Internetrix is pleased to announce the launch of the Southern Highlands Food & Wine website.

Situated just 90 minutes from Sydney, the Southern Highlands is quickly becoming known for quality wine, phenomenal restaurants and stunning natural beauty. The areas first vines were planted 20 years ago and in the last few years the number of vineyards, cafes and restaurants has grown significantly.

Even The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living section has good things to say about the area, “This region of hills and hedges, wood fires and wooly jumpers overflows with people who love food. Shops and cafes, jam-stirrers and mayonnaise-makers abound.”

The Southern Highlands Food & Wine (SHFW) Project was an initiative of the Southern Highlands Vignerons Association to bring together food producers, retailers, restaurateurs and wine makers in the area, to promote the region as a food and wine destination.

With the assistance of federal, state and local government funding, SHFW needed to create an informative, functional site. “The goal of the site was to make available to the public, knowledge of what we do in the area,” said Alastair Graham, Vignerons Association president and Bou-Saada Vineyard & Wines owner. “We also wanted the ability to trade between partners of the Food & Wine Trail.”

Prior to Internetrix involvement, the SHFW website displayed a limited amount of information about SHFW and its sponsors. The project needed a website that presented a blend of tourism and business information with a pleasing and professional aesthetic.

Today the site does that—and more.

To help area visitors find everything they are looking for, an interactive trail map of the region displays the locations of participating SHFW trail members. “The map is beyond anything else available in maps that I’m aware of,” he said. “People are even enquiring into its licensing for their own applications.”

Because the map is made with Flash, users can select particular information they want to be displayed (such as locations of restaurants, wineries, etc.) and plan a route of things to see and do.

To adhere to SHFW’s request for online trading among partners, Internetrix created an eMarketplace. The brokerage-type system allows for online ordering of gourmet food and wine. Available to the general public, an option exists for merchants to restrict certain products to site members only.

“It has helped people in the community find out about products and services they never knew were in the area,” said Mr. Graham.

SHFW also wanted to be able to control all web content in-house. Using Internetrix Freestyle, administrators can ensure all content is up-to-date, new and fresh with a user friendly publishing engine. Freestyle’s business listing module also allows SHFW business members to login with a unique user name and password to update their business details and the products and/or services they offer.

“An overall site administrator is in charge of quality and presentation while site members maintain their own individual pages,” Mr. Graham said. “General feedback is that it is easy to maintain.”

Internetrix Connect allows SHFW to broadcast email newsletters to different groups including network business members, website visitors, local businesses and sponsors. Connect always personalises each interaction and allows for an automatic unsubscribe facilitation.

Mr. Graham is happy with the way the site turned out. “It presents well and is clean and well-designed,” he exclaimed.

Take a look at the Southern Highlands Food & Wine site to see it for yourself!