I was very, very fortunate to get an invite to this prestigious launch of the 2010 Platter’s wine guide as well as the official announcement of the first version of the Platter’s iPhone app which is the 2009 guide hosted by Andrew McDowall. What was, undoubtedly, the highlight of the evening was the fabulous 5 star wines.

Now, let me be Frank (whoever that is). I’m not like the other esteemed guests. I’m a plonk when it comes to wine. To give you an idea, if it tastes good and the headache is not to bad the next morning, it is considered a good wine in Stii’s wine guide. If it comes in a bottle, thats a big bonus! I was absolutely AMAZED at the quality of the 5 star wines there. In fact, I’ve purchased the Platter’s iPhone app, because for the first time I fully understand this little fact:

If the Platter’s guide says it is a 5 star wine, it is a 5 star wine.

I was completely blown away by the exceptional quality of the wines. What also amazed me was the process of grading the wines and then the brutal process of becoming a 5 star wine. It is reserved for only a select few wines and after last night, I can fully understand why.

Three wines that stood out for me was the Dunstone Shiraz 2008, Haskell Pillars Shiraz 2007 and a white blend by Rall wine cellars which was recommended by the brilliant Allan Mullins. Also, congrats to the winery of the year The Sadie Family. There were in total 41 5 star wines and it was simply impossible to enjoy them all and get home safely and I would have been damned if I had to spit it out! Sacrilege…

The iPhone application will no doubt be one of my top iPhone apps in future. A couple of suggestions though:

• They should look at getting wines to print QR codes on their labels which when scanned with the application will take you to the wine’s entry in the Platter app.
• It would be great if they could pull in reviews, blog posts, etc from third party web sites so we could see what other normal users / experts have to say about the wines.
• It could even be cool if they could build in a voting system like Reddit has so users could upvote their favorite wines. Yes, their recommendations are fantastic, but not everyone can afford a > R200 wine for a Friday night braai watching rugby.
• The maps they’ve integrated are a nice feature, but a novelty*. I’m not sure it would be useful unless you’re in the wine country and looking for a great wine estate.

I guess, the focus should shift somewhat from being an information only guide to a wine utility*. That would make it really handy for use consumers and after all, most wines get made for us, not true?

Finally, I want to commend everybody involved in the guide. They’ve got the right mindset in looking to adopt technology and I was very surprised at their receptiveness thereof. It is not easy for old skool to adapt to the new and considering that Platter’s has been at it on paper for 30 years, it certainly is special to see the hunger for adopting new technology!

* Special thanks to Rich Mulholland for explaining novelty vs. utility in such simple terms to me at the Nokia, the way we live next event.

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