UsableMarkets

I did a brief review of Snooth.com not too long ago, to which Philip James, Snooth’s founder, quickly responded. Always spotting an opportunity, I though Philip might be amenable to an interview as well. He graciously agreed.

UsableMarkets: Please describe Snooth.com? What service is it intended to provide wine drinkers?
Philip James: Snooth is the world’s largest wine rating site. We have over 1.5 million ratings across 300,000 wines. The ratings come from critics, users, wine awards, stores – everywhere really.

The site is basically a cross between IMBD (large, searchable database) and Amazon (recommendations and shopping). The idea is anyone who enjoys wine can come to the site, browse for wines, rate wine’s they’ve tried, get recommendations, and then ultimately link to a store or winery to make a purchase.

UM: What market opportunity did you see that made you think Snooth.com was a good idea?
PJ: Wine is one of the most complicated, regulated industries out there; it’s also one of the slowest industries to move online. The last few years have been a sort of ‘perfect storm’ in the wine industry. Things like the Supreme Court ruling allowing out of state wineries to ship direct, a move away from established critics, and people in the wine industry embracing technology have really changed the landscape.

But, with thousands of regions, hundreds of varietals and tens of thousands of producers its clear that someone needed to pull this all together.

UM: In designing the site, what type of experience did you want to provide for wine drinkers?
PJ: First off we wanted something clean and crisp. Wine may be complicated, but the site needn’t be. We wanted to make it appealing and unthreatening to a novice, yet powerful enough for a collector. We’re getting there, but there’s a long way to go. Don’t forget the site only launched on June 4th.

UM: I’m fascinated by the rating systems that are used for wines. You choose to go with a five point system (using glasses, instead of stars, or something else). Why did you choose that system, and do you think it’s working for Snooth.com?
PJ: There’s been ratings scale inflation over the past few decades, and I think people have finally had enough. Back in the 70’s the British magazine Decanter ruled the roost with their 20 point scale, then Parker came along and began using 100 points. Critics like Steven Tanzer followed, but now publicly admit that they wish there was a different system, and that there’s no difference between their 89’s and their 92’s. At that point, you’ve got to be thinking the whole thing is ridiculous.

100 points implies a precision which isn’t there for something as organic and complex as wine. There’s too much disparity between different people rating wines, or even between one person (even Parker) rating the same wines at different times.

5 stars / glasses brings it right down to an instantly quantifiable level. 5=excellent, 1=rubbish. It’s pretty intuitive. Even Decanter has now gone to a 5 star scale.

That said, we may allow half glass ratings. If you’re drinking one wine at a time you might not need them, but if you’re at a tasting and you’ve got 20 wines in front of you, those half star increments really help.

UM: What’s your experience in the world of wine? I take you’re more than just some guy who likes wine … perhaps in the distributions side of things … or as a sommelier …?
PJ: I used to be Executive Vice President of the Wine Messenger – an online retailer focused on hard to find boutique wines. Before that I didn’t know anything about wine. My background is more in data and finance (I used to be a VC and an Investment Banker). So, I’m hoping here that a little knowledge will prove to be dangerous (in a good way!)

As always, thanks for listening.
~alex