WBW was up again. This month hosted by Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20. She’s quick and the round-up post is also up already. This month’s theme was White Rhone Varietals.

We didn’t get a change to participate like last time but we can still be of great help because we didn’t drink any white Rhone varietal but we did spend some time around WBW #46!

First, we loved Dr Debs idea of making her round-up post using a nice tag cloud to give a different perceptive on flavors, colors and feelings that tasters associated with this wines. The result is impressive.

We decided to help by changing Dr Debs TagCloud little bit so that the tags link directly to all wine blogs posts that use that tag. So clicking on Citrus will return results from searching 400 wine blogs for Citrus.

Here’s the modified tag cloud:

But there’s more! Here’s a link to all the wine blogs that posted about the wine blogging wednesday.

And an extra little add on (ok the last). Blog posts that are tagged with a specific grape! Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Viognier, Marsanne, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc

If you’re a wine blogger and your blog is nowhere to be found on our Wine Blog Search Engine let us know (on the comments or andre [at] adegga.com) and we’ll add it.

We’ve just added the option to check wine prices in different currencies. We’ve had support for Euros since the start but now you can also check prices in UK Pounds and US Dollars.

To change to your preferred currency look for the Where to buy box on the side of any wine, click Change currency and you’re set!

Prices in different currencies may very a little since we’re converting them based on current currency exchange rates.

To see this in action check the Nederburg Chardonnay-Viognier 2007, a refreshing white wine that also has a nice (recommended) blog post made by Andrew over at Spittoon.

We have been a little quite. Mostly because we’ve been working on improving Adegga and preparing some new things.

During the last couple of weeks we have split our time between small tweaks, architecture and design of some bigger things (topic for another post) and of course drinking wine (with Portugal playing like this we have lots of reasons to celebrate).

So what did we change? We did a bunch of little changes that make Adegga more interesting and easier to use:

• New online wine shops: 15 to be exact, from around the world. With this we now have more prices on more wines so we decided to show the prices box on the sidebar of every wine page.
  
• New Wine search: search results are now ordered by rating by default., there’s an option to display or hide wine labels on results and another option to select the number of search results per page (20, 40 or 60).
• Search a wine using the AVIN: if you found an AVIN around the web (for example on the tags here or here) you can enter it on the wine search box and you’ll go directly to that wine.*
  
• User homepage redesign: this is the page you see when you login. It now shows you how many wines you have in your cellar, on your wishlist and many you’ve tasted. The redesign also cleaned some unused options.
  
• Faster blogs posts: we have improved the speed and readability of the list of blog posts for every wine wine. They now load much faster and are easier to read.
• Bigger profile pictures (avatars): to see an example check the user page. This makes it much easier to see who’s adding a tasting note or making a comment.**
• New favicon: as an indication to where Adegga design is going we have released our cool new favicon!.
  

* you can also search by AVIN using Adegga’s integrated search bar on Firefox or any other browser.
** We’ll be changing this in more places so this is a good time to update your profile picture.

We recently redesigned our wine page to include blogs posts about each wine. However we we’re still designing what kind of related information would be useful to include.

We’ve added that now. On every wine page you can now see other wines from the same producer and also other wines from the same region*.

Here’s an example of how it looks like on a wine:
компютри втора употреба

*we try to me as precise as we can. If we know the exact appellation of a wine we’ll only show results of wines from that appellation.

We’ve added simple little way to search wines and wine blogs on Adegga directly from your browser!

To add this search just follow this 3 simple steps:

1. Visit Adegga.com.
2. Check the top right corner of your browser. Click on Add “Adegga.com - Search Wines” or Add “Adegga.com - Search blogs” to add Adegga search engine.
3. Enjoy!

Here’s an example screenshot from Firefox:

If you need help configuring this on your browser leave a comment below and we’ll help you out.

We have been busy developing new stuff at Adegga and we’ve finally launched the new features.

Here’s what we’ve added:

• A wine blog search engine which covers more than 400 wine blogs.
• New prices and shops. We have a new wine shop search engine that includes more shops, more prices and better interface. Try this example: Wine prices for Barca Velha 1995.
• Top Wines: Top Red Wines, Top White Wines, Top 2005 Wines and many more.
• New Adegga search engine that now allows for searching on wines, producers, wine shops and wine blogs.

We’re fixing some minor bugs so if you find any or have any suggestion please let us know.

Wine Blog Search Engine
From all the new features the wine blog search engine is the one we’ll be talking a lot more in the near future. Information about a wine is not only about it’s tasting notes or technical information. There’s lots more information that is useful and available these days so we’re integrating new sources of information in order to provide access to even more useful information for each wine.

We’re indexing more than 400 wine blogs. It’s now easy to search all these blogs or check what are the latest news.

The AVIN
Together with the wine blog integration we’re finally deploying an interesting way to use our unique code for each wine - the AVIN. This code basically lets us track what is being said about a wine online and at the same time gives wine bloggers more visits and targeted visibility. See for example this wine Cortes de Cima Reserva 2003.

If you’re a wine blogger and want to learn how to get your posts listed please read this.

Like we mentioned a few weeks ago, this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by Tim over at Winecast.net and the theme is Old World Riesling (which means wines made with Riesling from Germany, Austria or Alsace).

We’re were all looking forward for this tasting as we had a natural impulse to compare it with our own Vinho Verde. The tasting didn’t disappoing and it made learn a bit more about the grape and the regions from where we choose to drink.

The wines
We thought that buying a Riesling in Portugal was going to be an easy task but only after doing some digging we were finally able to get 2 bottles of Riesling: a Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Urgestein 2006 and Weingut Magdalenenhof Rüdesheimer Burgweg Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken 2006

 

The Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Urgestein 2006 is from the wine region of Kamptal which is the biggest wine region in Austria and one of the most well known for Rieslings in that country.

The Rüdesheimer Burgweg Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken 2006 (which must be one of the longest wine names ever) is made in Germany more precisely in Rheingau where main grape variety is the Riesling.

The tasting
We met for the tasting and as always we had a great time together discussing and enjoying the wines. Each of use made their own notes which are (of course) on Adegga. Here’s what each of use thought of these 2 wines.

Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Urgestein 2006

Emídio Santos: Clean with hay yellow color. Fresh with citric aromas (lime, apple). Underlying mineral and a delicate fragrances of wood. On the palate good acidity with citric aromas and a mineral touch. Good structure with a long lasting finish. (16 in 20) (view note)

André Cid: Eye - yellow hay on the Nose - tones of peach, “nespra”, lemon and melon on the Mouth - not so profound. (14 in 20) (view note)

André Ribeirinho: A wine with a yellow-almost-white color. On the nose lots of mineral aromas. A live wine that on the palate provided evolving sense of fruit. Lemon is always present and some banana and peach coming after the initial tasting. A very interesting wine for end of the day glass of white wine. (13 in 20) (view note)

Rüdesheimer Burgweg Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken 2006

Emídio Santos: Clean pale yellow colour. Weak nose, denoting some sweetness, apple aroma with honey traces. Smooth mouth with some acidity. Very short finish. (10 in 20) (view note)

André Ribeirinho: Light yellow color. A sense of sweetness in the wine. Very very shy on the nose and on the palate. (10 in 20) (view note)

André Cid: Eye - Clear almost white Nose - citrus Mouth - sweet (10.5 in 20) (view note)

Finally
We all liked the first wine and were happy to taste all the different fruits. However at €14 we agreed that it is bit expensive for this type of wine. The second wine didn’t excite any of us. After a day (on a second tasting) Emídio found it to be a bit more interesting but nevertheless nothing special.

If you want to see other wine tasted under this tag check the wbw45 tag page.

Interesting to how see how the tags wbw, wine blogging wednesday and wbw45 have been used a lot in the last 24 hours in the wine blogosphere showing that many wine bloggers have been publishing their entries in the last couple of hours. Here’s a screenshot from a very interesting feature we’ll be launching soon that allows us to see exactly this:

The next Wine Blogging Wednesday (#46) will be hosted by Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20.

There’s an ongoing discussion about wine closures, mostly between cork and screwcaps. Being from Portugal I get easy access to the relevance of cork in world of wine through daily news. Cork has been since 1600’s and is the most used wine stopper. It has its problems (potential relation to TCA) but also its virtues (sustainable resource). But this post in not about that debate, but about an interesting new way to use cork: stamps.

This stamp is a limited edition (230k) created by the national postal service of Portugal (CTT). It was designed by Portuguese designer João Machado and has sold out in Portugal.

From what I could read in a Portuguese newspaper there’s high technology involved in producing the stamp. Getting cork that thin is very hard.

Now that there’s cork this thin I can’t stop thinking of all the interesting things that can be done with that. I would imagine that wine labels made of cork could be an interesting marketing experience.

There’s one thing I can guarantee. TCA won’t ruin your letters!

What the good guys at Catavino are doing for Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) wine is great. They are basically using the Web and telling the World about how great Iberian wines and wineries are. With that goal in sight, their latest project is a report on La Rioja.

Photo from the report on La Rioja
A crazy amount of work must have been taken to put together this kind of information. There’s lot’s of good stuff to see and read (and drink!). An interactive map of wineries, a local food guide and a useful how to read a La Rioja wine label.

Good thing we’ll be visiting La Rioja for the European Wine Bloggers Conference.

The three of us will be participating in WBW 45. WBW 45 is hosted by Tim over at Winecast and the theme is Old World Riesling. This means we’re going to look for a wine made from Riesling made in Germany, Austria or Alsace (Tim says Northern Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are also options). The final day for submissions is Wednesday, May 7.

What is Wine Blogging Wednesday
Wine Blogging Wednesday is an original idea from Lenn Thompson. Every month a selected wine blogger hosts this monthly virtual wine tasting and selects the theme. Then, bloggers drink a wine that is consistent with the theme and blog their tasting notes on or before the Wednesday of the event.

Where to buy?
For us it shouldn’t be too difficult to find some Riesling wines from Germany, Austria or France in any of the Portuguese wine shops. If you are in America take a look at this nice three-pack from domaine547 that will also get you stocked from the next three WBWs.