How Eric LeVine, Founder of CellarTracker, Created the World's Biggest Wine Community
The Taste with Doug Shafer – a Podcast About Wine, Food, and FriendsShow Notes
Where wine, community, and technology converge, you'll find the phenomenon of CellarTracker and its founder Eric LeVine.
The numbers are staggering: 1.1 million registered users have tracked 200 million wines and posted more than 12 million reviews.
Eric takes us through the story of CellarTracker's beginning with his years at Microsoft, which coincided with his growing love of wine. As his personal cellar expanded, he grew frustrated trying to manage it using a spreadsheet. Putting his coding skills to work, in March 2003 Eric created CellarTracker in a rudimentary form.
Within months he opened the website up, at no cost, to other users. And In a move that pre-dated Facebook and the coming social media boom, CellarTracker incorporated a sense of community with its shared tasting notes.
Collectors flocked to the site and by 2018 CellarTracker had racked up more than 7 million tasting notes and had tracked 100 million bottles.
Over the past 23 years the site has evolved, offering collectors greater freedom to share their wine impressions with each other and more ways to enjoy their cellar holdings. Eric lays out what's coming for the site, including exciting new features powered by AI.
Learn more: cellartracker.com
More from The Taste with Doug Shafer – a Podcast About Wine, Food, and Friends
Todd Ricard's one-of-a-kind journey to Napa Valley winemaking started in rural Ohio and took him through a stint as an Army satellite operator in Japan. He discovered wine while later stationed near Paso Robles. What started as a way to celebrate weekends quickly turned into a vision for a career.
Davie Piña grew up in a long Napa Valley tradition of vineyards and winemaking. He and his brothers ran one of the Valley's first vineyard management companies, helping to drive the enormous changes in Napa's reputation from the 1960s to today. They eventually launched their own family winery, Piña Napa Valley.
Meghan Zobeck grew up in a Colorado cow town, graduated valedictorian of her senior class, studied for a career in medicine, and after college pivoted to a high-energy job with the Denver Broncos, negotiating player contracts — not your average pathway to Napa Valley winemaking.
It's hard to believe that we recently lost Tom Rinaldi. He had a big impact on Napa wine and beyond that was a great friend and a fantastic human being.
Third-generation vintner Violet Grgich tells an incredible family wine story that spans a century and includes a world war, daring escapes, and a years-long journey to Napa Valley.