Newbie Wine Retailer Seeking Etiquette Advice

What a thoughtful and courteous introduction. Thank you! You are correct that this group has taken a dim view on "stealth marketing" attempts in the past, and you have already successfully negotiated that by announcing your presence and intentions in a straightforward, honest way. Speaking only as one voice among many, I'd say that as long as you don't disguise your affiliation, why not post your tasting notes, old or new? Others in the business will often include their affiliation in a signature file at the bottom of their Usenet posts, and that constitutes a simple and unobtrusive way of informing your readers about a possible conflict of interest.

Again, speaking only for myself, I find tasting notes of limited value as the tastes of the poster need to be known and compared to my own. However, the more you post, the better I know your tastes and the easier it is for me to make sense of your notes. And new notes have the added benefit of referring to wine currently on the market.

Just my $0.02, Mark Lipton

May I add to Mark's comments, please remember, this Newsgroup is one of the most international in stature.

So, please consider your "home market", and the fact that we have people from France, Austria, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many other places contributing.

st.helier

Firstly, I'd echo others in saying I appreciate your open approach.

I think there is a narrow line between spam and genuine participation in a newsgroup.

Personally I think anything that smacks of automation falls on the spam side of things. So, for example, I do not think it would be acceptable for you to post one TN a day from your business, however old the TNs might be

I think the key it to talk to us as an individual, not as your company. Let us know if there is a wine you have found particularly interesting and tell us about it. And if the wine is one you are selling add a disclaimer. Stick a URL in your sig so we can chase up other TNs if we want.

That's my view at least. I don't pretend to speak for others.

Personally, I think the preferred way would be to post a batch of notes (a couple of times, or if periodically once a week or month). Even better, actually participate in discussions,. If people like your notes and decide they like your taste, they can visit your site or sign up for your email list. I think here we strive to find a balance between the established Usemet etiquette (no commercial posts) and being drowned in a sea of commercial posts.

Just a couple of thoughts. I did visit your site and I couldn't find any calibration for your 100 point scale so I don't really know what the difference is between a 100 point wine or a 89 point wine. I also noticed that a lot of wines recieved scores of 95-100 points which concerns me a bit considering that these are wines that you're selling. Nice selection of wines a pretty good variety of locales and varietals. The site was a bit too campy for me with the secret agent stuff.

We appreciate all feedback. Thank you.

Let me address both of your points:

First, we are not big fans of the 100 point scale and we will replace this with a 5 point scale in .5 point increments (is that really just a 10-point scale?) in the next few months.

Secondly, when our in-house Wine Spies (those that are employed by The Wine Spies), we almost always post a more brief rated review beneath our full review. Our Operatives (that's what we call our customers) also post reviews - and those can tend to run in the 95 to 100 point range. Personally, I don't recall ever rating a wine above 95. Long story short, the point rating that you see there is the average rating that a wine receives from all of those that rate it. When a wine shows with a 100 point rating, it likely means that an over- enthusiastic fan posted a 100 point review, and an in-house Spy did not.

Also, with only 365 days in a year and thousands of wines to choose from, we are very careful about which wines do end up for sale on our site. It is because of this that we have built such a loyal following. People have come to rely on the quality of our picks and our reviews.

If you have any ideas, we would love to hear your suggestions for a replacement scale. One through five Spy Shades? Do half-point increments make sense?

Thanks, again.

Top Secret regards,

Agent Red, Founding Partner The Wine Spies, LLC

Half point increments make no sense. Just double the range and use whole numbers. So, a ten point scale is a ten point scale.

Second, calibrate it. Taste some wines (and report on them) that are low on the scale, and middle on the scale. That way I'll know whether a seven is plonk, or just ordinary, or actually pretty good, on your scale.

Also consider a variant of the Dale Scale. (Sniff around for some Dale posts to find it).

Jose