Archives for February, 2007
OTBN, Montomorenci Suwanee, 2005 (D)
Last November Missus Dink and I were driving to the beach and we hadda get off the highway to avoid some bad traffic. In the middle of fucking nowhere (Aiken, SC) we passed a tasting room. Being adventurous winos we stopped in for a taste of some Montomorenci wines. They had twelve wines listed on their tasting sheet but only one was available, a suwanee. Never heard of it? Us neither. The guy pouring told us it was developed at the University of Florida and it was related to muscadine. Tasted like it. We were on our way to meet some fellow wine fools for an annual tradition of debauchery at a beach-side rental for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a trunk load of fine wines I was looking forward to sharing and I thought it would be fun to throw in one of these just for a laugh but we ended up not opening it — we just had too many damn fine wines to want to drink one that was probably gonna suck. That’s how it ended up in my cellar and became a candidate for Open That Bottle Night. I’m pretty sure the event was meant for opening something with potential to be a special treat but I was literally hanging on to this wine with anticipation of opening it on just the right occasion. By coincidence, we were invited to a party on February 24 and there’s nothing I hate more than bringing a nice bottle of wine to a party and having to share it with who knows how many people who may not even give a shit what they’re drinking. So, the plan was to bring two bottles: the Montomorenci and something else to hide at the back of the bar and sneak some pours from while watching everyone else drink the first. In fairness, I did have a couple tastes but also relied on some reactions from others for this brief tasting note.
A couple people immediately identified it as similar to muscadine and one said it had a heavy sweet finish that never actually finished. I tasted some mild white peach and mango but they were similarly washed away with a flat sugary pepper that clung to the sides of my tongue and wouldn’t go away. It was almost as boring as it was sweet and I guess that’s why it was one of the only bottles left half full by the end of the night — this at a party stocked with sub-ten-buck mass market wines. I wonder if it might have fared better had I kept in a brown bag and served it blind. Nearly everyone had something smug to say about the wine being from South Carolina before they even tasted it.
Wine Web 2.0 Roundup, Part II
logabottle.com
Pleasant, usable interface. Good listing of Cline wines but slow-ish loading search results. I hate that a search for “unti” (as in Unti Vineyards) gets results including “until” — searches are based on strings rather than whole words which, in some cases, makes searching useless. There doesn’t seem to be an way to view more than one person’s notes on a given wine. When I add a wine to my log I have the opportunity to fill out an extensive form (only 5 fields are required) but I see no way to find out what others might have written about this wine. They’ve got a google map feature which by default, as soon as I added a wine to my log, appears with a pointer to the location of the wine’s source. This adds nothing to my experience except slowness. The Wine News feature is ok but I don’t need it since none of it is original content. I already get the bulk of my wine news through various web site and blog subscriptions in an rss reader and I don’t need a site that aggregates news. They have a blog but it’s not easily found and hasn’t been updated in 3 months. Each user has a discussion board but I wish each wine had one or that there were some general public forums. Overall, a lot of interesting features but they just don’t gel with my expectations or needs.
WineLog.net
Very nice look. Simple, colorful in a red kind of way. The home page features blog articles by a few different people. At first, I thought this included blog articles from users like me but after spending more time I don’t see a way to have a blog of my own — too bad. Still, it’s nice that they have multiple blog authors regularly posting (I haven’t read much so can’t speak to the usefulness or appeal of the articles). The first really impressive feature is this: when I entered the word “cline” in the search box, almost immediately, a drop-down menu appeared with four or five specific Cline wines listed. I could search for my original term or select one of the more narrow searches. Nice. Even better: When adding a wine to their database as soon as you start typing a list of potential matches that are already in the database appears. They have a wine recommendation feature, which I like, but I haven’t tested how accurate it is. With only two wines in my log I was already receiving recommendations — presumably, the more wines in my log, the better the recommendations. I love that I can see other users ratings and comments about wines in my log. Unfortunately, I don’t see any forums. If they added user forums and the ability for users to have their own personal blogs hosted this would be a hard site to beat for features.
CellarTracker
This is the behemoth of wine sites as far as community tasting notes and ratings go. The interface, while somewhat improved since I first looked at it a couple years ago is still quite homely. It’s wine database is vast and the number of users was 28,750 on my last look - that dwarfs most of the other wine sites combined. No other site returns so many search results on not only Cline wines but even some of my favorite hard to find wines (from Unti and Meeker to name two). This is the hands down clear winner in terms of volume but I wish it were more attractive and included more than just tasting notes and cellar tracking.
Summary
The one feature that is lacking in most of these wine sites is an easy and convenient way to incorporate tasting notes and wine data into published blog posts and articles. I’m torn between three: WineFetch.com, WineLog.net and CellarTracker. No one of them does everything I want. The first two come closest in terms of features but the last has the more substantial volume of users, information and eyeballs (presumably). I realize this has been a brief and sketchy comparison but I’m a strong believer in first impressions. Maybe what I’ll do next is move this roundup onto a page of it’s own and continue to update it. I will also start using one or two of the services more fully and see if usage changes my opinions or needs. I hope I didn’t miss any other significant wine sites — if so, I hope someone will alert me in the comments.
see also…
Wine Web 2.0 Roundup, An Omission
Open That Bottle Night
This Saturday is Open That Bottle Night (as designated by the wine writers of the WSJ and adopted by some wine blogs - the best reference I can find is this one from Dr. Vino). The idea is that most wino’s have at least one bottle they’ve been hanging onto for some unspecified special occasion and Feb 24 is as good an occasion as any. I think their assumption was that the bottle would likely be something special but I don’t see why it has to be. I’m got a few bottles I’ve been saving simply because I’m expecting them to suck (one from Georgia and one from Argentina — I’ll update the post with specifics after I actually go down to the basement and look) so maybe one of them (or us) will get drunk this Saturday night.
Wine Web 2.0 Roundup Omission; WineFetch.com Unintentionally Slighted
I completely forgot to mention another wine site that I not only knew about but have an account with! I realized it last night and made a mental note to be sure to include it in the next installment but then I received the following email from Steve Goodman of WineFetch:
I hope you are doing well. I recently read your latest blog post Wine Web 2.0 on WineFoolery and I noticed you didn’t mention WineFetch. Just out of curiosity, how did you find your WineFetch experience? Are there features that you’d like to see on WineFetch that currently aren’t there, other than what’s mentioned in the blog? Any additional feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I feel terrible about the omission in no small part because this email is indicative of my initial experience with WineFetch. When I first visited it there were problems with some of the features not working and I emailed a complaint. Steve promptly replied with an apology and a promise to fix things. He also solicited further opinions and advice. We exchanged a few emails and on my next visit the site was fully functional. I still haven’t used the site much and I simply forgot to add a bookmark to it which is why it wasn’t included in my roundup. Here’s my initial impression:
WineFetch.com
Very nice, simple, attractive, fast loading interface. Very fast search results and with lots of Cline wines found (I didn’t count and the total wasn’t included). I especially like that a price range is included in the listing: listed wines can be purchased from multiple sources at a variety of prices. Very nice feature, indeed. Another helpful feature is the ability to create shortcut links to your favorite sources. Searching and browsing by multiple methods (tags, varietal, region) are fast and easy. You can also create wine alerts but I haven’t seen how that works yet. It has a cellar tracking feature which is something I haven’t addressed yet because this is not a feature need. I want to track wines I have tasted and rated — I do have about a hundred wines in my basement but I don’t need help keeping track of them. There are a few minor negatives: their blog hasn’t been updated since September (!), my ratings on a wine wasn’t saved the first few times I tried (it eventually took so I’m not sure what the problem was), there don’t appear to be a lot of users yet and for some odd reason they have a cheese pairing section that just bugs me by being there. I suppose matching wine to cheese is hard enough that many people might appreciate it but to me it begs the question, why stop with cheese?
I think this site is a serious contender IF they can attract enough users to create a sense of community and I’d like to see some blog activity. I don’t think any kind of community oriented web site can exist without some substantial interactivity — not just between users but also between users and their hosts. I wish Steve Goodman and WineFetch.com well and I will continue to explore the site.
see also…
Wine Web 2.0 Roundup, Part I
For whatever reason, some of us wine nerds like to obsessively track our wine experiences and we have extensive listings of wines purchased, tasted, rated, stored and commented on. For me, theses tendencies also include the urge to share my experiences and listings with the world. I suppose it may be somewhat narcissistic and I am certain that it’s at least a little bit compulsive. I also know it’s not uncommon because otherwise we wouldn’t have so many wine blogs and resources available online. I use Filemaker Pro to track the wines I buy and taste and I use my Wordpress blog to publish some of that information but the two programs are mutually exclusive. What would be better is an online database that I can access from anywhere that also easily integrates with my blog. What would be even better is a multi-user site that also includes the ability to interact with other wine-o’s by sharing tasting notes and ratings, commenting on each other’s content and having more in-depth conversations in a public forum.
With that in mind I have been searching the web for Wine Web 2.0 applications. I don’t expect to find my ideal app but if I did it would look like this:
- A comprehensive and consolidated database of wines that is easy to add to and search.
- The ability to read multiple tasting notes for a single wine.
- The ability to easily add my own tasting notes and/or rating to any wine already listed.
- A library or archive of articles and/or blog posts that I can contribute to or comment on.
- A discussion forum with links to all of the above.
- The ability to publish my tasting notes, wine listing or blog articles publicly so that non-members can also view them.
(I know many others would have including pricing and/or buying information but those are less important to me. I do need to know how much a wine costs, even if it’s a range, but I prefer to buy from my usual local sources or direct from the winery when local is not an option.)
Gleefully, I discovered many more community wine sites than I expected. Sadly, no one of them is perfect. Below is a listing with some very brief first impressions. I don’t have the time or inclination to do an exhaustive review. On most of of the sites a simple search or just a few minutes browsing was enough to turn me away. Here are the results of searching for the somewhat well known and large producer “Cline” on the initial search box available on the home page.
TastyDrop.com
Very attractive interface. An empty blog. Search results included a single wine not by Cline. Presumably, the one result was because the tasting note included the word “inclined.” Bye bye.
MyWineCritic.com
Maudlin interface. Forum with two topics and two posts. No search box available on the home page so I clicked on the “Regions” menu link which brought up a list of regions. I selected “United States” and the result was “There are currently no wines listed in this category.” Are they kidding? Buh Bye!
WineDiary.com
Decent but uninspired interface. No Cline wines listed. I click on the “Region” link and get 92 search results with wines listed from all over the world. Clicking on other links (Vintage, Producer, Rating, etc.) also shows 92 wines listed. Apparently, all the links do is change the order of the listing of a mere 92 wines. See ya.
Woochi Wine Encyclopedia
Awkward and occasionally confusing interface. Search shows 1 Winery listing with partial street address and an incorrect web site url, 3 individual Cline wines listed but no details about any of them. Browsing by region is cumbersome and after four links I get no results from Sonoma California. Wouldn’t wanna be ya!
WARPA!
In terms of text style and page layout the site is simple and readable but I have no idea what it is or how it works. There is no apparent search capability except a link to the aforementioned Woochi. This is a thoroughly confusing site with piss poor navigation although it may be a result of Mac/broswer incompatibility — some pages have minimal navigation links while others have some improperly displaying tabs. There are some obvious language difficulties for this english speaker — browsing by styles one comes across some odd terms such as “Melted in balance” and “dry oxidatif.” Most of the wine tasting events and groups listed are in Belgium. Moving on.
Vinolin.com
Although it has user registration this is more of a wine blog aggregator. It may be good for searching wine blogs but that’s not what I was looking for. Gone.
Cork’d
Presumably they mean “corked” as in “closed with” rather than the more obvious meaning of tainted… Very decent interface but the simplicity is almost too much so. I hate the generic bottle icon they use for all wine listings but that’s really a minor personal complaint. There’s a site blog with very little and infrequently updated content. Many Cline wines listed but a lot of duplicates and most have no rating or notes. No forum. Has potential but it ain’t there yet and that’s too late. Still looking.
BottleCount.com
Mostly just a place to list the contents of your wine cellar. It’s got a general forum but no significant interactive features, really. Ho hum.
WineDemocracy.com
Very cool, simple interface. Wine listings are easily and quickly searched (by producer) but the search results are almost useless. You can’t click directly on a wine name for more information. I searched for a well known winery, Cline Cellars and found 33 wines listed. Many listed wines had no ratings or notes, one had 5 ratings and several had 1-3 ratings. Oddly, you cannot click on a wine name for more information but each listing includes icon/links titled VIEW, WRITE and ADD. Clicking VIEW on a wine with 5 ratings shows a page that doesn’t show any more information than the very brief listing except price. The words “Composite Details” are visible but nothing more. Clicking on WRITE brings up the option to fill out a pre-designed tasting form or add a simple text comment. Clicking ADD allows you to save quantity, source, price, purchase date and a note to your own cellar. There are the beginnings of a forum but not much. I like the simplicity of this site so much that I was hoping it would be more useful. No blog(s) or articles. So long.
OpenBottles.com
Lovely interface despite the fact that the tab links don’t display properly. A search for “Cline” reveals lots of wine listings but zero ratings or comments. Browsing by Wineries shows a mere 10 recently rated wineries with no apparent way to view more. A minimal site blog (no user blogs) and no forums. I’m outta there.
So far the options are pretty disappointing. If you have minimal needs then I suppose some of the above sites may do what you want but none of them are close enough to fitting my needs to warrant further exploration at this time. Thankfully, there are three more that I haven’t mentioned yet that have potential. I saved these for last because they have more features and will require more time to assess. I am going to list them but I won’t say more until I’ve spent some time getting to know them better.
see also…
Wine Web 2.0 Roundup, An Omission
75 Cabernet Sauvignon Lake County Red Hills Amber Knolls Vineyard 2004 (A)
Hi, my name is “75 Cabernet Sauvignon Lake County Red Hills Amber Knolls Vineyard” but you can just call me “75.”
This is a young but precocious cab. Ready to drink now if you like a little floral perfume on your upper lip. It’s dark and leggy. Starts out strong and sweet and finishes strong and bitter (only mildly so). It’s thick and tannic and will only get better with some time.
Mrs. Dink’s surgery went well and she is recovering nicely. I’m still not quite back to blogging mode.