Pre-Buy Digital Inspection
Know what you're buying before you close.
Independent digital due diligence for winery acquisitions...delivered on the transaction timeline, for buyers, brokers, and lenders.
The one thing due diligence usually misses
A winery acquisition covers the land, the vineyard, the equipment, the permits, the inventory, the trademarks, the wholesale contracts. All standard. What almost never gets a formal inspection is the digital infrastructure carrying 45 to 70 percent of the winery’s direct-to-consumer revenue.
The website. The wine club system. The customer database. The hosting. The domain and account credentials. The accessibility exposure. All of it becomes the buyer’s problem the day after close — and that gap is the difference between buying a functioning DTC channel and buying a shell that needs rebuilding.
What this inspection is
An independent, buyer-side digital diligence report delivered when the deal needs it. Not a pitch for follow-on work — a written finding that tells you what you're actually acquiring on the digital side, structured for the deal team with a technical appendix for whoever owns the site after close.
What it covers
Website
Platform, hosting, security posture, uptime and performance history.
E-commerce
Commerce7, WineDirect, VinoShipper or other; cart and checkout function; payment processing; PCI status.
Wine club
System, member count, retention, and whether the data can actually transfer.
Email marketing
Platform, list health, deliverability, ownership.
CRM & customer data
What exists, where it lives, who owns it.
Digital ownership
Domain registrar, DNS, licenses, third-party accounts — and whether the seller can transfer them at close.
Accessibility exposure
WCAG 2.2 AA baseline check for pending liability.
Content & IP
Image licensing, third-party content, terms and privacy compliance.
Analytics & history
What data exists and what the trendline looks like.
Pricing and timeline
Pre-Buy Digital Inspection
$3,500–$5,000
Depending on winery size and complexity. Commissioned by the buyer, broker, or lender — the fee sits in the diligence budget, where fees like this belong.
Seller-Side Digital Readiness
$2,500–$3,500
The same inspection, commissioned by the seller or broker before listing — the digital equivalent of a pre-listing property inspection. Findings get fixed before they become buyer leverage.
Timeline: two to four weeks, depending on scope and access to accounts.
For brokers and lenders
A pre-buy inspection catches the issues that otherwise surface after close and delay or unwind deals — the domain registrar nobody can log into, the wine club data that can’t legally transfer, the accessibility liability hiding behind a widget. Better found during diligence than during transition.
If you work winery transactions regularly, one conversation is enough to know whether this belongs in your diligence checklist.
The aviation parallel
In aviation, a used aircraft is never bought without a pre-buy inspection by an independent mechanic. The buyer commissions it. It costs money. It sometimes kills the deal — and that is exactly why it exists. PDG's founder spent forty years in that world. This is the same idea, applied to the digital side of a winery.
Ready to commission an inspection?
Let's discuss scope, timeline, and what you need to know before close.
Book a free scoping call