Not everything needs to be a huge deal. Sometimes the simplest things are the best. Proving that point, is Cinema 4D Artist Benjamin Ring, who shows that when it comes to animating a winding rope in Cinema 4D, you can hack together an easy trick of they eye, instead of using a complex rig.
Of course, you have the choice to create a rig for a winding rope, using dynamics, cloth, Xpresso and the like, or you can even use a plugin, such as C4DZone’s Spline Wrapper. Another way is just to make it seem like a winding rope. This is what happened when Benjamin Ring put together his animation. It might look like there is a rig involved, but it is actually a bit of a cheat.
The rope is actually comprised from two separate, swept splines. One for the winding action, based on a helix, and the other is the part of the rope that will lower into the well. A few strategic keyframes later, and you have an animation that looks like winding rope is bringing the bucket up form the well.