You can add the following wine-and-food-pairing widget to your winery Web site for free:
| Flash | Non-Flash |
Give it a quick try and see what you think. It's provided by Natalie MacLean, a well-known wine writer based in Canada, and the widget drives traffic to her site (which is why she's giving it away for free, of course).
Here's a report on Wine & Food Matcher from my friends at VinTank which looks at the pluses and minuses of the widget (and its associated mobile-enabled Web site which provides the same functionality on Web-enabled smart phones like the iPhone).
Natalie MacLean uses her experiential judgment to hand pick every one of her food and drink suggestions in her mobile application and widget. As she explains “I’m still very old fashioned. I like to make human decision the last factor and still think you need the human touch.”
The VinTank report provides a much more complete evaluation than I could. From a winery's perspective, the widget doesn't make specific brand recommendations regarding wine, which allows any winery to use it without concern of lost sales.
[Update: Natalie pointed out to me via e-mail that the VinTank report focuses on the "mobile application" version of her pairing application (for iPhone and Blackberry), as opposed to the "widget" version (for Web sites). While that is true, the report does briefly mention the widget, and the basics of selecting a food or wine and receiving pairing suggestions are much the same. The mobile app, available as an iPhone or Blackberry application, costs $2.99.]
As shown above, MacLean provides Flash-based and non-Flash based versions of the widget. I recommend the non-Flash version, since it seems more responsive, and the scrolling behavior of lists works the way you expect. The only functional difference appears to be the moving images at the top.
Your thoughts? Please leave a comment!
While you're there, don't miss the Goosecross Napa Valley Wine Radio widget that we developed over a year ago.
Posted by: David Topper | November 13, 2009 at 09:47 AM
David: I apologize for the omission. Can you provide a URL for my readers?
Posted by: Mike Duffy | November 13, 2009 at 11:27 AM
This is interesting, but why would I want a widget on my winery web site that would recommend wine pairings for wines I don't make? If it was tailor-able to match my offerings, now THAT would be something!
Posted by: El Jefe | November 19, 2009 at 10:04 AM
A business opportunity!
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This is interesting, but why would I want a widget on my winery web site
that would recommend wine pairings for wines I dont make? If it was
tailor-able to match my offerings, now THAT would be something!
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Enjoy!
Posted by: Mike Duffy | November 19, 2009 at 11:32 AM