Herebelow is an analysis of the results.

Wine authors that just stood out

The site that gained most visitors this quarter was Another Wine Blog.

Fortunately there are many other authors for you to read. Discover them by going through the list.

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.
3. The purpose is to present sites with articles. This is why inventories of tasting notes (trackers) or cellar applications are excluded.

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 .

I have performed website appraisal on 500 sites and I have ranked only the top 250. Herebelow is an analysis of the results.

The big guns

More people look for food or wine information on the Web in the Autumn that in other seasons. This primarily benefits the established brands. This semester the sites that gained most traffic were (in decreasing order): the Wine Spectator and CellarTracker.

The sites that gained most traffic this year were the same. Conversely fewer and fewer people go and visit the small sites, I mean the ones that do not show in the selection because they are not enough visited. So we may have a vicious circle here : few visitors bring low visibility. Maybe you have to reach out to become famous…

Diversity

The recent holiday season has favoured the big sites. Yet challengers already show in this list. You can expect some to rise higher 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. So go on a reading journey by browsing the list of 250 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.

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

Apps and magazines

3 websites clearly stand out as the biggest information 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.

Having an off-line reputation clearly helps. This is easiest for the paper media — as illustrated by the presence in the Top 10 of the Wine Spectator, Decanter, Jancis Robinson and Robert Parker.

The incumbents are not going away but web apps now also dominate the Top 10. These are Snooth, CellarTracker and Winezap.

The sites that increased most traffic this quarter are: French Scout (a reference guide), Wine lovers page (a discussion forum), and Cellar Tracker.

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” 20% 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.

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

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

Being useful

The sites who gained most visitors in 12 months are Snooth, Cellar Tracker and French Scout. A common point between them is that they are practical: the 1st two are tasting note apps and the 3rd one is a learning guide.
On the contrary sites that lost most valuation read like magazines. Do people have less time to browse but wish to actually do something out of the Web? What do you think?

USA dominates

Most 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 still is the country the most present on the Web, they still dominate the English-speaking culture and, for the first time ever in 2010, people in the United States sipped more wine than any other nation. By contrast only 17 percent of people in France drink wine regularly.

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 .

Elsewhere

There is a complementary contest: the 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 only by publicly available data (which mostly is not directly influenced by peers).

Definitions

Veganism is the personal practice of eliminating the use of non-human animal products. Dietary vegans or strict vegetarians avoid animal products in their diet. So the websites concerned here should show recipes without dairy or eggs.

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 best recipe blogs, the below conditions must be met:

1. The topic should be vegan cooking.
2. The articles must be written by no more than two persons (not a team) — so as to screen firms.

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

Herebelow is an analysis of the results.

Trackers and apps

In the previous installment I started adding wine applications and tasting note pads. The list should now be complete. The wine non-blogs that stand at the top of this top 100 are: Snooth, Cork’d (no longer updated), Cellar Tracker, eRobertParker, Vinquire, Winezap.

Wine authors that just stood out

The sites that gained most visitors this quarter were:

• Inside Sonoma,
• Wine at Five (not in top 100),
• Wine & Spirit,
• Drink Nectar.

Fortunately there are many other authors for you to read. Discover them by going through the list.

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.
3. The purpose is to present sites with articles. This is why inventories of tasting notes (trackers) or cellar applications are excluded.

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 .

Herebelow is an overview of the results.

A comprehensive pool of candidates

The number of websites that I retrieve metrics for is a gigantic 850.

The multitude against the big

I chose to exclude 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 best recipe blogs, the below conditions must be met:

1. The main topic should be cooking.
2. The articles must be written by no more than two persons (not a team) — so as to screen firms.

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

How to discover cooking blog posts

There are ways to discover food-related sites. Here is the list of the best French food blogs. Selected blog posts are listed in the Cellarer planet.

I have performed website appraisal on 500 sites and I have ranked only the top 200. Herebelow is an analysis of the results.

The big guns

In the Autumn, many people look for food or wine information on the Web. This primarily benefits the established brands. This semester the sites that gained most traffic were (in decreasing order): Snooth, Wine Spectator, Wine Anorak, Decanter and French Scout. 3 of them are long established destinations but French Scout and Snooth seem outsiders to me. (Please disagree by placing a comment below.) The site that gained most traffic this year was Snooth thank to 100,000 more visitors. (Compare here traffic of tasting note trackers.) The second best yearly increment (Wine Anorak’s) is ten times less!
I would argue that Snooth (ranked 1st) and French Scout (13th) made their way to popularity by:

• 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. So go on a reading journey by browsing the list of 200 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.

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