Wine Tasting Hackathon: New Way of Social Wine Discovery

Our second team wine tasting yesterday felt like a family reunion.

Sommeliers and wine bloggers from Toronto and Montreal flew or drove in to join those from the east to west ends of Ottawa.

There was an instant camaraderie among those gathered here who recognized each other as fellow contributors to our online community.

What I admire most about these reviewers is that although they have sterling wine credentials and training, they keep it real and conversational — with an effort to connect, not to impress.

The tasting also struck me as the wine version of a hackathon.

In the tech world, top-notch computer coders will gather to solve a software issue to benefit others (not to be confused with bad hacks done privately to spread malware).

These sessions last for several hours (or longer) in what’s called a hackathon.

Our goal?

To find great wines at reasonable prices for wine lovers, and just as important, to share those reviews as widely as possible via social media.


There have been more than 800 reviews posted already (more to come) and almost as many shares on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

We didn’t just fix a problem; together we also created a new platform for social wine discovery.

Let’s drink to that!

Cheers,
Natalie

Here are all of the wines reviewed during this tasting. You can see the videos and reviews from our first wine tasting here.