Social Drinking…With a Little Help from My Friends

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 VinTank 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.

About Pia Mara Finkell:

With over a decade of experience in communications, Pia has a strong background in wine, beer and food public relations, marketing and promotional strategy. A vice president in CRT/tanaka’s Food & Beverage Practice, Pia oversees public relations, traditional and social media programs, strategic partnerships and program development for various beverage alcohol and food accounts, including the Wines of Rioja, Les Vins Georges Duboeuf and the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. Her agency work has helped win various industry awards, including two Bronze Anvils, Silver Anvil, Bulldog Digital/Social (Gold and Silver), PR News Platinum, two PR News Digitals, Clarion, Big Apple, Commonwealth and a Telly. In recognition of her passion and client work, Pia also won the CRT/tanaka annual Whatcanbe Client Award in 2011. In 2010, Pia created the weekly BuzzBin column called 'The Booze Bin,' offering up interesting musings on the beverage alcohol industry and all things booze. Depending on the season, what she's cooking, and whether or not the Yankees are winning, Pia can be found toasting a glass or pint of something awesome.