A distillery website for visitors, drinkers and the trade
A craft distillery's website has three audiences: visitors who want a tour or tasting, drinkers who want to know the range and where to buy it, and bars and shops looking to stock you. Anticode can book private tours, link group tours to a ticketing service, present the range and take trade enquiries. Selling spirits online depends on alcohol rules and a store platform with proper age checks, so it stays off the Anticode site.
Tours and tastings: pick the right booking tool
Visitor experiences are often the most profitable part of a small distillery, and they come in different shapes. Matching each to the right tool matters, because Anticode's booking calendar gives each day and time slot to exactly one booking per service.
- Private tours and gin-making experiences
- A single party per slot. A good fit for the booking calendar: the guest picks the experience, a day and a time, and gives a name, phone and email. Ask the party size and any access needs when you confirm.
- Scheduled group tours
- Twelve strangers on the 2pm tour. The calendar can't count places, and the site has one payment link per account, so sell tour dates through a ticketing service that caps places, and link to it.
- Tasting flights in the bar
- Usually walk-in. Say so, give the hours, and take group requests by form.
- Corporate and private hire
- An enquiry: date, guest numbers, budget, food. Reply with a proposal.
For every experience, publish the length, what's included (how many spirits, a gin-and-tonic, a miniature to take home), the minimum age, whether non-drinkers pay less, accessibility of the stillhouse, and the advice not to drive. Say how designated drivers are looked after, with a soft drink or a sample bottle to take away. Neither the calendar nor the ticketing link takes care of ID checks; those happen on the day.
Range pages that answer real questions
Hold the range in a CMS collection, one entry per spirit: style, strength, botanicals or cask, how it's made, tasting notes, the serve you recommend, bottle sizes and where to buy it. Each spirit has its own page, and limited releases can be added and marked sold out from the dashboard. Avoid health or effect claims and any suggestion that drinking improves performance or social success; alcohol advertising rules in many countries forbid them, and the wording is your responsibility.
Generated drinks sites tend to lean on dark gradients, smoky glasses and words like "crafted" and "artisanal". Show the still, the people and the place. The Luxury (Jost) design system suits a premium aged spirit; Organic (Figtree) suits a field-to-bottle farm distillery.
Age notices on a page without scripts
Many drinks sites open with a pop-up asking for a date of birth. Anticode's published pages run no scripts, so an interactive age gate isn't possible, and it offers little real protection anyway. Put a clear notice on every page that the content is intended for people of legal drinking age, include responsible drinking information and a link to a support organisation where your rules expect one, and check what your country's advertising codes require. Real age verification belongs at the point of sale, on the store platform and at the tour desk.
Selling bottles
Selling spirits online usually requires licences and age verification at checkout and on delivery, and the rules differ widely between countries and regions. Anticode has no cart, shipping or age-checked checkout, so don't sell bottles through a plain payment link. Link to your own store on a platform that supports alcohol sales and age verification, and to the retailers that stock you. A "where to buy" page listing shops and bars by area is useful in itself and keeps your trade customers happy.
Trade enquiries
Bars, restaurants, hotels and shops need a quick route to your trade team. A custom form can ask for business name, type, location, which products interest them, expected volume, whether they want staff training or a cocktail menu, and their current wholesaler. Send each enquiry to HubSpot or a Slack channel through a connector. Give trade buyers a page with your wholesaler or distributor details, case sizes and a request for a trade price list by email.
Events and the mailing list
Masterclasses, cocktail nights, releases and festival appearances belong in an events collection, each with its own page and a link to the ticketing service. The newsletter form asks only for an email; connectors can pass sign-ups to Mailchimp, which uses double opt-in, or Kit.
Limits
Questions people ask
Can visitors book a distillery tour online?
Private tours, yes, one party per slot on Anticode's booking calendar. Scheduled group tours sell better through a ticketing service you link to.
Can I add an age gate pop-up?
No, published pages run no scripts. Use a clear age notice on every page and verify age at the point of sale.
Can I sell gin on my Anticode site?
Not directly. Link to a store platform that handles alcohol licensing and age checks, and list retailers that stock you.
Sources
- Stripe Docs: Payment Links, checked