China Wine Club

Introducing an unfamiliar wine category without burying commercial paths

China Wine Club imports modern Chinese wines into the United States. Founder Camden Hague had a visual identity from Polonsky + Friends, but no digital presence or information architecture. I partnered directly with Camden to design, build, and launch the company’s first platform.

The core UX challenge was serving two very different intents at once: educating U.S. sommeliers, press, and curious drinkers about unfamiliar Chinese wine regions while giving restaurant buyers and consumers a fast path to stockists and tasting events.

Using geography as the primary entry point

Because most U.S. visitors do not yet know Chinese winery names, organizing the catalog alphabetically by producer created a dead end. Instead, I structured discovery around China’s wine-growing regions and an interactive homepage map.

Regional pages establish the climate and geography first, then lead naturally into the wineries operating there, while keeping commercial pages directly accessible for repeat trade visitors.

Designing a bilingual CMS system for a solo founder

Every producer profile needed to balance English and Chinese typography, regional metadata, editorial photography, and wine notes without feeling cluttered. I designed a repeatable template system that adapts the brand’s print-inspired palette into a responsive web layout.

To make sure the platform would not require a developer after handoff, I structured the WordPress and Elementor backend around modular templates so Camden can publish new producers, events, and stockists independently.

Closing the loop from editorial story to local retailer

Because alcohol regulations route U.S. sales through licensed retailers and restaurants, the primary conversion action is finding a local stockist. I kept “Find Our Wines” prominent in the header and built a custom Google Maps locator with branded markers and filterable venue details.

Launch, GA4 instrumentation, and organic adoption

I took the platform from initial information architecture to launch between February and May 2025, configuring Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to track acquisition channels and page engagement across the new structure.

The site recorded 2,300+ active users in 2025 (including roughly 1,800 in the U.S.). From January through April 2026, it logged 1.7k active users, 4.4k page views, and 906 organic-search sessions across seven countries, with traffic concentrated on Find Our Wines, Producers, and Clubhouse events.

Traffic breakdown