| The driving force behind the creation of PalatePrint™ was that we hated to go to the wine store.Standing in front of a seemingly endless number of bottles, how could you possibly know what to buy? What wine fits my palate? What goes well with the roasted acorn squash and Gorgonzola pizza I am making tonight? From the hundreds, if not thousands, of bottles available in my local store how am I supposed to know enough about them to make a rationale decision? And why can’t I find someone that can help? Where is the clerk? |  |
Well, it turns out that 23% of wine consumers feel overwhelmed when buying wine. Another 14% dislike the shopping experience, so they tend to buy the same brand in a 1.5L bottle every time. Another 16% think wine is for formal occasions, and typically only buy the big national wine brands. Frankly, we’re not surprised by any of this.
Buying wine is confusing. The labels are complicated and the jargon is confusing. Some wines are labeled by varietal, some by region. Some try to give you some brief tasting notes on the bottle, but most do not. And how trustworthy are those tasting notes when they are included?
We think the on-line wine world will help revolutionize how people buy wine. Not only through online shopping, but through tools like PalatePrint™ and the massive number of reviews available through Google. Once you start to learn what your palate is trying to tell you, you will shop with more confidence and expand your wine experience at a rapid rate. That is what Winescorecard.com is all about.
We’d love to hear your comments. Do you think buying wine is confusing?
[Hat tip to Arthur Z Przebinda for pointing out the Wines & Vines article to us]
5 responses so far ↓
1 Jon // Mar 12, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Personally, I love buying wine - that must be why I have too much. But aside from my spending habits, I enjoy seeing the variety and breadth of wines. While I admit it might be confusing why some people prefer bunch select harvests from one row of grapes vs. a harvest from the row 5 feet to the west but . . . if the market can support it lucky us! Personally, what I find confusing is why people think that $43 is a fine price for a new wine without any history. Anyway - that is my 2 cents (I just noticed that my computer does not have a cents symbol, hu!).
2 Janet // Mar 13, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I also find buying wine confusing. I often stand there a long time browsing, then end up buying something I’ve already had or something with a score next to it. I like the idea of PalatePrint, and will buy a few from my recommendations this week to see how they match up with what I like. On that note, can you make it easy for me to print out a “wish” or “shopping” list from the4 recommendations to put in my purse. Unfortunately, I only have an actual cell phone, no web access on-the-go. (I know I’m out of date).
3 Steve // Mar 13, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Jon - yea, believe it or not, there is no ASCII representation of a cent symbol. Weird, huh?
Janet - we are working on improving the list that you get when you click on the “My recommendations” button on the menu bar. These changes will include region information and average reported retail price, all in a nicely printable format.
And, since you mentioned it, there will be some mobile device options for communicating with Winescorecard. We can’t wait - they should be very cool!
4 Jon // Mar 14, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Since you are continuously adding functionality to this wonderful site, what ends up frustrating me is that I cannot quickly scan a rack of wine for the bottle that I want. I unfortunately have to read the labels. Any chance that we can start adding images to the recommendations? This might not help much between Kendall-Jackson and E. & J. Gallo (see the Turning Leaf trade dress case) but would help people find things like Mulderbosch very quickly.
I agree with Janet - a nice shopping list would be convenient. Actually, Steve, if you would just buy the wine and send it to me than I could avoid any possible confusion - thanks in advance!
5 Steve // Mar 16, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Jon - We’d need a few more people hitting our ads before I could just buy your wine for you, but great suggestion! Regarding the images of the labels, we are interested in doing that. I can’t promise a timeline though.
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