The Wine Collector

VinTank just released its 85-page report on the state of Wine Industry Social Media (download the PDF).  I'm pleased to report that VinTank rated Vinfolio's VinCellar offering the highest on its Innovation metric and second on its Value metric in their "Impression Chart" for wine social media networks below (also on page 23 of their report).  For VinTank's detailed comments on VinCellar, start reading on page 46 of the report.

There's more innovation to come and expect a major announcement in approximately two weeks.

I'm pleased to announce that Vinfolio's free Wine Prices app for the iPhone has now had more than 10,000 downloads from 53 countries in the 43 days since its launch.  About 64% were from the U.S. and here are the top 10 other countries (4 of which are Asian even without mainland China which is not yet selling the iPhone):

Bottom line: The app is free so visit the App Store on iTunes and download it to join the growing user base.

P.S. Also see recent related posts about the iPhone app in the software category of this blog.

VinTank just published its Pulse Report on Vinfolio's free Wine Prices iPhone app.  We'd encourage you to read it!  If you haven't already downloaded the app, you can find it on iTunes.

Who is VinTank?

VinTank is new company defined as a "digital think tank for the wine industry focused on intermediating the chasm between wine and the digital medium."  It's their goal to "solve the complicated problems that have hindered wine from becoming a major online category for both wine companies and large online entities." Paul Mabray and others from Inertia Beverage co-founded VinTank along with Joel Vincent, the founder of the OpenWine Consortium.

Vintank's Pulse Reports are expected to be released regularly to "analyze technology announcements, products, and companies to provide an at-a-glance 'how important is this to the wine industry' assessment." If you like these reports, I understand Paul and his team will soon be enabling a RSS feed for them.

Sneak peek at future Wine Prices iPhone app enhancements

To supplement the reference the report makes to our "road map" for future development, here's a sneak peek at some of the new enhancements we are already working on:

1. Optimized buying from the "Buy" button on the wine detail pages
2. Ability to save and access favorites
3. Ability to see more results from primary search and for individual auction and retail listings.
4. "Report problem" function at the line item price level so users can report pricing issues or discrepancies.
5. Access to more detailed information per price listing

Let us know if you think there are other new features that would be as or more useful than those above. We love all feedback so suggestions for improvement with existing functionality is appreciated too.  The Wine Prices iPhone app will continue to be free, even as enhancements are added. 

Write your own review

If you like the application, don't let VinTank's report stop you from writing your own review on iTunes (you need iTunes installed on your computer for the prior link to work) and tell your wine friends.

I'm pleased to report that Vinfolio's free Wine Prices iPhone app is now downloadable on iTunes.  Get it now. We're issuing the following press release tomorrow morning for those of you interested in an advance peek.

What makes our app unique?

Never before has so much data on wine (reviews, labels, auction prices, and retail prices) been made available for free in an iPhone app.

This app is just the beginning.  We have more to come.

P.S. The image on the right is from the iTunes Store (not sure why the release date says February 12 as it was approved yesterday). Note: the "Get app" button not enabled in this blog image.

When I wrote my post last week about our iPhone app for WinePrices.com, I mentioned that our next one in the queue was for VinCellar, our free online cellar management application.  But I had no idea that our Director of Engineering, Yilmaz Oztanir, had secretly been developing a mobile version of VinCellar for the past month in his spare time.  I was given a surprise demo in the middle of the week and it was so good, we decided to just release it in beta form to users to gather their feedback and suggestions for improvement.  See Yilmaz's post in Vinfolio's Forums titled "VinCellar iPhone site, VinCellar goes mobile for details on what it can do, more screenshots, and, best of all, how to start using it immediately.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is an iPhone-optmized web site as opposed to an iPhone application which could enable other features such as offline use and perhaps the camera capability for scanning bar coodes.  We're still planning on doing an iPhone app but you'll find immediate benefits in using this solution now. Please post product suggestions in our Forums as a reply to Yilmaz's post.

For the past few months, we've been working on our first iPhone application for providing easy access to the comprehensive wine auction price results and U.S. wine retail prices from our WinePrices.com site.  After weeks of testing, we submitted the application to Apple for approval a few days ago.  As the approval process takes 1-2 weeks, I thought I'd provide a sneak preview of the application with some screenshot images and a brief summary of features including:

• Simple navigation - View average prices and detailed listings quickly.
• Integration with professional reviews - Subscribers to Allen Meadows' Burghound.com, Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Roy Hersh's For the Love of Port, and The Richard Juhlin Champagne Club, can view their professional ratings.
• Community scores and reviews - View average community score and complete community wine reviews from VinCellar.
• Label view - View detailed wine labels for easy wine verification.

It's Free!

The application is free; you'll just need to register (also free) or link to your existing Vinfolio account.  Note that whether you have registered on Vinfolio's main site (www.vinfolio.com), VinCellar (www.vincellar.com), WinePrices.com, or via the iPhone app, the same email address and password will work everywhere else.

Attention wine bloggers and members of the press

If you're a wine blogger or a member of the press and would like to get early access to the application prior to its official launch, just email service@vinfolio.com and we'll arrange for that to happen.

Future iPhone applications?

Now that we've completed our first iPhone application (with the assistance of Alder Yarrow and his awesome team at Hydrant), we've got the next one in the queue (for VinCellar).  Stay tuned

VinCellar, our free web-based cellar management application, in combination with Vinfolio's other services, provides benefits you can't get elsewhere, including make you a smarter wine buyer and wine collector.

Getting started - As easy as a phone call

Inventorying services and personal cellar manager services are available if you're too busy to add or manage your wine yourself in VinCellar.  Just call us and we'll do the rest.  Or, if you're a DIY person, use VinCellar's importing tool to transfer your cellar contents from another cellar management application or use VinCellar's "Add" wine capability.

More selective buying

Have you ever unintentionally bought the same wine multiple times because you forgot you had purchased it before?  That won't happen again if you keep your VinCellar account current.  Here's why:

1. Buying wine from Vinfolio enables you to seamlessly check within the wine store whether you already own a wine that you're considering buying. 
   
2. In addition, our priority customer wine email offers are custom-generated for each individual recipient so that each wine offered lists the quantity that you already own. (Priority customers are anyone who spends a minimum of $5,000 a year on wine and/or services).
3. An optional weekly VinCellar recommendations email provides you with a list of wines available to buy from Vinfolio's 3,000+ item inventory which match your VinCellar holdings in other vintages (to help you diversify across vintages for wine you already like) or in the same vintage if you've recently run out.
4. VinCellar makes you aware in certain context-appropriate places when a particular wine is available for sale in the Vinfolio wine store in case you wish to replenish your holdings (more enhancements to come in this area).

1. New wine purchases from Vinfolio are automatically barcoded and added into your VinCellar account.
2. Purchase invoices from other retailers may be faxed or emailed to us to be added for $1.00 per unique wine (invoice scanning is included at no charge).  If you're a Vinfolio priority customer, this data entry service is free.  Barcodes can also be ordered and mailed to you.  Later this summer, we'll introduce a home barcode printing capability.
3. Selling wine from your collection is as simple as selecting "Sell" in VinCellar to select the wines to submit for a price quote.
4. VinCellar lets you easily select "Move" wine currently in Vinfolio storage or "will call", including initiating local deliveries or domestic Fedex shipments.

Vinfolio is pleased to announce the public beta launch of VinCellar 3 today (see press release, a Vinography blog post, and a Fermentation blog post).  One of the most interesting capabilities we've designed is a decisonmaking tool that is found under the Cellar Analysis tab.  The best way to use these capabilities is to think of a question about your cellar and then to use the tools to answer it. 

1. Graphs

This is a graphical dashboard tab displaying up to four interactive graphs simultaneously from a list of categories (currently: cost, country, gain/loss, pre-arrival, score, and varietal; note a "drinkability" category will be released shortly). Click the thumbnail image below to display a screenshot.

You may also drill into any level of detail from this graphical view by clicking either a section of a graph or the Details link for all sections at once (click thumbnail image below for the resulting screenshot).

2. Segmentation

Analyze your cellar by selecting a combination of up to three categories from cascading dropdown lists.  Each category selected sequentially further splits out your cellar into more detail.  Once you have completed an analysis, you can save it to a My Analyses list for future reuse.

3. Narrowing data set used in graphing/segmenting 

In either the Graphs or Segmentation subtab, the following filter criteria can be repetitively applied to narrow the scope of displayed wine and then saved to a My Filters list for later reuse.

Your feedback is welcome

Please feel free to submit any questions or suggestions for improvement in our Vinfolio Forums.  User feedback is critical for us in developing the best possible solution for your needs.  As a web-based application, we are able to make minor changes any time and go through regular software development cycles every 30 days for larger changes or new features.

I'm pleased to announce that the private beta program for VinCellar 3 commenced earlier this week. Beta users are providing detailed feedback and our software developers are rolling out daily fixes.   We are on track for a general release by the end of June (consistent with my last post on VinCellar 3 from April 5th).

Great reviews from beta testers

Here are a few early comments from beta users:

• "The cellar analysis page is great - you guys have done a really great job with this -- nothing else out there like it."
• "Love the new community features, especially the tasting notes."
• "Overall the import worked very well and was quite easy."
• "So cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
• "I'm having a blast with the beta."

Stayed tuned for more VinCellar 3 news later this month.

VinCellar 3.0, our completely rewritten version of our free online cellar management software, was announced back in late December (see post for a summary of new features).  We have been making great progress and are entering alpha testing with internal users on Monday, April 7.  The public launch of VinCellar 3.0 is expected this summer. 

Designed for speed

In addition to functionality and ease of use, a fundamental aspect of the redesign was to focus on the performance of the application to deliver the best user experience.  Our Vice President of Engineering, Andres Camacho, recently posted this note in the Vinfolio forum on VinCellar.

What will the new VinCellar look like?

Your cellar screenshot:

Cellar Analysis screenshot:

Label View:

Wine Detail screenshot: 

Bottom line: You're going to love VinCellar 3.0.  Moreover, we have a steady stream of other functionality being added during the rest of 2008.

For the past year, Vinfolio has been working on an all new, dramatically enhanced version of VinCellar, our free online cellar management software which we estimate will launch in early 2008.  View demo.

Why we made a substantial investment

As good as the current VinCellar is, there's always room for improvement.  With feedback from our users on desired features and new Web technologies available to enhance the user experience, we decided in late 2006 to overhaul VinCellar.  Our goal is to make it the compelling choice amongst cellar management software alternatives.  Best of all, it will remain free!

New features

• Community tasting notes - You can already create personal tasting notes but you will now be able to share them in a myriad of ways including on a dedicated VinCellar website, through Facebook, and via a new format we call "Wineposts".  We'll even pay you (in the form of wine credits in our store) to submit your personal tasting notes prior to the official launch.  Learn how to participate.
• Reorganization of tasks by individual wine - The redesign enables us to pull tasks related to given wine (such as Add, Remove, Move, Sell) into a single page while preserving your ability to build lists of wines for acting upon as a group.
• Valuation data - We will continue to have all wine auction price data from the Wine Price File plus licensed retail price data  to enable you to monitor the changing value of your collection.  With VinCellar 3.0, we will be upgrading our capabilities in the retail pricing area.
• Cellar analysis tools - Our current graphical reporting capabilities will be taken to a whole new level.
• Visual browsing of your cellar using a special "label view."
• Integrated third party content and links - VinCellar already offers about 100,000 professional reviews which Vinfolio has licensed and there is more to come.  We're also building in links to other frequently used wine reference sites.
• Buying and selling made easy - You'll be able to easily know when Vinfolio has wine in stock which is relevant to your interests and also be able to sell anything from individual bottles to your entire collection through a new format of an auction mechanism we've created.  (This functionality has already been designed but will be rolled out in a second phase).
• Robust reporting, including printing in a restaurant wine list format.

There's a lot more and we actively want your feedback once the beta version launches (visit our new VinCellar 3.0 topic in on our Vinfolio forums page).  As a Web-based application, we'll be rolling out updates on a continuous basis.

Bottom line:  By integrating comprehensive cellar management capabilities with community and professional content, and combining it with social networking standards such as Facebook and Vinfolio's ecommerce capabilities, you'll finally be able to satisfy your wine-related needs in one place.

Vinfolio recently launched a Facebook widget called My VinCellar which enables you to let your friends see the wines you've been drinking or adding to your collection in your free VinCellar online cellar managment software account at Vinfolio.  We're still tweaking the application but it's now ready for a broader audience.  Please post any comments, problems or suggestions on the Discussion Board of the My VinCellar Facebook page and our development team will address them.

1. Select the optimal wine for the next drinking occasion since you know exactly what you own
2. Avoid duplicate purchases of wine
3. Realize you may be owed wine bought on pre-arrival that you never received
4. Locate items more quickly
5. Evaluate how balanced or unbalanced your cellar is
6. Determine which wines may be past maturity and need to be consumed
7. Assess the appropriate insurance value
8. Transfer accurate inventory data to a cellar management software application

The final point facilitates ongoing maintenance and other time-saving benefits (see my post “Cellar management software – why use it?”). After all, the last thing you want to do is to have to repeat the inventory process.

If you don’t have the time to perform an inventory yourself, Vinfolio provides an on-site wine inventorying service anywhere in the U.S.

For the rest of you, this post explains why you should use software:

1. Know what you own, where it is, what you liked –Avoid duplicate purchases, enable drinking or selling wine before it goes bad, locate wine more easily in your cellar, record personal tasting notes, and track pre-arrival purchases from multiple retailers to ensure you receive what you paid for.
2. Access integrated third-party reviews – While some professional reviewers won’t license their reviews, the ability to tap professional scores, reviews, and drink date recommendations in an integrated way from within your chosen cellar management software saves time cross-referencing multiple independent sites and provides a mechanism to keep review content current without manually updating it. This will never be available in Excel. Integrated community tasting notes are also a good source of opinions when organized properly.
   
3. Track cost details and current values – Understanding your cost relative to the current value of a wine may affect what you select to drink, donate or sell (and you ability to document your tax basis). Integrated access to current valuation data also helps you maintain proper insurance coverage on your wine collection.
4. Analyze your collection – The ability to examine your wine collection through reporting and graphs is important for achieving balance or other objectives you have.

Despite the benefits, we still find most new customers come to Vinfolio with no record of what they own and those that do, usually have an outdated Excel spreadsheet. But then most software does not offer the critical integrated data capabilities outlined in points #2 and #3 above. Therefore, the return on investment (ROI) for the personal time needed is still too high to justify the effort for most busy collectors.

Time-saving, convenient features and services can lower the “investment” and raise the “return!”

1. That's why Vinfolio licensed Stephen Tanzer's and Allen Meadow's professional reviews for use in VinCellar.

2. That's why Vinfolio acquired and then converted the Wine Price File from a print-only resource to a primarily online valuation tool integrated into VinCellar.

3. That's why Vinfolio barcodes every bottle purchased from us and adds all details to VinCellar for you automatically

4. That's why we offer on-site inventorying, invoice data entry, and invoice scanning services.

5. That's why we’ve made it easy to use your VinCellar account to select wine to submit for sale through us or arrange physical transfers to or from our storage facility.

Bottom line: There are compelling benefits available for using cellar management software. We’d love you to use our free online VinCellar offering but even competitive products would be better than using nothing.