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Thursday, October 2, 2008
Inventor claims ultrasound device turns plonk into fine wine
I … I … I don’t know what I could possibly add to this story from The Telegraph in London headlined “Ultrasound machine ‘turns cheap plonk into fine wine in 30 minutes’” … Blind taste test, anyone?
Thanks to eagle-eyed Uncorked reader Bob for culling this little gem from the pile of coal …
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Winery site allows Amazon-style ‘customer reviews’ of its wines
Here’s an intriguing development: Customers can submit Amazon-style product reviews (in this case, wine) on the winery web site of Dry Creek Vineyards.
Does anybody know of anyone else doing something like this? Dry Creek Vice President Kim Stare Wallace is quoted in a news release as saying, “This is cutting edge stuff for wineries. Most of our brethren wait around for the latest, greatest review in order to sell their wine. With customer testimonials, it’s the real deal. We’re posting first-hand experiences with our wines. We might be extending our necks a bit for some potential criticism, but we’re willing to take that risk. We’re confident that our wines will win out.”
I don’t know anyone at Dry Creek personally, but based on the thin-skinned personalities of some other winemakers and vineyard owners I’ve encountered, it’s hard to imagine some of them resisting the temptation to censor — um, I mean, take down — a scathing customer review that the winemaker considers unfair, uninformed, or perhaps “planted” by a scheming competitor.
That doesn’t seem to be even a potential problem so far on the Dry Creek reviews, which have been overwhelmingly positive. The only glitch seems to be that some reviewers’ low scores don’t make sense next to their glowing comments, as if they may have filled out the zero-to-five stars portion of the evaluation incorrectly.
What do you think of this idea? Would you use a winery’s customer feedback scores to guide your wine-buying decisions?
