Look, everybody knows it’s a crazy idea.

To document every single wine made, all around the world, and warehouse the information in one central location.

(My first reaction: “Wait. What?” Second reaction: “Herculean.” Third reaction: “Sisyphean,” as in, desirable, super labor-intensive, and just out of reach.)

I mean, who does that? And, more importantly, why?

The “who” is David Gluzman and his team at Calgary-based Global Wine Database. GWDB started out, almost as a beta test and along with the help of the Canadian Vintners Association, to successfully execute their vision to document every single wine in their home country of Canada.

They proved it’s possible. More than that, they proved it’s beneficial to the entire Canadian wine industry. You can see the results for yourself here. Prior to the launch of this website, Gluzman said, “the world didn’t truly know all that much about the landscape of Canadian viticulture, like the fact that the country produces more than 130 different grape varieties. Today every winery has access to store and share the facts of what they produce, to the entire world, for free.”

Which brings us to the “why” of this idea.

GWDB’s tagline says it all: “Accurate data, controlled by producers.”

That’s a pretty big clue to what this is all about.

To enable wineries to control the facts that are “out there” about their wines, including vintage-to-vintage variation, updated tech sheets, label shots, and reviews.

You upload the information once, basic details like location, logos and tasting notes. The beauty of the platform is what happens next, and automatically.

• Corporate websites that the winery owns are updated, such as the public-facing website and the ecommerce store.
• Trade and media websites are updated, which means retailers can go directly to GWDB for the latest technical notes.
• Any third-party apps that are integrated with GWDB are updated, which makes it that much easier to stay on top of the information consumers see when they pull up your wine in apps like Vivino and Delectable.
• The cycle repeats itself whenever new information, like the next vintage, is uploaded.

Data people can geek out, pretty far, about the technology that enables all of this to happen. Because it’s impressive.

The takeaway for everyone else is that bit about wineries themselves presenting, accurately, the information that’s circulating about their wines.

Think about what happens when you search for a movie on Google. You can find out almost everything about it, like who produced it, the actors, the writers and so much more. When you do the same for wine, however, the data is incredibly fragmented or non-existent.

“We’re providing a platform to allow third parties to integrate into accurate wine data,” Gluzman said. “Future technology – from Augmented Reality to Artificial Intelligence to Blockchain – all depend on data. The wineries have it, but they don’t have a place to put it for the world to access. That’s us.”

Word.

Not sure about you, but learning about GWDB has set my mind racing. Most of all, like last week’s post on Saturnalia’s vineyard satellite data, I’m totally psyched that these initiatives are live and solid and fertile ground for much more creative thinking about how data can help improve our industry.

Please drop a line and let me know what’s on your mind too.

Thank you,

Cathy