Decanter's online audience is up 20% year-on-year in a period that saw the launch of Decanter Premium and a new learning app. Here are some more changes coming in 2019, including a new website...
We very much enjoyed 2018, from the thousands of entries and winners at the Decanter World Wine Awards to the many happy tasters at our fine wine tasting events. Yet, perhaps a little under the radar, we also changed how the website is run.
Namely, we launched Decanter Premium, the third string to our subscription bow; offering all magazine articles online plus exclusive vertical tasting reports of top producers’ wines and in-depth coverage of Rhône 2016, Burgundy 2017, Bordeaux 2017, Piedmont new releases, Tuscany new releases and many more.
We also launched a learning app, Know Your Wine, to help wine lovers understand more about what happens from grape to glass.
All of this meant that, in June 2018, Decanter.com was awarded Best Online Media Property / Brand at the Association of Online Publishers awards 2018.
None of this means anything without those who read our articles, attended our events or entered our awards. We thank all of you for your support.
What does that mean for 2019?
To build on this success, and with Decanter.com’s reader base up 20% year-on-year, we’ll be making more exciting changes to Decanter online throughout 2019.
And the first is coming very soon…
Website Upgrade
Our dedicated developers abstained from opening a second bottle at Christmas in order to continue work on a new website for us.
Simple and elegant, we think it will help to de-clutter the site and make advertising less intrusive. This should make articles easier to read, especially on mobiles and tablets. We hope to have the new site live by the end of the January, so keep your eyes peeled.
In the background, we will continue to make improvements to our wine database in order to make our reviews section quicker and easier to use.
One of our most recent improvements allows you to link your Premium subscription to your Cellar Tracker account, to help track all your wines and scores.
Words, wines and wisdom
Our 2018 wouldn’t have been as good as it was without some of our top online editors and contributors.
Our in-house team of Chris Mercer and Ellie Douglas planned, commissioned, wrote, re-worked and edited articles daily, and our social media following eclipsed 100,000 on both Instagram and Facebook in 2018.
In the reviews engine room, Jim Button somehow found time to taste wines as well as managing to get 12,000 fresh wine reviews onto the Decanter Premium database.
After Chris went freelance in November, following a move away from London to the West Country, the team is very much looking to keep up momentum in 2019.
Jane Anson tasted more wines for Decanter than anyone else in 2018, including many verticals of top châteaux plus taking on the mammoth job of Bordeaux 2017 en primeur for the second year.
Jane’s weekly column shifted to include tastings for Decanter Premium, as well as free-to-air commentary on Decanter.com. We are looking forward to reading much more of Jane’s reviews in 2019.
Andrew Jefford has been omnipresent on Decanter.com since 2011, forging a connection with readers via his ‘Jefford On Monday’ columns.
As Decanter.com adapts, we are delighted that Andrew’s intellectual weight, writing ability and excellent palate will be moving to Decanter Premium to cover tastings across a variety of regions.
Andrew’s final ‘Jefford On Monday’ column appeared on 31 December 2018, and you can read it here. Follow Andrew Jefford’s fortnightly articles on Decanter Premium from 14 January 2019.
And of course, there will be more to come from our other regional experts, including Matt Walls, Michaela Morris, Stephen Brook, Tim Atkin MW and more.
A Happy New Year to all, and thank you again for your feedback and support in the past year. We’re looking forward to all things decanted in 2019.
