My relationship with Cantara Cellars started years before the website, with a camera. I documented an entire vintage of wine. I flew up to Lodi with the winemakers on a gamble that it was harvest day, and it was. Then I followed the vintage all the way through crush, press, fermentation, and bottling. Years later, that relationship turned into rebuilding their entire web presence.

By then, the business had outgrown a single website. Under one roof called Camarillo Barrelworks, there were four brands: Cantara Cellars for the wine, Flat Fish Brewing for the beer, a distillery for the spirits, and the Barrelworks venue itself. Each had its own name, its own following, and its own website. The challenge was making them feel like one place without erasing what made each of them different.

So I built it as a WordPress Multisite. Each brand kept its own domain and identity, but everything lived under one dashboard and shared the same experience. You could move between brands without ever feeling like you'd left the building (or website).

The build didn't stop at the structure. I shot the photography and integrated their online food ordering system. The venue hosted live music constantly, so I tied the website into Google Calendar. The staff simply updated the calendar, and the events appeared automatically on the site.

Years later, even though the owners have changed, the site is still doing exactly what it was built to do.