Dating back to October, 2005, CellarTracker has featured fully automated integration of professional reviews from Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar. More recently in October, 2007, this facility was expanded to include several new publications (as well as under-the-covers changes to make the addition of new 'Content Channels' rather straightforward. Since that point we have regularly added new channels from professionals, bloggers and anyone generating interesting, unique, professional content.
These channels required paid subscriptions and 'activation' on the CellarTracker side:
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
Allen Meadows' Burghound.com
Roy Hersh's For The Love of Port
John Gilman's View From the Cellar
Brad Baker's The Champagne Warrior
These channels are pre-integrated for all users:
Gary Vaynerchuk's WineLibrary TV (NOTE: Gary is in the wine retail business.)
Bill Nanson's Burgundy-Report
Lyle Fass' Rockss and Fruit (NOTE: Lyle is in the wine retail business.)
John Kapon's Vintage Tastings (NOTE: John is in the wine retail and auction business.)
Q: What information is transmitted when I click to sign-up?
A: No personal information is transferred between CellarTracker and the 3rd party site. Rather, CellarTracker sends your anonymous user ID, and, if you successfully log in as a subscriber to the 3rd party site, that site responds with the expiration date for your subscription. NOTE: The exception to this is John Gilman's View From the Cellar and Brad Baker's The Champagne Warrior where your email address IS explicitly used as the identifying key and is manually exchanged between CellarTracker and either John or Brad.Q: Will you do this sort of integration with other publications like the Wine Advocate?
A: It is certainly our hope to provide as many choices as possible to wine lovers, and in that spirit we are indeed in discussions with a number of content providers. Stephen Tanzer's IWC was the first publication to offer this sort of integration, and for that we offer our kudos to Steve for showing the vision to collaborate in this innovative way! Roy Hersh's For The Love of Port was integrated as of late October, 2007. I am very excited to welcome Allen Meadows in October, 2009. We have also had ongoing discussions in the past with Robert Parker's Wine Advocate as well as the Wine Spectator, but neither of these publications is interested in having their content exposed on other websites (even to legitimate, paying users). You can of course share your desires and wishes with these publications, and perhaps someday they might change their tune.
Integration with Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (IWC)
Q: Do I need to remain subscribed to IWC to keep seeing content in CellarTracker?
A: Yes. If your IWC online subscription lapses, the IWC content will be hidden on CellarTracker.
Q: I renewed my subscription on the IWC site, but CellarTracker doesn't seem to know about that. Why not?
A: Ideally the IWC site is supposed to 'ping' CellarTracker when an integrated user renews their subscription, but as of 12/20/2005 this wasn't happening. There have been some more recent reports that this is in fact working. So if you recently renewed or extended your IWC subscription, simply go to the Manage Subscriptions page and press the UPDATE button to fetch your current expiration date for your online subscription to the IWC.
Q: I don't subscribe to IWC, but I suddenly see IWC scores in my cellar list. Why?
A: Through special collaboration with IWC, CellarTracker is able to present the most recent review score for a wine to paying members (donating in the last 12 months) of the CellarTracker community. If you subsequently subscribe to IWC online, you will see all of the reviews as well as the review text.
Q: I only subscribe to the IWC print edition. Can I still see content in CellarTracker?
A: Sorry, only online IWC subscribers are eligible to see review content in CellarTracker. The CellarTracker integration is really just an extension and integration of comparable online functionality (searching, sorting) as to what IWC-online subscribers enjoy. It also relies on each user having the ability to log into the IWC website to verify their subscription. If you are a print only subscriber, you might consider adding an online subscription.
Q: Before signing up for the IWC automatic integration, I had manually copied and pasted a number of reviews into the Professional Reviews space. What happens to hand-entered reviews?
A: CellarTracker provides a basic facility to allow users to store reviews for their own personal use. This is different and somewhat overlapping with the new, automatic integration. However, as of October, 2007 no reviews are filtered, so content you manually enter may duplicate pre-integrated content. All manually entered professional reviews remain in the system and will return if your IWC subscription lapses.
Q: How long after a new issue of IWC will it be before reviews appear in CellarTracker?
A: IWC provides reviews to us within 14 days of a new issue. The mapping process for an issue (typically with ~1,400 tasting notes) takes us from 1-3 days. So you should see full integration of a new IWC issue about 2-3 weeks after a review is posted on the IWC website.
Q: If I search for all wines from a producer, why can't I see IWC scores?
A: To respect the wishes of IWC, users on CellarTracker can only see IWC scores in list views when they are looking at a query focused only on their own cellar. Broad querying of IWC reviews is best done on the www.internationalwinecellar.com website.
Q: How much does an IWC subscription cost?
A: IWC currently offers 6 and 12 month subscriptions with choices for online and/or print access. To be eligible to see content in CellarTracker you must have an IWC subscription. The latest rates are posted here.
Q: I just registered for IWC online, but I don't see the reviews in CellarTracker. What do I need to do to turn this on?
A: Just browse to the Manage Subscriptions page and press the CLICK TO SIGNUP button.
Q: I'm looking at a wine in CellarTracker that should have an IWC review, but I don't see one. What can I do?
A: The initial mapping process between CellarTracker and IWC was somewhat arduous. As of 10/27/2009, we have spent countless hours mapping and verifying 97.56% of the 84,098 IWC reviews (81,523 mapped including all reviews published since 2005). That said, we are sure there missing mappings as well as a few erroneous ones. We continue to work on this behind the scenes. We have also encountered a number of errors in the IWC database which we are reporting and hope to resolve with help from IWC. If you see anything that seems like an error, the best thing to do is to post a note on the Errors & Corrections forum. Please include the wine names as they appear on the IWC site and on CellarTracker and ideally the links to those web pages. Mappings are very easy for us to correct or add, so with your help we can resolve such errors very quickly.
Q: Does sorting and filtering work?
A: You can sort your cellar by IWC score, but currently filtering is not supported for automatically integrated IWC reviews.
Integration with Allen Meadows' Burghound.com
Q: Do I need to remain subscribed to Burghound to keep seeing content in CellarTracker?
A: Yes. If your Burghound subscription lapses, the Burghound content will be hidden on CellarTracker.
Q: I renewed my subscription on the Burghound site, but CellarTracker doesn't seem to know about that. Why not?
A: If you recently renewed or extended your Burghound subscription, simply go to the Manage Subscriptions page and press the UPDATE button to fetch your current expiration date for your online subscription to Burghound.com.
Q: How long after a new quarterly issue of Burghound will it be before reviews appear in CellarTracker?
A: You should assume a 1-2 week turnaround.
Q: How much does a subscription to Burghound cost?
A: Burghound is currently $125/year with multi-year discounts. The latest rates are posted here.
Q: I just subscribed to Burghound, but I don’t see the reviews in CellarTracker. What do I need to do to turn this on?
A: Just browse to the Manage Subscriptions page and press the CLICK TO SIGNUP button.
Q: I'm looking at a wine in CellarTracker that should have a Burghound review, but I don't see one. What can I do?
A: As of 10/27/2009, we have mapped and verified 93.05% of the 45,580 Burghound reviews including all wines with more than 1 review. We will continue to map to get as close to 100% as possible. That said, we could easily have some erroneous mappings or duplicates on the CellarTracker side. If you see anything that seems like an error, the best thing to do is to post a note on the Errors & Corrections forum. Please include the wine names as they appear on the Burghound site and on CellarTracker and ideally the links to those web pages. Mappings are very easy for us to correct or add, so with your help we can resolve such errors very quickly.
Q: Does sorting and filtering work?
A: You can sort your cellar by Burghound scores, but currently filtering is not supported for automatically integrated Burghound reviews.
Integration with Roy Hersh's For The Love of Port (FTLOP)
Q: Do I need to remain subscribed to FTLOP to keep seeing content in CellarTracker?
A: Yes. If your FTLOP Partnership Program online subscription lapses, the FTLOP content will be hidden on CellarTracker.
Q: I renewed my subscription on the FTLOP site, but CellarTracker doesn't seem to know about that. Why not?
A: If you recently renewed or extended your FTLOP subscription, simply go to the Manage Subscriptions page and press the UPDATE button to fetch your current expiration date for your online subscription to the FTLOP.
Q: I don't subscribe to FTLOP, but I suddenly see FTLOP scores in my cellar list. Why?
A: Through special collaboration with FTLOP, CellarTracker is able to present the most recent review score for a wine to paying members (donating in the last 12 months) of the CellarTracker community. If you subsequently subscribe to FTLOP online, you will see all of the reviews as well as the review text.
Q: How long after a new issue of FTLOP will it be before reviews appear in CellarTracker?
A: FTLOP provides reviews to us on a quarterly basis. The mapping process for an issue takes us a day. So you should see new FTLOP content on a quarterly basis.
Q: How much does the FTLOP Partnership Program cost?
A: FTLOP is currently $59/year. To be eligible to see full review content in CellarTracker you must have an some sort of subscription. The latest rates are posted here.
Q: I just registered for the FTLOP Partnership Program, but I don’t see the reviews in CellarTracker. What do I need to do to turn this on?
A: Just browse to the Manage Subscriptions page and press the CLICK TO SIGNUP button.
Q: I'm looking at a wine in CellarTracker that should have a FTLOP review, but I don't see one. What can I do?
A: As of 10/27/2009, we have mapped and verified 100% of the 1,787 FTLOP reviews. That said, we could easily have some erroneous mappings or duplicates on the CellarTracker side. If you see anything that seems like an error, the best thing to do is to post a note on the Errors & Corrections forum. Please include the wine names as they appear on the FTLOP site and on CellarTracker and ideally the links to those web pages. Mappings are very easy for us to correct or add, so with your help we can resolve such errors very quickly.
Q: Does sorting and filtering work?
A: You can sort your cellar by FTLOP scores, but currently filtering is not supported for automatically integrated FTLOP reviews.
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