Web 2.0 + wine = Wine 2.0. First up is a quick review of Bottletalk.com, a site based out of the UK.

Bottletalk

At a glance

Looking over the Bottletalk site, it offers three simple things:

  • Add wine to your profile: allows you to keep a wine diary or journal
  • Share wine with your friends (the social network)
  • Explore wine: browse other drinkers’ wine by “wine tags” (another aspect of the social network)

To be fair, it does all three reasonably well.

Adding a wine

Screenshot from bottletalk.com

Adding a wine allows you to keep a diary of the wines you’ve tried. It’s really easy to add a wine. No testing wine-lingo questions either. The use of local currency is a nice touch. The site doesn’t impose dollars or pounds so I can add the price I paid in my currency, the euro.

Viewing a wine

Viewing a wine on Bottletalk.com

Lose the analogy icons

When adding a wine you can choose the price range, which is fine. However, when viewing the wine, you get bundles of notes. Sure, the bundle of notes icon is cute but what it actually equates to in the real world is anyone’s guess. On other sites, it’s done with dollar icons, which is still ambiguous.

Where can I buy it?

There’s no information on where to buy the wine.

Okay, the wine’s a beauty, how much is it and where can I buy it?

I think sites like this need to bridge the gap between the sociability of sharing wine experiences and where to buy it.

Verdict on Bottletalk.com

All considered a decent site with a bright future and any shortcomings, mentioned above, are more than made up for by the quality of the Bottleblog, which isn’t afraid to link off to other publications highlighting some great deals.

The upshot: Bottletalk is worth signing up to for anyone interested in wine.

Next time, I’ll be pulling the cork at adegga.com.