A Trifecta for GKLR Wines: Cellar Door, Wine Club, New Vineyard of the Year
Heathcote's main street has a new resident. Gerard Kennedy and Lucy Runnalls of GKLR Wines have opened the town's 1886 bank building as a cellar door, and they have named their wine club after it. Weeks before the doors opened, their vineyard at Colbinabbin won New Vineyard of the Year at Young Gun of Wine's sixth annual Vineyard of the Year Awards.
Gerard and Lucy bought the block at Colbinabbin in 2016, on the famed Cambrian soils of the Mount Camel Range, and planted it from 2018 across four stages. Gerard had studied geology and worked in the field before returning to Victoria to make wine, and you can see that in what is planted where. The Italian varieties are matched to the ground they sit on: Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Nero d'Avola, Fiano.
The award came down to that same precision, with soil surveys before planting, moisture probes at depth, and satellite imagery to find stress row by row. Gerard's line to the judges was that they grow fruit "at the row level, not vineyard level."
The instinct carries into the club, where members build their own case each time.
The cellar door attraction
The Bank, GKLR's cellar door, sits on High Street in Heathcote. Gerard and Lucy bought the building in 2021, and both GKLR and Kennedy Vintners wines are poured downstairs. Membership is designed to get people through that door: up to 20% off every purchase, invitations to member-only events, and free tastings when members visit.
Two levels, six or twelve bottles, twice a year
Club Members choose a level, Silver or Gold, then take six or twelve bottles every six months. They enjoy a discount, and pick the wines themselves each time. Shipping is free on all wine club orders.
Six-monthly delivery suits a producer whose releases arrive in waves. It also makes the conversation easier at the cellar door, where two cases a year is something a visitor can agree to on the spot with the glass still in their hand.
Two labels in the one case
The club pours GKLR and Kennedy Vintners, the label Gerard's parents run and where he began making wine. Members build a case across both brands.
Setting that up takes nothing special. Any product in the Shopify store can be made available to a club, so a sibling label or a parcel you only sell directly widens the pool of options members can choose from.
The club page blends perfectly
Open the GKLR club page, and the fonts, colours, and navigation are consistent with the whole website. The signup flow and the member portal look like the rest of the site because they are part of it and inherit the surrounding styling.
Live in a week
Gerard and Lucy knew the structure they wanted for the club before we started working together. Those clear, early decisions meant the club went live in a week, in time for the cellar door to open and to offer visitors a membership.
"We were looking for an easy wine club solution for our Shopify website, and we're very glad we came across Tectalic. We had our wine club set up within days!"
Lucy Runnalls, GKLR Wines
Like what you hear?
- If your wines come out in two waves a year, a six-monthly club is easier to keep stocked and easier to sell at the door.
- Free member tastings and member events cost you less than a deep discount, and people turn up to them.
- Two levels give a visitor a choice of size, which is an easier question than yes or no.
- A second label or a direct-only parcel widens the choice without adding a second club to run.
- If you have a destination a member can visit, name the club after it.
See GKLR and others that sit alongside Tectalic's live clubs page. Most went from install to a live club in a matter of weeks, not months.