Internet offers plenty for wine lovers

By TIM DUGGAN

The virtual world of the internet has some pretty cool things as far as wine enjoyment goes.  Let’s leave aside the entire world of online retailing including Amazon.com, which has just made a foray into the wine sales world. I’m thinking more of all of the social-networking, vlogs, auction sites and widgets that will help wine lovers of all types to find the wines they like and to connect with people.  Here are a few I’ve been looking at recently:

Wine Commune (winecommune.com)

This is an auction website that helps people find and sell rare or collectible bottles of wine. It may make some motivated single bottle seekers a bit leery to buy an expensive bottle of wine sight unseen (although you can upload photos to the site). But like all online marketplaces and auction sites, the buyer and seller feedback functions allow a person to get a feel for whether or not the other person in the transaction has a history of dealing fairly and without drama. So if you are in need of that special bottle of 2002 Sea Smoke Cellars Botella Pinot Noir that you drank from your roommate’s special stash, you might be able to find it there.

Must Love Wine (mustlovewine.com)

Worried that you obsession with wine is not going to be understood by your friends, family, or significant other? Need another social networking website to add to your time wasting endeavors. Check out mustlovewine.com’s special wine-oriented platform for meeting people, keeping track of friends and finding wine events in your area. I’ve given it a bit of a whirl, but I already know about every wine event in my area and most of my wine-focused friends are on Facebook, so I’m not sure how long my time there will last. But if you are not in the wine business, it might be fun for you.

Wine Library TV (tv.winelibrary.com)

This is by far my favorite vlog – like a blog only video – that I’ve seen since the medium took off a couple of years ago. Host Gary Vaynerchuk has what amounts to a cross between a daily wine diary and the best one-man promotional conversation about wine on the web. His descriptions are clear of unexplained jargon and down to earth and he has an infectious energy. My only qualm about his vlog is that he is based at a store in New Jersey and is therefore pretty limited as to what small-production wines from California he can have on his show. Other than that, it is awesome.

Cork Savvy Facebook Widget (apps.facebook.com/corksavvy/facebook)

I never really liked Cork Savvy that much when it was a stand alone website, but it seems to work pretty well as a widget to my already well-used Facebook account. It is so much more fun to keep a wine journal and virtual bottle rack, when I can taunt my friends with all of the great wine I’ve had this week. Or more likely feel jealous at all of the cool stuff in their wine rack. I’m not much of an organizer, but taunting and jealousy are right up my alley, at least when it comes to great wines.

Cheers!

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Not to Forget : 1/6/2009

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One site worth mentioning! www.localwineevents.com : 1/20/2009

LocalWineEvents.com is THE calendar of food and drink events is where all the world's food, wine, beer and spirits events are listed in one place. Consumers: Find a wine tasting, wine dinner, cooking class, beer festival, homebrew competition, single malt scotch tasting -- and more -- in your area. To be notified free about upcoming events near you, and be sure to sign up for their free newsletter, called THE JUICE!

http://www.localwineevents.com

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Thank you! : 8/14/2009

I appreciate the mention of MustLoveWine. It is very nice to be recognized along with Wine Library TV & Wine Commune. Keep up the good work and keep spreading the word!

Mark | MustLoveWine Founder

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