Wine Tasting Notes - The Public Gets Involved
One of the most significant benefits the Internet brings a wine lover is the ability to share tasting notes with thousands of other oneophiles. Not only can you keep track of your tasting notes for your own purposes, but many websites allow you to share your notes with others.
Every man is his own Robert Parker, each wine tasting group becomes the editors table at Wine Spectator.
The real benefit of sharing notes is the ability to view other people's notes. Not sure whether to drink that 2001 Latour? A quick search of Mark Squires excellent wine forum hosted at Robert Parker's website eRobertParker.com reveals the common consensus is - you guessed it - infanticide. Other boards, such as West Coast Wine Network and Vinocellar.com offer similar group tasting notes.
Though these are all informal tasting note databases, the potential power is evident. If several thousand wine lovers are posting their personal tasting notes about a wine in a central location, that becomes a powerful recommendation engine for wine. Anyone would be able to search or browse the database to discover new wines or learn more about wines they already own. Eventually, a wine that is rated positively by many people may find commercial success without a major critic's review.
At WineCommune, we have had a formal tasting note board for about a year now and have gathered several thousand notes from a few hundred users. When we developed wineBOSS - a next generation wine cellar management tool - we integrated a tasting note database that allows users to share their notes and view others notes. That means when you are viewing your wine collection, you can also view what others thought about each wine in your collection, optimal maturity, and aggregated ratings.
Although I haven't seen a new wine discovered online through amateur reviews yet, the potential is there. The next time you recommend a wine to a friend, imagine if instead your friend was a large segment of online wine lovers.
Every man is his own Robert Parker, each wine tasting group becomes the editors table at Wine Spectator.
The real benefit of sharing notes is the ability to view other people's notes. Not sure whether to drink that 2001 Latour? A quick search of Mark Squires excellent wine forum hosted at Robert Parker's website eRobertParker.com reveals the common consensus is - you guessed it - infanticide. Other boards, such as West Coast Wine Network and Vinocellar.com offer similar group tasting notes.
Though these are all informal tasting note databases, the potential power is evident. If several thousand wine lovers are posting their personal tasting notes about a wine in a central location, that becomes a powerful recommendation engine for wine. Anyone would be able to search or browse the database to discover new wines or learn more about wines they already own. Eventually, a wine that is rated positively by many people may find commercial success without a major critic's review.
At WineCommune, we have had a formal tasting note board for about a year now and have gathered several thousand notes from a few hundred users. When we developed wineBOSS - a next generation wine cellar management tool - we integrated a tasting note database that allows users to share their notes and view others notes. That means when you are viewing your wine collection, you can also view what others thought about each wine in your collection, optimal maturity, and aggregated ratings.
Although I haven't seen a new wine discovered online through amateur reviews yet, the potential is there. The next time you recommend a wine to a friend, imagine if instead your friend was a large segment of online wine lovers.
posted by Michael Stajer at 2:07 AM
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