I love wine. I cannot say I am at all an expert in wine tasting, sniffing or drinking since the label art often plays into my selection process. However, I do appreciate a good glass of wine. Also I am somewhat glad that health professionals say:
"Research indicates that moderate red wine consumption may help protect against certain cancers and heart disease, and can have a positive effect on cholesterol levels and blood pressure."
Recently, I have seen a build-up of additional wine related information on the web. Of course, e-commerce sites like Wine.com have been out there for awhile. More recently Wine.Woot has emerged selling wine online with a weekly wine special. Not to mention, there have been a number of social media wine play s on the web for wine lovers and enthusiasts to enjoy. I will hightlight a few in this write-up.
Hugh MacLeod and his hilarious blog Gaping Void is a wonderful wine success story. Hugh leverages blogging and social media technology to promote Stormhoek through cartoons in addition to an number of promotional events like 100 geek dinners (see event #59).
Jeff Clavier recently talked wine by highlighting some recent moves by Wine Spectator to launch editor blogs and RSS feeds to its paying customers. WineLog and Cork'd which are similar services both recently launched and are free.
Mike Arrington reviewed WineLog a site which empowers users to add and review wine. Interesting features include the ability to keep track of wine favorites as well as send wine to a mobile phone (for an easy reminder when you are out looking for the perfect red).
Cork'd, created by the east coast iceberg-based company Tundro, also recently launched. I really appreciate companies with a sense of humor and in reading up on Tundro this company definitely has one:
"Tundro creates web applications for people like you. Our base of operations is located in the center of a large iceberg, floating continuously between the North Shore of Massachusetts and Florida's central coast."
Cork'd enables users to search, review, make wine shopping lists and interact with other wine aficionados. The site includes basic user-generated content, tagging, and other web 2.0 features. I thought the most interesting feature was the "wine cellar" which allow users to see what bottles of wine other buddies own. I could see this turning into a way for wine lovers to exchange notes or potentially even swap wine bottles.
With free options like Cork'd and WineLog, sites like WineSpeculator and others may need to sharpen their swords or risk finding themselves drinking Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill from a dixie cup.
