THE BOOZE BIN
By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)
Ok, I’ll admit it. I drink and tweet.
It’s usually not a great idea though, not only because one’s ability to self-edit after a few glasses is significantly weakened, but more importantly because it’s just hard to keep track of what I’ve tasted. I’ve written over 2,600 tweets, so the likelihood of finding one tweet about that awesome Tempranillo is pretty slim.
When I used to work for a boutique chain of wine shops, one of the most common inquiries from customers would go something like this:
I had this great wine the other week, but I can’t remember the name. It was an AWESOME red with a picture of an animal on the front…like a deer, or maybe a dog. I think the label was blue. Do you know it?
Since that narrowed it down to about a million wines, I’d usually just ask what kinds of wine they liked, their price range and what they were making for dinner, and go from there. More often now, people take smart phone pictures of favorite wines, and bring this into a store. I’ve personally taken so many pictures of wine labels at this point, I’ve had to download them onto my desktop to clear space.
One of the greatest inventions for wine lovers of late is the wine app. There are a million out there now, so our friends at VinTa
nk put together a great wine app report last spring reviewing the best of the best. Just recently, however, a cool, free iPhone wine app called Crushd launched at last month’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. It solves a few problems mentioned above, plus puts the social back in social drinking.
Crushd is a straight-forward wine app with a user-friendly interface, combining the wine review concept of other apps like Drync, WineLog and HelloVino, with the social networking and geotagging capabilities of Twitter and Foursquare. This app allows you to share wine reviews and pictures with friends, but even cooler, if your friend has “crushd” a wine, you can click on the shopping cart icon to find out where to buy it nearby. As my own social group’s resident wine dork, I’m often asked for wine recommendations. Crushd would allow my friends instant advice without having to text me from the store.
Not that Crushd can replace your local, friendly wine steward (if you find that wine you love, ask your wine merchant for other similar recommendations!), but there’s nothing better than a recommendation from a friend. That is, except for sharing a glass or two in person with that friend. That’s definitely better.
If you decide to join the Crushd community, you can follow me (piamara) and my upcoming tasting shenanigans. Android users, the app is coming your way soon. Don’t just take my advice…here are a few other recent reviews on the wine app: Wine Harlots and Cork_Dork.
Photos courtesy of Social Media Jam and Crushd.
Wine is very much a social thing and we’re very excited to see more and more social wine apps coming into the space! Great job guys.
Hi Pia!
Great meeting you at WBC, and thanks so much for the link-love (nothing makes a new media writer happier!)
Glad we’re friends on Crushd now — can’t wait to see what you’re drinking (I often have severe cases of “bottle envy.”)
Best wishes,
Nannette Eaton
Thanks to you both!
@Corkbin: I’ll take a look at your app…looks cool.
@wineharlots: Loved your post on Crushd and can’t wait to write up some reviews so we can share notes!
“It’s usually not a great idea though, not only because one’s ability to self-edit after a few glasses is significantly weakened, but more importantly because it’s just hard to keep track of what I’ve tasted.”
-This is really true but somehow wine really is something you can’t take away from a person’s habitual drinking. It soothes as my dad would say. And about the application Crushd, I can’t wait to see it and explore it. Thanks. :)
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