I’m sure you were a little surprised to see the new layout when you visited the site today. We’ve been way overdue for an overhaul and the code was starting to get a little clunky, so welcome to the new CostcoWineBlog.com.
For the past few months I’ve been paying close attention to websites that I like to incorporate their best characteristics into our new design. Some of the things that came up time and time again were clean design, simplicity and site speed.
These are the pillars to this new design. And these were seriously lacking in the previous design. For you WordPress fans I was able to cut the number of plugins in half with this new theme, and maintain the exact same functionality.
I also know that you come here for the latest reviews on Costco wines, and these wines turn over fast like anything else at Costco. So our latest reviews are priority #1 and you will see them on the homepage listed in order, most recent first.
If you enjoyed the categorized blocks on the homepage before, you can still easily access those from the top menu navigation. Just choose wine reviews and the dropdown category of your choice. There is a direct link to Kirkland wines in that dropdown.
The Top Picks link is the same. Bookmark that one if you haven’t already. The features link continues to house all of our feature stories.
A new design always takes a little getting used especially when you were so accustomed to the old navigation. But I hope you find this new design to be clean, simple and fast loading as we intended. I’m really excited about it, and I hope you are too.
Please let me know your thoughts, and thanks as always for following this site.
Cheers,
Andrew, editor
Alan Siebert says
Andrew, I am continually frustrated when I go to my 3 local Costco stores, looking for the wines you review. Most of the wines you review are not in my stores, particularly the Kirkland brand wines. Can you tell me why that is the case? Can anything be done about this? Can I do anything? I am an avid collector and read wine spectator. Very disappointing to read these great reviews, then go to Costco and nit find any of the wines.
Alan
Editor says
Alan
You bring up the hardest part of doing this site and your concerns are unfortunately very common.
I wish there was a way to know where the wines could be found. There used to be a search tool on Costco.com that was awesome but that disappeared several years ago.
There’s just no rhyme or reason to it from I can tell. I have six Costco stores within about 30 min of my house. They are all different. And carry different wines.
I know some readers will call their store and ask about the wines by item number (we include at the end of each review). Others use the chat feature on Costco.com and seem to have had some luck.
I wish we had a better answer but in an effort to stay 100% independent we rely on the same consumer level info as everyone else.
I hope some turn up for you soon
AC
Maria Jette says
Wow— it looks great! As so often happens with this kind of site upgrade, I was perfectly happy with the old version, but the minute I saw this, I could see the point. 😏
As for “getting used to” the new & improved costcowineblog.com/, I pronounce it to be like a perfect pair of new shoes: looks fantastic, fits perfectly, and no break-in time!
Editor says
Wow. Glad you like it and thanks for the kind words. Cheers.