draw visitors from around the world. In the wine world, the reputation speaks for itself.
The website told a different story. Years of content had piled up across a structure that had grown clunky and hard to navigate, with hardcoded sections that made even basic updates a job for a developer. Experiences, one of the biggest parts of the business, were buried. Stories that deserved to be read felt like a novel to get through. A world-class winery with a website working against it.
02 Our Approach
Structure first, styling second.
Three decisions shaped the rebuild.
01
Navigation
Guide every visitor, don't make them dig.
Cullen's audience arrives with different intentions: some want the story, some want the wine, some want to book a table or a tasting. Fifty years of content had blurred those paths together. The new architecture funnels each visitor type to what they came for, with the depth of history there for those who want it and never in the way for those who don't.
02
Experiences
Treat experiences like the core business they are.
Tastings, events and dining are among the biggest drivers of the business, but the old site treated them as an afterthought. Now Book It was integrated properly, with dedicated booking pathways for each experience type and clear prompts across the site, so booking a Cullen experience is as considered as the experience itself.
03
Handover
Build it so the team never needs a developer.
Every section was built to be managed internally, with no hardcoded elements, no fragile workarounds and native theme solutions wherever possible. Campaigns, events and content updates are now a job for the Cullen team, not an agency invoice.
03 How We Delivered It
Launched July 2026, ready to run without a developer.
At a glance
Simplified navigation built around three customer journeys
Now Book It booking pathways for every experience type
Klaviyo integrated for events waitlists and newsletter growth
Fully editable Shopify build on the Symmetry theme
The build brought fifty years of story into a structure that finally does it justice. The Cullen Family Legacy, sustainability and biodynamics content was restructured into clear, readable pages, the wine club was repositioned as The Cullen Collective, and dining, events and private functions each got a home of their own. The site's beautiful existing imagery and video content was put to work rather than left buried.
Under the hood, everything was set up for the team to run independently. Bookings route through Now Book It with enquiries mapped across the right inboxes, Klaviyo captures event waitlists and newsletter signups with compliant opt-ins, and the checkout was configured around how Cullen customers actually buy. Handover documentation and training rounded it out, with a four-week support period to smooth the transition.
BEFORE · 2025
AFTER · 2026
From cluttered to considered. The old site had all the right ingredients but no clear structure: decades of content stacked in long pages, experiences hard to find, and a backend that needed a developer for basic changes. The rebuild gave one of Margaret River's founding wineries a site as considered as the wine, and a team that can finally run it themselves.
04 What is produced
A website the team can actually run.
From the structure work
Every visitor finds their path.
Wine buyers, wine club members, diners and event guests each have a clear route through the site. Fifty years of family history is there for those who want the full story, organised so it invites reading instead of demanding it.
From the bookings work
Experiences take centre stage.
Tastings, dining and private functions each have dedicated pages with Now Book It built in, so booking happens on the spot rather than through an email chain. Enquiries route automatically to the right person on the Cullen team.
From the handover work
No developer required.
Events, campaigns and content updates are all managed in-house through a clean Shopify backend, with documentation to match. The team publishes on their own schedule, and the site stays as considered as the day it launched.
Looking for a more considered approach to your website? If you value clear thinking, thoughtful design, and a site that reflects the professionalism of your business, you should get in touch.
NEXT PROJECT