Category food

Winelikes App: A Free App With Something for Every Wine Lover

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One thing wine lovers really enjoy doing is sharing a new wine they have discovered with friends and family or with anyone who will listen. One thing wine lovers really hate doing is trying new wines only to be disappointed and wasting money on a product that is a poor match for their tastes. After graduating college and obtaining his MBA Jeff Gillis had seen this problem many times during his years in the hospitality industry. Jeff honed his skills running some of the most prestigious hotels and restaurants in the country, including the Peninsula Beverly Hills, Koi Restaurant Group, and the Orange County fine dining restaurant Pinot Provence, continuing until he left his post as Food and Beverage Director at the Bardessono Hotel in Napa Valley and moved Los Angeles to pursue a career in biotech. 

Jeff’s love of wine only got stronger as he traveled a career path that closely paralleled and augmented his wine journey as he earned a WSET2 and Certified Sherry Wine Specialist certification. After leaving the industry Jeff relied on wine shops, supermarkets, and a few wine apps to purchase wine but soon realized there had to be a better way. With that goal in mind, Jeff enlisted the help of his sommelier friends and built a social media app suited for both wine enthusiasts and wine novices.

The Winelikes app has a lot to offer its users, so I asked Jeff to tell us more about Winelikes. 

Winelikes is a social media app for wine lovers and is available worldwide for mobile users. Download the free app and begin using it to connect with other wine enthusiasts. Winelikes uses a simple, modern, expansive interface that serves all; our target market is 25-45 years old, with features that ensure daily engagement. We want to make wine an everyday experience. Our tagline is Sip, socialize, share! 

Individuals can create a taste profile and be guided toward wines they are likely to love. Browse to interact with the community, find others to follow and connect with, see where to enjoy wine, post photos, write reviews, add wines to their “wine cellars/favorites,” learn more about wines with trivia, and find pairings for their meals.

Winelikes is a game-changer! With the food pairing feature community members can add their meals to the app in addition to the food choices that the Winelikes team is currently inputting daily. Other wine apps offer the user traditional pairings but the Winelikes app thinks outside the box when it comes to pairing wine with foods prepared in different ways and with unique flavor profiles. A restaurant can input all of their dishes and then pair them with their wine list and coming soon, the user can place an order using the app. Wineries can also submit their wines and be featured in the Winelikes app. Winelikes can then pair their wines specifically with the dishes that will allow them to shine. 

Sommeliers and influencers can use the platform to establish themselves, build a following, and promote classes/programs they’re involved in. 

To attract users who want to learn more about wine, Winelikes has a trivia feature where the Winelikes team posts a new quiz weekly. The quizzes cover a wide range of topics and skill levels ranging from beginner to advanced to challenge users while keeping them interested and engaged. To make the experience more entertaining and to reach out to a younger demographic, your quiz score is present on your feed allowing you to compete with friends and peers to post the highest score or post it for the community to see if you choose to. Businesses can also take advantage of this feature to do market research. 

Businesses have an optimal pathway to customers. When users create a profile, their dataset will include pertinent information. Companies can post in the app and create differently-styled ads to reach a target demographic (local, nationwide, worldwide). Winelikes offers convenience, accuracy, and personalization that help wineries build stronger customer relationships and increase their brand footprint. 

TikTok, one of the biggest social media apps, does not allow advertisements for wine or wine-related businesses. TikTok is also an all-age app and its algorithm will hide or delete posts associated with wine. Selling wine on Instagram or Facebook is technically illegal but there are workarounds. Winelikes has created an app rated 17 or older due to the different drinking rules around the world so wine-related businesses don’t need to waste their money trying to beat algorithms. Instead, they can now focus on marketing and selling products to prospective customers. 

For a more in-depth description of the features and thought process behind the Winelikes app you can listen to an interview with the Winelikes app creator, Jeff Gillis on The Wonder World of Wine podcast. Link below. 

iPhone:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/winelikes/id1604508326

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winelikes&pli=1

The Wonderful World of Wine podcast

https://soundcloud.com/user-492543397/episode-243-jeff-gillis-interview-wine-likes-app

https://m.soundcloud.com/user-492543397/episode-243-jeff-gillis-interview-wine-likes-app
Winelikes website

http://www.winelikes.com/

The Winelikes app looks like a promising tool for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of wine, market wine, interact with other like-minded wine lovers, build a social media following, or just immerse themselves in the wine community. Any app that helps me put better wine in my glass is worth exploring. 

Wine Review: Castel Sallegg Lagrein 2019

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Here’s an opportunity to experience a little taste of the Alto Adige region of Northern Italy through their native grape Lagrein. Lagrein is the oldest indigenous grape variety of the Alto Adige region and a relative of Syrah and Teroldego. Alto Adige is Italian for South Tyrol (Südtriol in German). It is Italy’s northernmost district and is also one of its smallest. The landscape is punctuated by the peaks and valleys of the Dolomites and Italian Alps. The producers in this area focus on quality over quantity. Most, if not all, of their wine, is terroir-driven. Castel Sallegg Lagrein D.O.C. 2019 is one of those wines. Made with 100% Lagrein grapes manually harvested from their humus-rich clay soil vineyards in the vicinity of Lake Caldaro.The grapes are then selected, destemmed, mashed, and, malolactic fermented at a controlled temperature in stainless tanks. It is aged in stainless steel (80%) and French oak for twelve months. It is blended for two to three months and bottle aged for an additional six months.

Castel Sallegg Lagrein 2019 has a very dark ruby color with faint floral aromas. Flavors of mixed black fruits are carried on a structured medium body with mild tannins appearing mid-palate. More than ample acidity throughout. Pairs well with any grilled or roasted red meat or pasta in a hearty red sauce.

Frescobali Remole Toscana Rosso 2020

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Frescobaldi Remole Toscana Rosso 2020

This Toscana is produced in Tuscany, Italy. It is a blend of 85% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a lighter wine than many of the more complex and pricey Toscana bottlings from Tuscany.

Frescobali Rèmole Toscana Rosso 2020 is a balanced wine with its “middle of the road” approach when it comes to body, acidity, and flavor profile. With an approachable 12.5% ABV and bewitching scarlet red color in the glass, the faint aroma of berries leads you into the muted flavors of cherry and raspberry on your palate. It pairs well with lean red meat and pasta dishes with red sauce. Priced at less than $10 it is an excellent choice for a “weekday wine”

IL Burchino Toscana 2015

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Tenuta di Burchino IL Burchino Toscana 2015 is a red blend of 85% Sangiovese 10% Cabernet Sauvignon & 5% Merlot from the hills of Pisa in Tuscany, Italy. 

James Suckling gave it 92 points saying it was “Perfumed with dark fruits, orange blossoms, and cherries following through to a medium body. Integrated tannins and just a hint of vanilla. Long and linear.” 

Quoted initially at $40 it is now available at P.L.C.B. stores in Pennsylvania as a “Chairman’s Selection” for $12.99. This is a bargain price for a wine of this quality. IL Burchino Toscana 2015 pairs perfectly with grilled red meat and pasta in a red sauce.

Days of Wine and Cheeses: Finale

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Parmigiano-Reggiano is called by some “The finest cheese in the world.” Parmigiano-Reggiano is made in Italy from raw cow milk under strict adherence to a prescribed procedure. To harden the young cheese’s rind, it is left in brine for three weeks or more before being allowed to age from twelve months to three years. A wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano weighs eighty-five pounds and goes from an ivory paste color when young to an amber gold when mature. Don’t cut this cheese, use a blunt knife that will break it into chunks thus preserving its signature texture. You will need a medium to full-bodied red to pair with this cheese. Brunello di Montalcino, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Zinfandel would be a great pairing.

Original Blue is a raw cow milk aged blue cheese made by the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company and is the only blue cheese made in California. The morning milk is taken directly from the milking parlor to the cheesemaker where it is cultured, coagulated with rennet, and inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti. As the cheese ages, it develops the characteristic blue-gray veins that give blue cheese its name and distinctive taste. Pair a French Pinot Gris or dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes of New York. I have also found Champagne is an excellent pairing because it cleanses your palate. 

Manchego is Spain’s most famous cheese. It is made from raw or pasteurized sheep milk but most of Manchego today is made on an industrial scale using pasteurized sheep milk. You can find year-old Manchego at cheese shops in the U.S.  This aged version of Manchego has a firm dry interior that is ivory to light yellow in color. It is best served with something sweet to contrast its tangy salty bite. Quince paste is usually served as the sweet accompaniment. Manchego pairs well with a Rioja from its homeland of Spain. Think tapas on a beautiful evening in Barcelona when selecting a wine.   

I hope you enjoyed my posts on pairing wine and cheese as much as I enjoyed writing them. Cheers!

Photo Credit: Gourmetfoodstore.com, PointReyesCheese.com, and almagourmet.com

Days of Wine and Cheeses

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You may have surmised from the name of this blog and my social media handle (wpawinepirate) that I am a Jimmy Buffett fan, a Parrothead, if you will. I have been a member of the Phlock for a long time, making some good friends and beautiful memories along the way. Jimmy’s lyrics “Warm summer breezes and French wine and cheeses” from his song “He went to Paris” was the inspiration for a series of posts I will be writing about wine and cheese pairing

I will never forget the first time I tasted Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam. It was at their shop in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Mt. Tam is a triple cream bloomy rind American recipe cheese made from pasteurized organic pasture-based cow milk that is produced by farm partners using sustainable farming practices. Mt. Tam is made in Marin County near San Francisco, as if you had any doubt it was a California product after that lead-in. Cowgirl Creamery describes their Mt. Tam as “At room temperature, features a dense fudgy core enveloped in an evolving pudgy creamline.” This cheese is both creamy and buttery but also displays earthy flavors. http://cowgirlcreamery.com Mt. Tam pairs well with sparklers like Prosecco and Cava or a California Chardonnay that will cleanse your palate. Freixenet Cordon Negro Cava Brut or Trefethen Family Vineyards 2018 Chardonnay Oak Hill District Napa Valley work nicely with Mt. Tam.

Staying on the coast of California, my next cheese is Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove Chevre in rural Humboldt County. Humboldt Fog is a unique soft-ripened goat cheese. It is made from high-quality goat milk sourced from local farms. This is a pasteurized goat milk cheese. The quality of the milk used in the making of Humboldt Fog is reflected in its clean and balanced flavors while muted acidity and salt levels prevent the potent goaty taste that turns some people off to goat cheese. http://cypressgrovecheese.com Enjoy Humboldt Fog with the iconic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc Cloudy Bay, or Sokol Blosser Redland Cuvee Estate Willamette Valley 2018, a medium-bodied Pinot Noir from Oregon.           

I will be exploring cheeses from America’s Heartland and the East Coast in my next post.