Archive for the ‘websites’ Category

Top wine sites in January 2010

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

This article is a resource for you to find interesting sites.

I have performed website appraisal on 375 sites and I have ranked only the top 100.

Herebelow is an analysis of the results.

The big guns

Two Fort Riley soldiers compete in the 2005 Best Ranger Competition

In the fourth quarter of any year, many people look for food or wine information on the Web. This primarily benefits the established brands. The 4 sites that gained most valuation this quarter year are those the 4 top sites.

More generally a few sites dominate the pack. This is partly due to their early appearance on the Web (Wine Spectator, Wine lovers page). It is also partially because they have the weight of offline publications behind them (Wine Spectator, the New York Times, Wine Advocate, Dr. Vino).

In the last few years a few authors made their way to popularity. They steadily rose by virtue of:

  • producing consistently good content that people want to consume;
  • and being regularly cited by their peers.

Diversity

The recent holiday season has favoured the big sites. You can expect challengers to rise in the next installment in April.
In the last few years the web offer has immensely diversified. Everybody and their wine supplier now has a blog. There now are many quality wine critics who comment on line. Some belong to the mainstream media, others not. You can have your voice too and this is good for everybody.

So go on a reading journey by browsing the list of 100 best wine sites!

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 also considered for addition to another tool: a search engine dedicated to wine and food.

Here are the metrics I use for rating the wine sites. You can follow the directory evolution by subscribing to the feed on websites blog RSS.

The 8 most popular wine sites

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

This is an analysis of the ranking of wine sites.

Establishment vs. bloggers

And the winner is…3 websites clearly stand out as the biggest wine hubs: the Wine Spectator, the Wine lovers page and Robert Parker’s forum. This in part is explained by their quality. It is also explained by the long time they have been known by wine enthusiasts.

The top tier is not going away. The biggest valuation increases this year have been for the top 8 sites:

  1. the Wine Spectator,
  2. the Wine lovers page,
  3. Robert Parker’s,
  4. The Pour,
  5. Vinography,
  6. Wines & Vines,
  7. The Winedoctor
  8. and Dr. Vino.

Having an off-line reputation clearly helps. This is easiest for the mainstream media — as illustrated by the presence in the top four of the Wine Spectator, the New York Times and Robert Parker.

In the last few years the wine web offer has immensely diversified. There now are many quality wine critics who blog on line. The Top 100 attempts to highlight writers that you should discover. Only the “better” 25% of the websites are shown. Well, “better” here is not an opinion but an evaluation of which sites are more popular.

What other trends can you see from the rankings?

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 also considered for addition to another tool: a search engine dedicated to wine and food.

Here are the metrics I use for rating the wine sites. You can follow the directory evolution by subscribing to the feed on websites blog RSS.

Best wine websites as of July 2009

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Here is the quarterly ranking of web sites. Webmasters need not apply as the contest includes all sites. The table shows only the 140 ‘best’ — ‘best’ is evaluated with public website metrics. These permit to include all sites — not just blogs.

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

Newcomers

Some sites are appearing in this top list. Last quarter their scores were lower than those of the 140 top ones. They include:

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

Stephen Colbert cleans the American flagMost of the top 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 list of all the websites which are pure players (without offline operations), in the Top 140 and not based in an English-speaking nation:

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.

You can follow the directory evolution by subscribing to the feed on websites blog RSS.

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

Top food blogs in 2009

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Here is the first issue of Cellarer’s guide to the most popular food blogs. The contest includes all personal sites but the table shows only the 200 ‘best’ — ‘best’ is evaluated with public website metrics.

Herebelow is an overview of the results.

A comprehensive pool of candidates

The sushi competition begins! About 5 professional chefs competed at the JRA Japanese Food Festival on 25th October 2008The number of websites that I retrieve metrics for is 500. This list is close to being complete: it includes almost all the websites that qualify.

The small against the big

I chose to not include magazines, that is sites that are written by many contributors. Press and firms have their means of getting known. I’d rather promote unique voices (blogs). So the top food blogs is a convenient tool for getting to know prominent culinary authors. Please tell me if you spot an item in the list that would have more than 2 contributors.

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 Top food blogs, the below conditions must be met:

  1. The main topic should be food.
  2. The articles must be written by one or two persons (not a team) — so as to screen firms.

You can follow the ranking evolution by subscribing to the feed on websites blog RSS.

Elsewhere

There are ways to discover food-related sites. You can browse the list of Times Online guide to 50 food blogs; You can also take the tour at Cellarer search, a search engine dedicated to wine and food.