Why not just have a "They say" & "We say" juxtaposition...
DMM
Bi!!
I believe the winery's should have access to the site for a couple of reasons.
One and currently the most important, is with the wineries having access they can add wine to the site that is not yet there. This is a long term fun project for me and some friends and adding wine to the site is pretty quick there is some much out there it will take forever. Its much easier to have the wineries add their own wine, sure they get some free publicity for it but no more than if a person wandered the aisle at a liquor store.
Two I look at all the reviews online and in magazines and it bothers me not to have all the info about the wine, I like knowing what is on the bottle and what is in the bottle. It does not mean I believe all the writing on the bottle but to me its like everything else. If I am gonna go buy a car I want to see all the stats on the car and then to get a good view point on the car I am going to read not one review but many, probably at least 5 - 8 before I go for a test drive. I think it's the same for anything, buying hardware to computers and technology or what have you.
Three but later will be the number one reason. I find that reading just one review even a positive one will equate to a similar experience. So the idea of the grapefoot.com is that each review is weighted to the persons experience. So a 3rd level sommelier review is worth more than a 2nd and much more than a 1st. The Novice, expert and Master are all much lower than a 1st level sommelier. Now if 10 or 15 people with Novice, expert or Master level rate a wine, say the yellow one with a Kangaroo since that seems to be more popular than oxygen these days they will create a base line for the wine say a 4 out of 5. If a couple of level 1 or 2 sommeliers come along and add their thoughts to the wine with a much lower rating the overall level of the wine will drop... Significantly like maybe 1.5 or 2. Now how does this equate back to the winery having the ability to add their wine? Well it will not matter what the wineries say it only matters how the public feel about the wine since ratings only happen when the public rates a wine. Simply having the wine on the site does not give the wine a positive recommendation.
I have created a test fake winery account for you and anyone else on the site to create and add wines so you can see how this works. I figure why take my word for it. Currently I only have 2 wineries that have signed up and only one of them has added wine. I think the other just wants to see why I have their winery and wine on the site. Starling lane and black widow both are small boutique wineries that are run by the family. It will be a long time I think before any of the big mass marketing wineries even consider using the site.
Username: Test winery account Password: test