Bottletalk is a free social network in which users can rate and tag wines, discover new wines based on recommendations from other users, share wine experiences, and the social network provides links to listed wine retailers.
I decided to sign up for an account and test it out. There are 6 main features enlisted on the website:
In the Add A Wine section, users enter the Wine Name, the Type (Red/White/Rose/Champagne/Dessert/Sparkling), the price range, the country where the wine was produced, the region where the wine was produced, the vineyard or producer where the wine was made, the grape or blend used (such as Zinfandel or Chardonnay), and add whether you want to try, drank, or just like adding wines to your profile.
As more tags are added to wines, the Browse Wine becomes more effective since it searches for wines with specific tags. For example, if you search for ‘vanilla,’ then Barbera d’Asti ‘Il Monello’ Cantina Braida will be found since it tastes like licorice and vanilla:
The Desert Island Wines are the wines that have reached the highest accolade that a wine can attain on Bottetalk. This way if you are new to the wine scene, you can find out the real winners easily.
The ‘My Friends’ section displays the wines that your friends have added. The latest wines tasted by your friends can also be displayed via RSS.
In the ‘Edit Account’ section, users can upload an image and change around your name information. Users are also encouraged to enter their most memorable wine experience and select your wine style:
In the ‘My Profile’ section, your personalized profile is displayed. This includes your wine style and most memorable wine experience as displayed above, your tasted wines list, and wanted list.
Bottletalk was created by Bottletalk Ltd. Bottletalk was created by Emma Goddard, Mark Goddard, and David Percival.
Although I am not a wine connoisseur myself, I believe that a website like this was definitely needed. When I was in college, I had only stuck to Yellow Tail, but now I can find out which are the better wines straight from the experienced.
