Vinorati

Vinorati aims to provide a community oriented web space for all those who are passionate about wine drinking. The application structured by ‘cubedesigners’ aims at helping wine lovers follow the wines they tasted and use tagging technology to generate reference of wines, wineries and regions. One can search for the brands depending upon either the year of harvest, name, type or region. One can also explore on the basis of grape varieties and regions by going to the ‘Explore’ section and clicking on the letter one needs the grape or region from. The site also has a section containing the names of wines their reviews along with the ratings in terms of quality and price. The help section comes in handy to inform the users of utilities, for instance the use of tags can be had from there. Users can review wines via the comments and rate them according to the price and quality. These then can be saved in their ‘My Tasting Journal’. The contents can be shared easily with other users. Similarly, one can subscribe to the other users’ favorites for the month and also have information on the recently added items to the list. Groups can be created with members being uniform either on the basis of region or wine types or winemaking. The website is the creation of Lisa and Frederic Roskam. Both of them come from a background where wine is an important ingredient of meal. A desire to share with similar people this interest of theirs led to what is called ‘Vinorati’. The site today boasts of an dedicated user base which it hopes to expand at a quick rate. The clean look this website is amongst is core strengths. However, one noticeable feature was that makes the site stand out is that a great portion of blogs are written in French only; this is may be one of the limiting factors of the site. The homepage displays and attractive mixture red shaded with few green layers thrown on a white background. The color usage is an interesting one and matches the concept. Information is well organized and does not seem to be thrown at the user, unlike many other websites. Due to the ‘just enough’ information, sufficient space is there which saves the pages from giving a crowded look. Also, the font size is comparatively large so options can be easily located and clicked on. The animated pictures of wine glasses used here and there on the whole website are really beautiful and make one browse through the application. The logo has a red colored wineglass with ‘Vinorati’ written below it. It is easy to navigate between the pages in the site. The blog section did not work due to some server problem. No ads are pasted on the pages, so the user escapes of the annoying pop-ups and useless conquering of the space. Apart form the obvious and understandable information of e-mail id, password, nickname and language, and it does not ask for credit-card details. Account is created immediately but activation occurs when one clicks on the link sent in the inbox of the recently provided e-mail. One is over with the profile on clicking the link. This optional process does not consume much time and can be availed for free. It is all about a matter of few seconds. The profile has a small cute picture in it. No charges are there for getting registered. Ads in the form of sponsored links are seen in one or the other corner of the pages. The site is of use to all those who are very much into wine making or tasting. By creating or joining groups, the job of tasting wine can be done more accurately. Also since a lot of stuff on the site is tailored to a French audience, it makes perfect sense for anyone who is residing in France and has a taste for wine.