Snooth Names Advisory Board

posted by philip in Snooth, Press

New York, NY - June 10, 2008

Global, interactive wine resource selects leading industry names

Snooth, the world’s most comprehensive wine review site, today announced the formation of its advisory board comprised of leading names in the wine industry.

The board will play a key role in advising Snooth’s management on a variety of issues, including its role within the industry, as the site continues to expand into a global wine resource, complete with social elements, detailed recommendations, editorial content, and seamless merchant connections.

The members include:

• Paul Mabray - Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Inertia, the leading provider of web-based technology used by wineries to manage direct sales and marketing.
• Andrea Johnston - VP Channel Development of Inertia
• Mike Mitchell - COO MMP, former Director of NextAction, a company that partners with over 1,000 retailers, catalogers and e-retailers to develop customer acquisition and retention programs.
• Rodolphe Boulanger - President of the The Wine Messenger, a national online wine retailer, licensed to ship to 25 states.
• Jean-Michel Stam - VP Global Wines and Spirits, the leading B2B e-business market place for people in the wine industry — a joint venture between Société des Alcools du Québec and Mediagrif Interactive Technologies

Paul Mabray, founder of Inertia, said, “Snooth provides a much needed solution for aggregating wine content – a single source for information that the consumer can both contribute to, as well as access, thereby democratizing wine information.”

Jean-Michel Stam, VP of Global Wines and Spirits, added, “Snooth is a very exciting company that is a true innovator in the business of wine rating and appreciation. We are honored to have the opportunity to witness and contribute to its growth.”

Philip James, CEO of Snooth, commented, “We are very pleased to have access to such a talented group of individuals. Our Advisory Board has a breadth of experience and degree of operating skills in all facets of wine marketing, retailing and merchandising and will be pivotal to Snooth’s ongoing development.”

About Snooth:

Launched in June 2007, Snooth is a highly interactive, social database of the world’s wines, offering both casual and expert wine drinkers the ability to search, obtain personalized recommendations, interact with fellow wine lovers, as well as seamlessly buy from a global network of over 8,000 merchants.

Users have the ability to search by their own personal preferences (bold, peppery, fruity, etc), by a specific meal-pairing, price, or by region or producer. Snooth’s recommendation engine also provides customized selections based on stated preferences and user feedback. The more information a user gives on wines they enjoy, the more personalized and detailed the recommendations become.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact

media@snooth.com
(646) 723-4328

Snooth Announces International Expansion, Regional Search Capability

posted by philip in Snooth, Wine, Press

New York, NY - April 16, 2008

Users from over 40 countries now connected with local merchants and price information

Snooth, the world’s most comprehensive wine review site, today announced a substantial international expansion, making the site immediately relevant for wine drinkers worldwide. Following the complete integration of a worldwide merchant and price database, Snooth now connects users with wineries and wine merchants from over 40 countries thereby allowing wine drinkers to review and price wines featured on Snooth, and purchase wines in their domestic market through local merchants. This new information, provided in partnership with GlobalWineStocks.com, represents price data from 3,000 stores and 5,000 wineries, comprising a total of 2.4 million prices for over 200,000 wines from around the world.

For example, a user can search for “spicy cabernet” and view all wines that match this description. The user can then refine a search by price, vintage, region and other key attributes. Now, for the first time ever, global users can indicate their home country and receive local prices, in local currency, from local merchants, thus facilitating simpler purchases.

“With the integration of this worldwide merchant data, our site will become a powerful tool to a global audience,” said Philip James, CEO of Snooth. “Now, a user sitting in the Netherlands, for example, can search through the world’s largest collection of wine reviews and access local prices for that perfect bottle, all on the same site.”

James added that the data integration represents a significant milestone for the company, building towards the goal of “establishing a truly global wine resource, complete with social elements, detailed recommendations, editorial content, and seamless merchant connections.”

About Globalwinestocks.com:

Since 2005, Global Wine Stocks has aggregated wine prices from various online sources using proprietary technology. Available both as a standalone search engine and as a data license made available to partner sites like Snooth, the company offers millions of wine prices from global merchants, wine labels, and producers.

Please visit www.globalwinestocks.com for more information.

About Snooth:

Launched in June 2007, Snooth is a highly interactive, social database of the world’s wines, offering both casual and expert wine drinkers the ability to search, obtain personalized recommendations, interact with fellow wine lovers, as well as seamlessly buy from a global network of over 8,000 merchants.

Users have the ability to search by their own personal preferences (bold, peppery, fruity, etc), by a specific meal-pairing, price, or by region or producer. Snooth’s recommendation engine also provides customized selections based on stated preferences and user feedback. The more information a user gives on wines they enjoy, the more personalized and detailed the recommendations become.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact

media@snooth.com
(646) 723-4328

Snooth Launches Talk

posted by philip in Snooth, Press

New York, NY - March 5, 2008

Snooth makes wine shopping more social with launch of Snooth Talk

Snooth, the worlds most comprehensive wine review site, today announced the launch of Snooth Talk, the industry’s first fully featured, seamlessly integrated wine forum. Snooth users can visit Talk to ask questions, give advice, debate wines and interact with their fellow wine lovers at a much deeper, more involved level than before.

Launched in June 2007, Snooth is a highly interactive, social database of the world’s wine, offering both casual and expert wine drinkers the ability to search, obtain personalized recommendations, browse ratings and reviews, as well as seamlessly buy hundreds of thousands of wines from a network of over 1,000 merchants. Users have the ability to search by their own personal preferences (bold, peppery, fruity, etc), by a specific meal-pairing, price, or by region or producer. Snooth’s recommendation engine also provides customized selections based on stated preferences and user feedback. The more information a user gives on wines they enjoy, the more personalized and detailed the recommendations become.

“Snooth is a valuable tool for the average wine drinker to research, track and buy wines online,” said site founder Philip James. “With the launch of Snooth Talk, users really have the opportunity to get much more deeply and personally involved with a product they enjoy so much.”

Snooth is continually developing its feature set and adding new merchants. The site recently surpassed 2 million reviews and is now used by people in over 190 countries.

About Snooth:

Snooth is a revolutionary web-based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their favorite wines.

Snooth is the world’s most comprehensive wine database, featuring over 2 million reviews for over 300,000 wines. It offers both casual and aspiring wine drinkers personalized wine recommendations, ratings & reviews, as well as a wine information search tool that seamlessly connects users to the websites of over 1,000 merchants and wineries and critics including wine.com, Sam’s Wines and Spirits, K&L Wine Merchants, Beverage Media and Inertia Beverage Group.

Snooth launched in June 2007.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact

media@snooth.com
(646) 723-4328

Snooth Announces $1 Million in Angel Funding

posted by philip in Snooth, Press

New York, NY - November 27, 2007

World’s most comprehensive wine review site plans international expansion

Snooth, the worlds most comprehensive wine review site, today announced $1 million in angel funding from the company’s initial backers, as well as a new group of international investors. This is the company’s second round, following an initial $300,000 raised in December 2006.

The new funds will be used to scale the development team, integrate the current backlog of merchants that have already partnered with Snooth, and add new retailers worldwide.

Launched in June 2007, Snooth is a highly interactive, social database of the world’s wine, offering both casual and expert wine drinkers the ability to search, obtain personalized recommendations, browse ratings and reviews, as well as seamlessly buy from a network of over 1,000 merchants.

Users have the ability to search by their own personal preferences (bold, peppery, fruity, etc), by a specific meal-pairing, price, or by region or producer. Snooth’s recommendation engine also provides customized selections based on stated preferences and user feedback. The more information a user gives on wines they enjoy, the more personalized and detailed the recommendations become.

“Snooth is a powerful tool that helps average wine drinkers and connoisseurs alike find better wine experiences,” said site founder Philip James. “The site’s detailed search options and social recommendations allow users to quickly cut through the clutter to find the perfect wine for their individual preferences.”

Snooth has also been introducing new functionality, allowing for a deeper and more interactive user experience. For example, the “My Wines” feature allows users to build and manage their personal wine collection, maintain wish lists, track reviews and keep detailed notes about their personal impressions. The company has also debuted charts that illustrate how a specific wine’s rating changes over time and breaks down by level of popularity.

About Snooth:

Snooth is a revolutionary web-based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their favorite wines.

Snooth is the world’s most comprehensive wine database, featuring over 1.9 million reviews for over 300,000 wines. It offers both casual and aspiring wine drinkers personalized wine recommendations, ratings & reviews, as well as a wine information search tool that seamlessly connects users to the websites of over 1,000 merchants and wineries and critics including wine.com, Sam’s Wines and Spirits, K&L Wine Merchants, Beverage Media and Inertia Beverage Group.

Snooth launched in June 2007.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact

media@snooth.com
(646) 723-4328

Snooth Launches “My Wines”

posted by admin in Website Updates, Snooth, Press

New York, NY – October 23, 2007

World’s largest wine review site presents unified view for wine

Snooth has launched its “My Wines” page which allows users to build and manage their personal wine cellars, maintain wish-lists, track reviews and tasting notes. Users can search results in myriad ways, sort by recent activity, quality/price ratio, or ratings. Wines may also be viewed according to availability from Snooth’s partners. All results are exportable and shareable.

“Wine isn’t simply a transactional experience. Your interaction with a bottle doesn’t end after you’ve consumed it – cataloging, repeat purchasing, reviewing, cellaring and aging additional bottles all lead to demand for a totally different interface from the ones used by most online retailers. ‘My Wines’ is the product of our quest for a unified view for wine,” said Snooth’s Founder, Philip James.

Snooth is still in beta release. In anticipation of its full launch, Snooth will continue to add features and build its partnerships over the coming months. Visit Snooth at www.snooth.com to sign up today.

About Snooth:

Snooth is a revolutionary web-based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their favorite wines.

Snooth is the world’s most comprehensive wine database, featuring over 1.9 million reviews for over 300,000 wines. It offers both casual and aspiring wine drinkers personalized wine recommendations, ratings & reviews, as well as a wine information search tool that seamlessly connects users to the websites of over 1,000 merchants and wineries and critics including wine.com, Sam’s Wines and Spirits, K&L Wine Merchants, Beverage Media and Inertia Beverage Group.

Snooth launched in June 2007. Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact

media@snooth.com
(646) 723-4328

Snooth announces launch of GrapeVine

posted by philip in Website Updates, Snooth, Press

NEW YORK, NY – September 19, 2007

World’s largest wine review site makes online wine shopping social

Snooth, the world’s largest wine review site, has launched the GrapeVine. The first of Snooth’s social recommendation features, the GrapeVine connects users more directly with their network of friends on Snooth, enabling them to see wines that friends have rated, exchange messages, and get the latest updates on friends’ activities and related developments.

The GrapeVine is a key element of a users personalized homepage – making it simple to stay updated on which wines friends are drinking as well as facilitating online shopping by offering ideas and recommendations from users’ own personal networks. The GrapeVine also allows for the filtering of results, so that preferred features, like messages from friends or updates on wines recently rated in a user’s network, receive greater focus. “The Snooth GrapeVine is a key tool for wine lovers that allows for the sharing of opinions and recommendations from users’ most trusted sources – their personal network. This really makes the process of shopping online for wine much more enjoyable and intimate,” said Snooth’s Founder, Philip James.

Snooth is still in beta release. In anticipation of its full launch, Snooth will continue to add features and build its partnerships over the coming months. Visit Snooth at www.snooth.com to sign up today.

About Snooth:

Snooth is a revolutionary web-based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their favorite wines.

Snooth is the world’s most comprehensive wine database, featuring over 1.7 million reviews for over 300,000 wines. It offers both casual and aspiring wine drinkers personalized wine recommendations, ratings & reviews, as well as a wine information search tool that seamlessly connects users to the websites of over 1,000 merchants and wineries and critics including wine.com, Sam’s Wines and Spirits, K&L Wine Merchants, Beverage Media and Inertia Beverage Group.

Snooth launched in June 2007. Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact

media@snooth.com
(646) 723-4328

Snooth releases Facebook wine application

posted by philip in Website Updates, Snooth, Press

NEW YORK, NY – July 27, 2007

Wine recommendation engine releases Facebook wine application, backed by world’s largest wine database

Snooth announced that it has released the Snooth Facebook wine application, allowing Facebook users to interact with, and explore, Snooth’s functionality from within their Facebook account. Using Facebook’s API to access Snooth’s database of millions of wine ratings across hundreds of thousands of wines, users can now rate and review wines, get recommendations and see what their friends are drinking as well as find retailers to purchase specific wines from.

“Integrating Snooth into Facebook is an important step for Snooth. Giving our users multiple choices over how they interact with our service is a strong focus of ours.” says Snooth Founder, Philip James.

Snooth is still in a beta release. In anticipation of its full launch, Snooth will continue to add features and build its partnerships over the coming months. Visit Snooth at www.snooth.com to sign up today.

About Snooth

Snooth is revolutionizing the way people choose wine.

By combining the company’s proprietary algorithms with the world’s most comprehensive wine database, Snooth is able to accurately identify the wines best-suited to an individual.

Snooth analyzes a user’s unique set of interactions with the site and, using its powerful recommendation engine, leverages this digital fingerprint to generate highly-personalized wine recommendations. Snooth also interprets wine queries more naturally and optimizes the relevancy of search results, by incorporating semantic search elements into its core technology.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

CONTACT
646-723-4328 • media@snooth.com

Snooth partners with Beverage Media Group

posted by philip in Snooth, Partnerships, Press

NEW YORK, NY – July 9, 2007

Wine recommendation engine teams up with BMG allowing users to browse the inventory of over 40 liquor stores across the US

Snooth announced that it has partnered with Beverage Media Group to provide its users with direct access to tens of thousands of wines sold by over 40 liquor stores across the US. BMG, a leading provider of web-based procurement technology to liquor stores, works with its clients to enable simple and efficient access to a large network of wine, beer and spirit distributors. By teaming up on this initiative, Snooth and Beverage Media Group can simplify the process of researching and buying wine, by enabling users to link directly from researching a wine on Snooth to the point of sale at the liquor store website.

“We are excited to partner with Beverage Media Group to bring an ever growing list of options to our users for purchasing wine. With these stores integrated there will be tens of thousands more wines available on the site” says Snooth Founder, Philip James.

“With their reviews and user generated content, Snooth has the potential to be a powerful tool for consumers to research their wine purchases. Beverage Media Group is always looking for opportunities for our retailers to participate with high quality sites where consumers make their purchasing decisions.” says Ian Griffith of Beverage Media Group.

In anticipation of its full launch, Snooth will continue to add features and build its partnerships over the coming months. Visit Snooth at www.snooth.com to sign up today.

About Snooth
Snooth is revolutionizing the way people choose wine.

By combining the company’s proprietary algorithms with the world’s most comprehensive wine database, Snooth is able to accurately identify the wines best-suited to an individual.

Snooth analyzes a user’s unique set of interactions with the site and, using its powerful recommendation engine, leverages this digital fingerprint to generate highly-personalized wine recommendations. Snooth also interprets wine queries more naturally and optimizes the relevancy of search results, by incorporating semantic search elements into its core technology.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

Contact
Media@Snooth.com
646-7283-4328

Snooth launches public beta version of its website

posted by philip in Website Updates, Snooth, Press

NEW YORK, NY – June 6, 2007

Snooth, the comprehensive website for researching, reviewing, and buying wine, is now available to all users.

Snooth has launched a beta version of its wine search engine and recommendation platform, which generates personalized wine recommendations by leveraging data about wines that users have liked or disliked in the past. Snooth’s wine community also provides wine-drinkers with a single location to read and write user reviews, view reviews by international award committees and professional critics, see what their friends are drinking, and buy wine from a number of leading wine merchants.

Snooth’s website is powered by its comprehensive wine database, which contains information for over 300,000 wines. At the time of its public launch, Snooth has accumulated 1.4 million wine ratings from users and professional critics. Snooth has developed advanced technology to filter duplicate wines, so that it can aggregate reviews and price information from different sources and limit wines from showing up multiple times on the search results page.

Snooth does not sell wine, but has partnered with several leading wine merchants, such as Astor Wines & Spirits, Wine.com and K&L Wine Merchants to enable its users to buy wine. It also provides a direct link to 300 wine brands sold by top wineries through its partner Inertia Beverage Group.

“We created Snooth to make wine-buying less confusing to the aspiring wine-drinker”, says Snooth Founder, Philip James. “Snooth is sophisticated enough to support the needs of the wine connoisseur, but is designed to help the average consumer with limited wine knowledge to find the wines that are best-suited to them personally.”

“Snooth’s revolutionary new software allows for the seamless translation of our customers’ own language and experiences with wine into truly informed choices. In doing so, Snooth has programmatically solved a problem hitherto only done by a knowledgeable salesperson”, says Andrew Fisher, Owner of Astor Wines & Spirits. “This is a groundbreaking tool, and we at Astor are simply thrilled to integrate it into the way we do business.”

In anticipation of its full launch, Snooth will continue to add features and build its partnerships over the coming months. Visit Snooth at www.snooth.com to sign up today.

About Snooth
Snooth promises to revolutionize the way people choose wine.

By combining the company’s proprietary algorithms with the world’s most comprehensive wine database, Snooth is able to accurately identify the wines best-suited to an individual.

Snooth analyzes a user’s unique set of interactions with the site and, using its powerful recommendation engine, leverages this digital fingerprint to generate highly-personalized wine recommendations. Snooth also interprets wine queries more naturally and optimizes the relevancy of search results, by incorporating semantic search elements into its core technology.

Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

CONTACT:
Media@Snooth.com
646-7283-4328

Snooth partners with Inertia Beverage Group

posted by philip in Snooth, Partnerships, Press

NEW YORK, NY – May 11, 2007

Wine recommendation engine teams up with Inertia to provide users with direct link to wineries

Snooth announced that it has partnered with Inertia Beverage Group to provide its users with direct access to wines sold by over 300 wine brands. Inertia, the leading provider of web-based direct sales technology to the wine industry, works with its winery clients to enable easy, smart, efficient access to the growing consumer direct channel for wine. By teaming up on this initiative, Snooth and Inertia can simplify the process of researching and buying wine, by enabling users to link directly from the product detail page on Snooth to the point of sale on the winery website.

“We believe that bringing together customers and wineries together through technology is the future of the wine industry. Snooth’s cutting edge platform helps consumers navigate difficult purchasing decisions and creates an excellent bridge to help consumers make educated choices for increased purchasing satisfaction”, says Paul Mabray, CEO and Founder of Inertia.

“We are excited to be able to add these wineries to the growing list of options available to our users for purchasing wine”, says Snooth Founder, Philip James, “Being able to read multiple wine reviews and then proceed directly to the winery site to purchase the wine greatly simplifies the process.”

Snooth is still in closed beta and access is currently invitation only. To request an account please sign up at www.snooth.com.

About Snooth
Snooth promises to revolutionize the way people choose wine.

By combining the company’s proprietary algorithms with the world’s most comprehensive wine database, Snooth is able to accurately identify the wines best-suited to an individual.

Snooth analyzes a user’s unique set of interactions with the site and, using its powerful recommendation engine, leverages this digital fingerprint to generate highly-personalized wine recommendations. Snooth also interprets wine queries more naturally and optimizes the relevancy of search results, by incorporating semantic search elements into its core technology.

Snooth is currently in closed testing. Please visit www.snooth.com for more information.

CONTACT:
646-723-4328 • media@snooth.com

About Inertia Beverage Group
Inertia Beverage Group, based in Napa, California, is the premier provider of web-based technology used by wineries to manage direct sales and marketing. Inertia’s REthink Engine technology is at the heart of the direct sales and marketing efforts of more than 300 wine brands. Inertia’s technology and services affords wineries an integrated platform from which they can manage customer data, online sales to consumers and the trade, on-line content, product fulfillment, wine clubs and e-mail based sales campaigns. More information about Inertia Beverage Group is available at www.inertiabev.com

CONTACT:
Paul Mabray, Inertia Beverage Group
707-227-2187 • paul@inertiabev.com

Tom Wark, Wark Communications
707-933-9313 • tom@warkcommunications.com

Tori Wilder, Wark Communications
707-227-8310 • tori@warkcommunications.com