blog.Cellarer

I have searched the web for sites about wine. I think I now have a pretty comprehensive pool (of 260 sites). Webmasters need not apply as the contest includes all sites. I display only the 120 ‘best’ — ‘best’ is evaluated with public website metrics.

So lie back, relax, and enjoy my comments on the results.

A comprehensive pool of candidates

I have expanded the set of websites that I retrieve metrics for. Their number has grown from 180 to 260 this quarter. This list cannot be the complete list of all the websites about wine but I propose that it is coming close.

Newcomers

Some sites are appearing for the first time. The highest ranked sites of these newly appeared sites (Avenue Vine, Jancis Robinson and Wine Review Online) are not new at all: they just were not known at the time of the previous website pool. This shows that this directory is an opportunity for everybody to discover websites (starting with myself).

Off-line support

You may notice that half the biggest websites are supported — and promoted — by off-line operations. They are Web appendices of successful non-Internet ventures: the Wine Spectator, The Pour, eRobertParker, Avenue Vine, Wine Enthusiast, Jancis Robinson, Natalie McLean.

USA dominates

The first 8 websites stem from operations based in the US. The majority of the listed sites are written from that country. The following facts may contribute: the USA are still the country the most present on the Web, they still dominate the english-speaking culture and they are on a trend to become the top wine drinking country in the world.

Foreigners

So here is a sample of excellent websites which have pure players (without offline operations) and not based in the USA:

• #9 The Winedoctor (England);
• #15 Spittoon (England);
• #26 Wine-pages (Scotland);
• #41 French Scout (France);
• #46 Burgundy-report (Switzerland);
• #68 Wino-sapien (Australia).

How to participate

Websites are automatically included in the contest as soon as I learn of their existence. To be eligible to the next issue of the Cellarer wine directory, the below conditions must be met:

1. The main topic should be wine.
2. Producing estates and wine sellers are excluded. Some of them run wonderful websites but the type of information is different.

If you disagree with the directory criteria, please comment below or e-mail me.

Once the above conditions are fulfilled the websites are considered for addition to a search engine dedicated to wine and food.

Here are the criteria I use for rating the sites. You can follow the directory evolution by subscribing to the feed on websites or by subscribing to the mailing list about website optimization.

I have spent months searching the web for sites about wine. I think I now have a pretty comprehensive pool (of 180 sites). Webmasters need not apply as the contest includes all sites. I display only the 80 ‘best’ — ‘best’ is evaluated with public website metrics.

Herebelow is a story of the poll and an analysis of the results.

A comprehensive pool of candidates

I have expanded the set of websites that I retrieve metrics for. Their number has grown from 90 to 180. This list cannot be the complete list of all the websites about wine but I propose that it is coming close.

Better data

The number of processed sites has grown as indicated above. Furthermore two metrics were interesting but brought their own set of problems.

The value of traffic used to be clearly out of the mark. I have improved the metric by averaging, aggregating and otherwise correcting the data for all sites. The traffic figure is now increased (uniformly for all sites) so as to show an amount that is credible: the real (private) traffic figures are no extremely far from those publicly displayed.

The other problem was the variability of the backlinks metric. I could not relate it to the site profiles: a few notorious sites showed few links. So this metric is out.

Ins and outs

Some sites are no longer showing. In general this is not because they are lacking in any way. It is only because of the growth of the competing pool.

Other sites are appearing for the first time. The highest ranked sites of these newly appeared sites (Natalie, Free the grapes, the Doctor, Classic, Wines and vines, Ken’s) are not new at all: they just were not known at the time of the previous website pool. This shows that this directory is an opportunity for everybody to discover websites (starting with myself).

How to participate

Websites are automatically included in the contest as soon as I learn of their existence. To be eligible to the next issue of the Cellarer wine directory, the below conditions must be met:

1. The main topic should be wine.
2. Producing estates and wine sellers are excluded. Some of them run wonderful websites but the type of information is different.

If you disagree with the directory criteria, please comment below or e-mail me.

Once the above conditions are fulfilled the websites are considered for addition to a search engine dedicated to wine and food.

Here are the criteria I use for rating the sites. You can follow the directory evolution by subscribing to the feed on websites or by subscribing to the mailing list about website optimization.

Elsewhere

There is a complementary contest: the American Wine Blog Awards. It has a focus on US blogs and uses some subjective judgment by peers. The purpose is entirely different to that of the Cellarer ranking, which automatically includes all sites and is limited by publically available data (which mostly is not directly influenced by peers). The American Wine Blog Awards were published in March.