14 Responses to “Just Launched! Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Wine Buying Guide iPhone Application”

1. 1 Angie said:
   December 21st, 2008 at 6:32:29 PM

   I am excited to see the iPhone app! However, I think it would be great if it was offered at no charge especially to those of us who already pay for your online subscription. I have an online subscription to a competing magazine and their app is free of charge.
2. 2 Erika S. said:
   December 22nd, 2008 at 11:14:25 AM

   Hi Angie– I think you may be confused, we do not have a fee for our online content. Our site is free of charge, http://www.winemag.com. Glad you are enjoying the app!
3. 3 Keith said:
   December 23rd, 2008 at 10:59:29 AM

   I would agree with Angie. The other magazine offers the data through a quick web interface as part of your subscription. It’s just a simple and elegant solution. This application adds a layer which apears to slow things down a bit and costs me $10 to access the data. The reality is that free data that is only available via a $10 application is not really free.

   Why not just create a simple mobile interface and make it available online? This would be faster & free (to subscribers maybe?) .
4. 4 Erika S. said:
   December 23rd, 2008 at 1:14:54 PM

   Hi Keith– Thanks for your candid response. You still have the option to view our buying guide in a browser window on your phone for free, like the other magazine you are mentioning. Of course viewing their online buying guide isn’t really free, it’s $75 with your subscription. The $9.99 app provides additional features and benefits beyond the regular buying guide which includes improved sorting and functionality, our extensive glossary of wine terms, a comprehensive vintage chart, wish list and more. It’s specifically catered to iPhone users, making it a lot easier and faster to navigate than viewing the site in a browser. Viewing the buying guide in the iPhone application is just an added option, it’s not the only way of viewing the data.

   We’ve received a lot of positive feedback and people seem to like using it. Have you tried it out yet?
5. 5 Peter said:
   January 5th, 2009 at 8:02:19 PM

   I really like the app and the fact that it’s backed by Wine Enthusiast’s extensive database. There are a few omissions however that I was hoping you could clarify:
   First, I wish the buying guide included label images, this would help with was of use and prevent confusion.
   Second, and this may be just an oversight on my part, under the “vintages” section, some important regions are missing. For example, when searching under “France” and “Red”, the only Bordeaux that shows up of Graves. What about Saint-Emilion, Pomeral and the others?

   Finally, there are some
   Important brands miasing from the buying guide, such as Silver Oak Cellars in Nappa. Silver Oak is considered one of the best there and should be included, yes?
6. 6 Peter said:
   January 5th, 2009 at 8:06:27 PM

   Sorry, that’s “ease” of use.
7. 7 Peter said:
   January 6th, 2009 at 11:42:26 AM

   And one other thing, it would be great if you included links to online sources so that users could purchase wines directly from their wish list.

   Sorry about the typos-I wrote this quickly on my iPhone.
8. 8 Erika S. said:
   January 6th, 2009 at 11:56:59 AM

   Hi Peter– I’ve made note of your comments and passed them on to our development team. The question about the vintage chart is one we’ve gotten a lot because we do have sub-regions of Bordeaux other than Graves in our vintage chart. It will be updated with a new release. Thanks for the helpful input!
9. 9 Jeff Hill said:
   June 14th, 2009 at 5:41:40 AM

   Good Morning,

   Sorry, this isn’t a comment but rather a request for help.

   I’ve been using the application very successfully (in the USA) for the past few months and have been very pleased with the results – nice job. Presently I am home in Bangkok, Thailand and when I use the “Guide” it tells me “Cannot retrieve wine data. If you are not connected to the internet, please connect and try again”. Problem is I am connected to the internet, on my home network and no other applications have this problem??

   Any suggestions or help will be greately appreciated.

   Thanks, Jeff Hill
10. 10 Erika S. said:
    June 17th, 2009 at 3:45:59 PM

    Hi Jeff– You’ll be receiving a response from customer service shortly.
11. 11 Jeff Hill said:
    July 10th, 2009 at 11:51:05 PM

    Dear Erica,

    Sorry, but if I received a responce from customer service I missed it – doubtful though.

    After my email of 14 June I traveled back to the US and the application worked fine connecting to the internet. I am now back in Thailand and the same problem is occuring, yet again – “Cannot retrieve wine data. If you are not connected to the internet, please connect and try again”. By chance are youre servers blocking foreign ISP’s? This is the only explanation I can think of as no other iPhone application I use has this problem.

    Again, thanks for your time and assistance.
12. 12 Dan Gottfried said:
    July 17th, 2009 at 5:29:53 AM

    I livein Israel and though I’m connected to the internet and all other applications work fine online, this one refuses to connect and tells me to try to connect…This is very frustrating and it seems that either the application is not working as it should or that I’m blocked. Please advise.
13. 13 Erika S. said:
    July 17th, 2009 at 12:43:52 PM

    Jeff and Dan-

    Thanks for your comments. We’re looking into the issue with connecting internationally and hope to have this fixed soon.
14. 14 Dana Johnson said:
    July 21st, 2009 at 7:17:32 AM

    I am in Japan and I am also having issues getting information from the database and getting the same cannot retrieve data messages. This is quite troublesome that this app continues to be advertised on the App Store for the iPhone with such a major, undisclosed issue. I do hope that you fix this problem promptly.

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