Choosing wine online starts with curiosity. You might recognise a grape variety, be drawn to a label or want to discover a producer you haven’t tried before. But without a bottle in your hand, getting a feel for the wine takes a little more exploring.
At Eight at the Gate, we want that exploration to bring you closer to our wines and the people behind them.
Our family-owned wine business in Wrattonbully, South Australia, recently took part in a project using Stevie, a robotic product imaging system developed by Australian company MMAPT Robotics. The South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) has shared our experience in its feature, Building an asset library with Stevie: Eight at the Gate.
It’s a behind-the-scenes investment with a simple purpose: helping us show you our wines more clearly.
Bringing the bottle a little closer
In a wine shop, you can pick up a bottle, turn it around and read the back label. Online, photographs and product information have to help bridge that gap.
Through the SAWIA pilot, we submitted 12 wines for product mapping. Stevie creates a collection of digital material, including bottle photographs, back-label imagery and 360-degree video.
For us, the rotating bottle view was a particular attraction. It offers a way to show more than a single photograph, giving people a closer look at the packaging and details they would naturally explore in person.
These assets give us more ways to introduce our wines across our website, emails, social channels and retail partners as we develop our content.
What to look for when choosing wine online
A beautiful bottle photograph might catch your eye, but it’s only the beginning. When exploring a wine, a few details can help you decide whether it belongs on your table:
Grape variety and style: Look beyond “red” or “white” to the tasting notes and the kind of wine you enjoy.
Region and vineyard: Where the grapes grow provides context for the wine’s character.
Vintage: Check the year shown in the product details, particularly when comparing bottles or looking for a wine you’ve enjoyed before.
Food pairings and serving suggestions: These can help you choose for a particular meal or occasion.
Clear imagery works best alongside useful written information. A label can introduce a wine; its story helps you get to know it.
Behind the label is Wrattonbully
Our story begins with sisters Jane Richards and Claire Davies, a farming upbringing and the wish to give their eight children a connection to country life.
Today, our wines come from our vineyard in Wrattonbully, part of South Australia’s Limestone Coast. The land, the vineyard work and the people involved all matter to what ends up in the bottle.
Even within a vineyard, individual blocks have their own character. Our Chardonnay 12 block has short rows and a small area that supports consistency. In Shiraz 7, shallower soils and slightly higher ground help balance vine growth. For Cabernet 4, we selectively harvest a section planted on terra rossa soil.
You can explore those details in our vineyards and learn more about the Wrattonbully wine region.
Australian innovation supporting a family business
For a small wine producer, creating fresh photography takes time, coordination and resources alongside the everyday work of growing grapes and selling wine.
Working with an Australian provider was an important part of the project for us. A consistent collection of product imagery gives us more flexibility to share our range, while keeping the focus on the wines themselves.
Our family, our vineyard and our approach to wine remain at the heart of the story. This technology gives us another way to bring that story to you.
Read the full Wine South Australia feature for Jane’s perspective on the project.
And if it has sparked your curiosity, explore our Wrattonbully wines and find a bottle for your next shared meal, celebration or catch-up.
From the cellar door
Bring a little Eight at the Gate home.
Explore our wines online, discover current favourites, or join the Chaos for member offers and 20% off your first order.
