When we talk about wine, we are often talking about place. When you talk about place, a map comes in handy. And when you need a map for your website, shelftalkers, or staff training take a look at Maphill.com.
Satellite 3D Map of Napa County, physical outside
Maphill is totally free service that allows you to make beautiful maps in a variety of styles and download, embed, print, and share at no charge. What is especially cool for us wine people are the topographic maps you can produce to explain a place.
The possibilities are endless. For staff trainings, the map above allows a server who has never been to Napa Valley to understand just how the terrain looks. For Wine Educators, the usefulness is obvious. For retailers, imagine putting some cool maps up with certain wines, with a big star with exactly where they are from.
I spent a total of ten minutes creating the maps you see below. Their interface is awesome. Dive in and have fun.
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A few examples:
Topo map of the Sonoma Coast and Russian River, with the valley on the right where Santa Rosa and the 101 freeway is. Perfect to demonstrate the complexity of the geography as well as the Petaluma Gap.
Satellite Panoramic Map of the Area around 38° 36′ 25″ N, 123° 10′ 30″ W
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The Transverse Mountain Range just north of Santa Barbara, showing the influence of the separation between the city of the Santa Barbara and the wine region to the north. (Remember the scene in Sideways when they drive to wine country, driving through the tunnel? That tunnels cuts through the hills shown here.)
Physical Panoramic Map of the Area around 34° 28′ 56″ N, 119° 46′ 30″ W
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Lastly, a perfect map to show the “fingers” of the hills that produce Valpolicella. I’ve never seen such a clear example and this brings to life the region while discussing it with a service staff.
Satellite 3D Map of the Area around 45° 35′ 46″ N, 11° 7′ 30″ E