Is Cork’d a bust? Gary Vaynerchuk forges alliance with Cellartracker…
+ 
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We got an email from Cellartracker, via a customer, announcing a new alliance they have with our buddy Gary Vaynerchuk. You can find the announcement in Cellartracker’s “Exciting New Partnerships” section of their newsletter, and what it seems to amount to is Gary being adopted as a wine critic, whose reviews of wines — when available — will accompany Steve Tanzer’s on Cellartracker.
(Whether Gary is a qualified wine critic? Well, that’s a a totally separate issue that we’ll leave for others to debate on other sites.)
Personally, we love Cellartracker and think it’s a must-use tool for a number of reasons. It’s about the most comprehensive database of wines out there, and it’s easy to enter one’s collection into and keep track of; it’s free, with a donation suggested but not required; it includes an incredible database of user reviews, and we know folks like Dr. Debs and LENNDEVOURS enter their remarks there consistently. Hey, aren’t these the things that Cork’d was supposed to do?
Gary bought Cork’d a while back, and we’ve been hearing lots (though less and less frequently) about big, exciting changes that will be coming. From what we can tell, the Vayniac nation is alive and well, with increased viewership of WLTV (so we’re told — we can’t find any actual stats) and lively forum discussions (some of which are informative, some of which we can’t even begin to understand due to teen-age style text message acronyms that are probably totally transparent if you’re, ummm, a few generations younger than we are).
The thing is, we’ve been hearing about changes, but not seeing them. As far as we can tell, Cork’d is pretty much the same as it was in May, when the big announcement was made — short of a WLTV ad. The last “announcement” in the news section dates back six months.
So is Gary’s new alliance with Cellartracker a silent admission that maybe he bought the wrong Wine 2.0 platform? Could it be foreshadowing, an indication that he could be planning a merger of Cellartracker’s efficient database platform with the more stylish graphical style of Cork’d? Since Cork’d always had limitations that have prevented us from using it on a regular basis, we think this would be the smart way to go.
Plainly, if we were Gary, we’d buy Cellartracker (and would have done so in the first place). Cellartracker is powerful; Cork’d is sleek(ish). Cellartracker + Cork’d = function + form.
Let’s see if this happens, or if we’re just spreading crazy rumors.
7 Responses to “Is Cork’d a bust? Gary Vaynerchuk forges alliance with Cellartracker…”
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Our friends launched a new site and domaine547 is a featured wine columnist in their premiere edition! Go check out Fabulous & Frugal for some fantastic lifestyle tips for living the good life during what, for most of us, is an economically challenging time. There’s much more than wine there, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of the start of what will surely be a successful venture. Congrats to Brandi & Steph for their achievement!
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November 1st, 2007 at 9:48 am
Hey Jill-
This is a big change but I don’t see anything in the newsletter referencing Corkd. It merely sounds like Gary’s reviews will be integrated in CellarTracker. Seems like, if anything, Corkd is getting left behind. An integration of both would be real neat though.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:05 am
I am still trying to ponder whether Cellartracker (CT)is useful or not. How often do others consult CT prior to buying a wine? And then how much value do you put on the reviews found there?
To me, if I wanted to see what Dr. Debs or Lenndevours thought of a wine, I would search their blogs rather than CT. I would have more faith in a blogger, for whom I can get an understanding of their tastes and preferences, over some random person on CT.
Plus, many times I don’t consult anyone before buying a wine. My preference is to taste a wine before buying it. The blogs I read though can alert me to other wines to seek out. I am not sure CT would be as good for that either.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:33 am
Howdy folks,
The integration of CellarTracker with Gary’s WLTV content was something which Gary had proposed to me over a year ago, but I was too busy to get the work done. I finally finished a recent framework that allows me to much more easily integrate ‘copyrighted’ material as described here. And a lot of folks have still been asking for this.
So, despite the obvious problem that Gary competes with me with Cork’d, I thought it would be fun to try out the integration. It was really just a ‘game time’ decision the other night since it only took a few hours to do. A co-opetition of sort. So far most folks are really happy, but I still have to add a feature so people can opt-out/suppress any of the ‘channels.’
As for anything broader, who knows. That was not the goal of this initial integration. Only Gary can say where he is with Cork’d. I can say that Gary strikes me as a great guy who believes in the web and community, and we both see a lot of opportunity ahead. Whether that brings us together or apart, only the shadow knows.
Thanks,
-Eric LeVine
CellarTracker.com
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:59 am
I agree with Richard when he says that the reviews that really matter are the ones made from people with which you have a degree of trust. It can be a wine blogger that you follow or a friend.
I prefer to read what one friend thinks about a wine that having 50 opinions from people I don’t know.
This is exactly the idea that we used to create Adegga. Anyone can have a watchlist to which they can add their trustful sources. Then, everything on Adegga is filtered by those sources. The ones that matter.
André
:: Adegga.com
November 4th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
So a wine salesperson is writing linked reviews. I understand that winesellers often cite reviews in trying to push their wines on customers, but a seller actually reviewing the wine he/she may be selling? Doesn’t this open GV’s reviews to major scrutiny? He may be a wonderful, honest guy, I have no clue. But this is a fuzzy relationship, at best.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Sir Rhosis,
Just watch GV. Taste the wines. Yes, he is in the business and has a commercial interest. At the same time, he is a genuine palate who calls it as he says it no matter what position WineLibrary has on a wine.
The bottom line for me on CellarTracker is that I wanted to give people more choices for great data to link in (over and above the 700 daily amateur reviews for a total of 410,000 reviews), whether commercial, professional or otherwise.
Thanks,
Eric
CellarTracker.com
November 6th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your input. I think what Sir Rhosis is objecting to is valid. Gary is going to have to come to terms with what he wants to be, or the public is going to have to come to terms with the blurring of the lines between sales and criticism.
What you say about “no matter what position WineLibrary has on a wine” might hold more weight if Gary were to say things such as….”the wine I’m about to review, we’ve just gotten a pallet of and I’m scoring a 75″ or “the wine I’m about to review and give a 90 to…well, we only have 2 bottles but the store down the street has 40 cases”. There really is no transparency, because we don’t have inventory information or inventory information of competitors.
Unfortunately, as trustworthy as I find Gary’s palate to be, I am left wondering whether there’s an ulterior motive to some of his reviews and certainly to his reliance on scores.
That being said, I enjoy Gary’s show, I watch it, I’ve learned from it, and I like him. I just can’t ever forget that he’s a business person. I think that his embracing of Cellartracker is great, but less from the perspective of the addition of his reviews and more from the perspective that he’s spreading the word on a very valuable tool for anybody interested in wine…cellartracker itself.