WineLog, a new site for wine lovers, just launched. It’s a site that has user generated information on wines, including tags, ratings and comments.
The content is not deep yet, and users are encouraged to add more wines to the database (a new wine entry is moderated before appearing on the site). But there is enough content there to show that this will be a site that wine lovers will be passionate about. I am, also, hopeful that it will tap into a new market of people who may not yet be familiar with “web 2.0 sites”, and introduce them to tagging, RSS, comments, etc.
If you find a wine you like, you can add it to your own wine log. These pages have a permanent public URL for sharing (privacy is promised soon, along with RSS, blog widgets and other features). You can also send information on any wine entry directly to your cell phone via a text message.
The service is still very rough and I have a number of nits/suggestions. Wines are browseable by type (red, white, etc.), variety and region. I’d like to be able to browse by winery as well. Clicking on tags from there will show other wines I might like, too. Another nit: when you leave a comment on a wine, it does not appear in your wine log. you have to leave a separate comment there. There are also a few navigation bugs.
But overall, I like the site and the service. At the very least, its significantly more useful than the personalization options offered by Winespectator for a fee.