Want to know more about finding wine information?

This week’s journal is not designed to be good reading but I hope you will find it a valuable reference tool. There’s a sea of wine information in the ether; the problem is knowing where to find what you want. From now on, at the bottom of all my Journal Articles there will be a link of the week. Bert will archive this in a manner where it will be easily book marked in your favourites which will make the links easily accessible.

Internet wine forums can be loads of fun, either by being a voyeur (commonly known as a lurker) and observing the interaction of the participants or from interacting. You can also ask questions and are free to jump in with comments of your own. A word of warning, they can be addictive and huge time wasters as well as vastly increasing your wine knowledge in a totally non threatening environment.

First off some wine forum links and comments.

By far and away the most useful wine forum for lovers of Australian wine is Auswine This forum is the most active and interactive wine forum featuring mainly Australian wine with many regular and knowledgeable posters. If you want to know anything about things vinous in Oz or just wish to join a large number of wine nuts, this is the place for some serious funs and banter as well as wine knowledge. A number of industry people also read it and occasionally contribute.

The second most popular Australian based wine forum is Winepros Forum This forum tends to attract Australians who are more into French wine than Auswine and is less active, but never the less it’s a very good site.

We then have a multitude of American based wine forums. Probably the largest and longest continuously running site is Robin Garr’s site, Wine Lovers Discussion Group which is commonly known as WLDG The “folk” (to use an Americanism) are very knowledgeable and discussions take place mainly around French and American wine but there is still a fair splattering of wines being discussed from all over the world. There are hundreds of regular posters here and it can be a bit daunting to see so much knowledge in one place, but that knowledge has its advantages. If I had to sum up this site in a few words it would be “hard core conservative with many experienced wine drinkers.”

The West Coast of the USA is host to Brad Harrington’s West Coast Wine Network. This site hosts multiple discussion forums but the two that most readers here may be interested in are firstly the WCWN General Discussion Board where everything from US baseball to vineyard ripening grape reports are discussed. The other major forum of interest is the WCWN Tasting Notes Forum which concentrates on US wines, French wine and has a smattering of Australian stuff thrown in. Summing up this site in a few words it would be “some wine experience with a more new world outlook.”

The Mark Squires' hosted Bulletin Board has rocketed in popularity since its recently move to the Robert Parker website. As one would expect, the Mark Squires' Wine Bulletin Board attracts a lot of Parker followers to this site and the great man himself regularly issues his sermons and thoughts from upon high for others to discuss. Many of the wines discussed are those styles reviewed and liked by Parker (but he does review a lot of wine.) There is a lot of praise given to Mr Parker on this site and non Parker lovers may find it a bit over the top.

The Wine Spectator Magazine has a number of forums and they can be accessed from this point Spectator Forum Links This forum is unmoderated so discussions can become quite heated and personal from time to time. Whilst watching a verbal fisticuffs from the sidelines may be an enjoyable spectator sport (ban pun intended) it gets pretty boring after awhile and is in reality counterproductive.

If you are seriously off the wall and require therapy then you may enjoy Wine Therapy Forum but I don’t think this site will appeal to many Australian readers. It’s a bit like a private club for hard core French wine lovers.

Tom Cannavan has a very tightly run forum running out of the UK which covers wine from all over the world. UK Wine Forum is very English and civilised but wont hold much interest for most Oz wine lovers.

The final forum for this week is a small one that I enjoy because of the limited number of posters and the friendly family nature of the forum. It’s actually based in Israel and is moderated by Daniel Rogov, a professional wine writer for some newspapers who must have tasted just about every wine produced anywhere in the world. He is a friendly curmudgeon and I enjoy giving him loads of cheek. Strat's Place - A Celebration of Wine, Gardening and the Arts Wine from all over the world is discussed by interesting people from all over the world. This forum has some unique contributors including Inspector Clouseau and even God has been known to post from time to time.

Finally some words of advice to those new to wine forums. By all means ask what ever you like, most sites have really friendly and helpful people who are only too happy to answer. But a couple of words of caution, don’t “blow off” and come across as a know all when you first start posting as the first time you take a wrong turn, you will come to grief and have egg all over your face. And remember these forums can be addictive as well as great sources of wine knowledge.

My name is Ric and I am addicted to … -J

Cheers

Ric ©