The Auswine Forum

Thought it might be timely to visit this topic. I can’t see much on previous threads, and in any case IT moves fast. I am definitely not a technology geek – much more a technology cretin and comprehensive dag – so this is no special pleading for intensive use of IT.

Let me kickoff with a small amount of personal context and then suggest a few subtopics some might care to discuss.

The boost to person-to-person ‘connectedness’ provided by IT is something many Baby Boomers – myself included – have underutilised. For instance, I have little concept of the extent (large or small) of enjoyment and advantage from near-real-time updates from wine friends. Some pluses from real time updates from wine sites (JH, Wine Front etc) are clear (but I haven’t activated them – where is that round tuit?). I’m a recent convert to CellarTracker; I find the anywhere-accessibility useful, community tasting notes interesting, and the inventory recording helped me better plan my purchasing & choices on consumption. Conversely, CT doesn’t really decision-support ‘strategic’ analysis – think a cellar & additions balanced (like an investment portfolio) across multiple dimensions: eg varietals, regions, and drinking windows.

Here are some topics (not mutually exclusive) some might care to comment upon, in relation to IT and wine appreciation:

1. Note Taking – this was a prior thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10250&p=77816&hilit=technology#p77816
2. Twitter, including communicating with close wine friends
3. Online forums (private and public groups)
4. Decision support tools (esp. buying & cellar management)
5. IT & Co-operative buying
6. Links – hidden gems (wine sites you love, but suspect are not yet well known)
7. Virtual tasting groups
8. ... whatever else you’d care to throw into the mix.

Warm regards,
John

Big topic John. Not sure where to start. Interesting though.

I started getting serious about wine in 1995 which coincided with my access to the internet. My initial interest was nudged along by living close to Kemeny's in Bondi and quite enjoying just looking at all the different wines and labels and being able to buy a few mixed dozens to try a range of wines and styles. It compounded with a trip to SA ni the same year. Once I found this site, in its very early incarnation, and a group of people with similar interests and passions, it quickly became all consuming. Add to that the early offlines and you had a wine tragic in the making.

If I hadn't got heavily involved with this forum, I do wonder how far down this path I may have proceeded. Instead I might have quite a significant share portfolio or a very nice watch collection or maybe might have travelled more extensively! Certainly quite a few of the now established young breed of wine writers got their start right here and although for most of us there was already a good fledgling interest, I think this forum could well be responsible for pushing most of us over the edge.

Obviously the ready exchange of information and knowledge and experience is a huge thing that just would not have been possible 20 years ago. But I also wonder if some of it is not driven by a competitive edge too. In fact I wonder about this often in terms of getting the best wine, getting the rare wines, drinking the expensive wines and then obviously writing about our experiences. This sort of medium is perfect to allow us to boast of our wine ownership and consumption and extrapolating for that, our wealth, intelligence and good taste. I certainly know I'm guilty of it but by the same token, I can't wait to hear about what everyone else has been drinking and buying. Slightly off topic but I guess it's just one aspect of our online identities.

Going in a different direction, I think IT in its many forms allows us to keep much better records. Both in terms of cellar management, which I am hopeless at, and tasting notes management / recording. I've personally tried quite a few different methods of note taking. For a while I was doing it on my Palm Pilot but that wasn't entirely satisfactory. I certainly make every attempt to record most of my notes right here on this forum so I can always find them through some searching. Occasionally I actually copy what I've written and store it on my own PC but I'm pretty slack at that too. I've not used cellar tracker so I can't comment on that. However over the last two years or so, I've gone old school and have taken up writing my notes in a small notebook so they are all in one place. I then transcribe from there to here when I get the opportunity.

That's probably enough rambling for now.

IT facilitates my wine appreciation:
* so I can afford the wines (work in IT - Microsoft Dynamics FWIW)
* increase enjoyment by sharing the great experiences (I have even got into taking pictures on my iPhone and posting on facebook in drinking real-time - taking away from my posting here actually )
* reading other peoples notes and interesting wine comments - I am not a slave to the HH, JH, PB, TW, etc. weekly and monthly columns as I learn more from the people online, who although some may not be as knowledgeable as HH, etc. (although many are in their area of expertise), they are not writing for the masses so I learn more
* know the current release wines to buy and not to buy
* comparing my comments to others of the same wines, hence seeing aspects I did not
* and as kris said, I have met most (nearly all) of my wine lover friends either directly or indirectly via this forum
* etc.

Adair

Certainly the breadth of communication available via forums is a great way to keep in touch with others' experiences of wines, opens your eyes to new things, and in some alarming cases makes you realise how much more serious you could be. What's the comment in the current AGT Wine in the Bill Downie story? "...the first time he spent a month's wages on a bottle..."
Having said that, it seems wine lovers are about 95% keen, enthusiastic, generous people - I've previously been blown away by wines that people have been prepared to share with virtual strangers, and I've tried to reciprocate where possible.
In recent years I became a little reticent about the fact that the local forums were owned by retailers, and have been less prolific in my postings (certainly of TNs) - not from any ethical/commercial consideration, merely from the fact that I feared they could be here today, gone tomorrow. That translated into me being slacker about taking TNs in the first place, just making the odd mental note on a wine and moving on.
Finally I bit the bullet and joined cellartracker, who's greatest benefit for me is as a TN repository.
As far as the more social aspects of the site go, I was rather more involved earlier this century (!), but an onrush of children has rather trimmed the opportunities away, not to mention limiting the $ I could reasonably drop on a bottle compared to the batchelor days...
It's like so many things in live - what you get out of it depends what you put into it...
cheers,
Graeme

Yep, it's been a while since we've seen you two at an offline, Graeme. I do understand that having kids does impact somewhat on these types of activities though.

Fair comments: yep for me too Auswine has multiplied my passion bigtime and led to many new friendships. It's led me to knowing and being more likely to take up other online resources: eg Brian's site, CellatTracker, online wine critics; so yes Auswine has been 'foundational' for me on wine and wine-IT.

As I work for Telstra [socially awkward to say that, I'm afraid; as a general problem solver/thinker/wanker] strikes me that easy integration of media will be critical. It should be truly easy - one click - for the average ICT novice, even Baby Boomer, to choose to integrate posts in Facebook and other social media (such as Auswine Forum).

BTW, subscriptions to Wine Searcher pro [great wine price research resource] and use of Yahoo groups (for our Sydney tasting group organising and combined purchasing) have been great for me.

Cheers,
John

It was through print media that I first discovered Halliday, subscribed to Winepros and met Ric (TORB) there in the forum. He alerted me to the existence of Auswine and *Forum. It's been a real learning experience since.

daz

Being an absolute IT dope I think this is a great topic John.

My first experiences with wine were from my Grandfarther and his stash of 60,s 70's,80's Penfolds and I was amazed that they could be still enjoying this drink when it was 10...20....30years on. When I was old enough to go out into the wide world of buying wine for myself, like Kris, a trip to Kemmenys at Bondi was a sure way to get you hooked on all different wines from around Oz.

Until only recently I have cracked a bottle, enjoyed it with some or all of the family, and except for some Grange tasting notes, that was about it.
Since odyssey told me I should join up to the Auswine forum (my first) it has definetly broaden my horizons and appreciation of wine. I really enjoy reading everyones tasting notes and other banter that goes on and posting my amature notes. As my Grandfarther said you have to smell the wine, taste the wine, then share the experience with others, and what better way to do it than on this forum where you can share it with thousands.

If only IT and computers were good enough in the future to transport the wine you were drinking through the computer to the forum so all could have a taste... see told you I was an IT dope

Anyway look foward to hearing any more IT solutions I can put to good use. At the offline John after seeing your cellartracker all set up on the TV, I think this is my next step. Looks like a great way to keep track of things.

Cheers,
Red Smurf

Aside from the obvious advantages of the internet already discussed, I love Twitter as a forum to debate and learn more about wine. I think the whole 'new media' move towards blogs, facebook, twitter etc may be obsoletre within a year, but at the moment twitter is a useful information aggregation device (for me at least - for others it is the means to follow what Ashton Kucher had for dinner). It is a forum of another nature, and a link to numerous relevant articles (which for me is not restricted to wine, but politics, food, music and sport as well).

daz wrote:It was through print media that I first discovered Halliday, subscribed to Winepros and met Ric (TORB) there in the forum. He alerted me to the existence of Auswine and *Forum. It's been a real learning experience since.

daz

Hi daz,

Your introductory experience is very similar to my own. Although, as it was quite a while ago now, I don't remember all the finer details, and your post reminded me of aspects of my own.

I too think it was the WinePros forum that started it for me, with Ric/TORB being a known figure there, but James Halliday of course being the major draw card at the time. That forum was quite advanced and well frequented in those days...I think 2000-2001?! From there I was then alerted to this forum, with its text-based format at the time, which to this day I still believe has some advantages. I am pretty sure that the WineStar forum grew from that early Auswine forum, with StarBoy putting his hat in the forum ring.

I then frequented a few offlines and the rest is history. I have met most of the (more senior ) NSW participants, with wife and kids like many others reducing the wine events I attend and wine budget, although I still get out but have needed to be a little more selective over the past 6 years. Rest assured, I taste more wines than ever, but find it harder and harder to get the time to post.

Slightly relevant, I drank my last wine a year ago a case I bought from WinePlanet... now they were a number of years too early for the Internet wine market!

The journey has been great!

Adair

Red Smurf wrote:If only IT and computers were good enough in the future to transport the wine you were drinking through the computer to the forum so all could have a taste... see told you I was an IT dope

You mean like this? http://www.usbwine.com/

I posted this in the lounge a few months ago, but I think it is relevant to this discussion.

Sharkey wrote:

Red Smurf wrote:If only IT and computers were good enough in the future to transport the wine you were drinking through the computer to the forum so all could have a taste... see told you I was an IT dope

You mean like this? http://www.usbwine.com/

I posted this in the lounge a few months ago, but I think it is relevant to this discussion.

HaHa, nice one!
The girl was pretty excited about it eh.