From this brief-but-insightful-article at Search Engine Guide:

1. what needs to happen on your site to get your business where you want it to be, and
2. identify which metrics will tell you if what you want to happen is happening.

Simple to state, but it requires you to think more deeply about your business.

If your winery sells wine online (doesn't everyone these days?), this analysis of online wine store growth patterns is relevant.  The money quote:

Repeat business is where your investment online becomes truly viable, but without new customers you will never reach your full potential online.

Of course, you have to have the data about your web visitors to decide where you stand.

If you're a "green" winery, then this may be of interest to you:

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Winery Videos Critic offered at Green Wine Summit  

Do you ever wonder why some wineries get more attention and press than others? It could be the way you are delivering you message, whether in print, with photos or through video clips. Wineries are invited to submit marketing videos for critical review and counsel on how to maximize messaging and reach through extremely impactful video channels.

Wine Industry marketing panelists will offer critical feedback as well as best practices tips:
Mimi Gatens, Winery Marketing Consultant, Moderator
Michael Duffy, Principal, Michael E. Duffy & Associates and WineryWebsiteReport.com
Laura Levy Shatkin, President, L Squared Productions
Lisa A. Walter, Principal, Adams Walter Communications

Upload videos to the YouTube Green Wine Summit Channel by November 15, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/user/GWSVIDEO

Info and tickets for the Green Wine Summit can be found at www.greenwinesummit.com
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(disclosure: I am speaking at The Green Wine Summit)

Love him or hate him, wine critic/blogger Steve Heimoff hits this particular nail on the head:

The biggest mistake most wineries make online is to establish a website, put some stuff up, and then let it molder for months if not years. I routinely get tasting samples in the mail ...So I’ll go to the website for info, only to find that the vintage hasn’t been updated for two years!... when you deliberately go to a website expecting something new and useful, only to find a bunch of old, boring stuff, it’s an insult. You actually feel resentment to the company for being lazy and uncaring and unprofessional. Not good.

(from An example of how social marketing works for a winery -- maybe).

The top error for winery websites remains a lack of freshness, from home pages which haven't changed in years, to a lack of information about new vintages, to "News" pages where the last update was more than a year ago.

A related mistake is to throw out the "old, boring stuff" on your website wholesale, instead of archiving items which have long-term value to visitors.  Disk space is cheap and search engines are your friends.  Someone just might want to read about that 10-year-old vintage they pulled from the cellar for tonight's party.  Ideally, your website has information about every vintage you've every produced.

Your winery could do this: pre-fill a shopping cart for returning customers, based on their previous purchases.

Jeez, this is brilliant.  If you want e-commerce lessons, study the people who spend lots and lots of money to make sure it's optimized (e.g. Amazon.com, Wine.com).  

I wouldn't call it "Guess My Order," though.  I think this copy is particularly confusing.

Jo Diaz has a nice post today on the upcoming Green Wine Summit, scheduled for November 29-30 at the Napa Marriott.

I will be part of a panel during the morning breakout session, Green Sales & Marketing: Communicating Green, along with Mimi Gatens, Laura Levy Shatkin, and Lisa Adams Walter.  I am almost certain to offend someone with my take on wineries and their websites.

Please say hello if you're in attendance.  Details on the event are here.