ownitI know I have this problem, and you probably do too.  When trying to perform research on a particular wine you are either looking to purchase, or wanting to understand more about – like scores, tasting notes, production information (vintage, varieties, vineyard, region), etc… how many links do you click throughout various Google pages, only to end up with conflicting or incomplete information?  Sometimes, I can’t find the wine at all or something as simple as a label to know I’m looking at the same wine I started out searching for.

Let me direct you to an effort from the wine information and data experts at Cruvee called “OwnIT.”  Their charge is to develop a centralized repository for all things wine by allowing wineries and the wine industry to control the information (content, brand and identity) that is disseminated to the world online and ensure it is accurate.

Sounds like a great and worthy cause, but I also work in technology in the financial industry and I know this will be a huge effort.  There are many moving parts.  The data model is actually the easy part.  The hard part will be cleaning the data and getting participation from the required parties.  It relies on the industry to take ownership of their online brand identity and the information (or mis-information) out there and get on board.  Many wineries already have, but only time will tell when and if others will follow.  Do wineries understand the importance of the accuracy of their identity online?  Historically, wineries have been slow to embrace technology.  It also relies that online businesses (marketers, e-tailers, blogs, online communities, etc.) on the other end to consume the information from the service instead of scraping from the dirty data floating around the webworld.

A tough challenge for sure, but worthwhile, for both the wineries’ and the wine consumers’ benefit.  I support it and if you want better information and easier access to wine information, you should too.

Cheers!