It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth. - Pliny the Elder (A.D. c. 23–A.D. 79)

Of Social Networks and Wines - Getting Connected

By John Koetzner & Tim Hayes
Photography by Margie Koetzner

If you haven’t gotten on the social network train, you might be missing the bullet train to the future. Yes, wine magazines like Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator will still be around for a while, as will newspapers with their wine columnists, and even web sites like ours that will later be seen as dinosaurs by Generations X & Y.

It’s all about the now. It’s about wanting to know where you find that elusive Cabernet Franc or that Viognier in a flash. No need to go home and read the magazine and no need to jump on a computer to find the web site under favorites. It’s all in the palm of the hand, and it goes everywhere. So, naturally, some folks have been savvy enough to build applications and platforms to meet this brave new world of social networking.

One such application for the iPhone is iVinoX. In talking with founder Jose Castenada, he spent four days imagining what such an app would look like and then spent a year building it. Yet, it’s more than an app for the iPhone. It’s a platform that connects wineries with consumers and consumers with each other as they connect with wines that are all over the map. You can also visit it on the web at www.ivinox.com.

The first search in iVinoX is a map search that will let users choose different wine growing regions and then break them down into smaller appellations, getting wineries and their varietals, all at one’s fingertips.  It also lets a person search by winery name, by wine tasting events, and to create a wine cellar as well as rate wines.  This lets consumers review wines and wineries  without the lofty, and sometimes confusing, wine descriptions that some reviewers use when describing wines. As with any social network, iVinoX will need thousands of people to begin using it to help build the network as well as thousands of wineries to help fill in the needed data about their wines, events , etc.  At least from an initial look, iVinoX appears to be ready to take the wine social networking world into the future.  It also pushes out information to Facebook and Twitter.

Yet, there is another iPhone app, Social Grapes, which has some similar features. It lets users look up wines and their reviews, it allows one to have a group of friends to invite to be part of sharing, it allows one to keep track of wines that have been entered, provides tags for describing the wines, allows photo uploads, and uses the camera to scan barcodes to upload a wine.  Once again, pushing this information to Facebook and Twitter is part of the program. If you don't have an iPhone, go ahead and visit Social Grapes at www.socialgrapes.com.

Both apps are young, and it will be a matter of time to see which, or if both, really take off with consumers and producers.  In the meantime, the world of social networking is now making the rounds at winery tasting rooms, wine events, and in your friend’s living room. That’s something we can toast to in the 21st century. Cheers for now.