Wine Rack uses gaming mechanics to encourage users to discover and taste more wines, rewarding them with trophies to show their wine experience and knowledge. Through wine tutorials and tasting flights, the feature helps users build wine comprehension while enabling them to better interact with others in the Snooth community and earn virtual souvenirs for their achievements.
Wine Rack is an innovation preceded by other successful launches by Gramercy Labs, the lifestyle-focused startup collective founded by Philip James and Kevin Fortuna. Last year, it launched the Snooth Wine Pro iPhone app, which uses image recognition to help users find and purchase wines, among other features. Late last year, the company also founded Lot18, a private sale site for wine and epicurean products that is revolutionizing the way wine is distributed. Founder Philip James recently told Business Insider that Lot18 is generating seven figures in sales every month. Not too shabby for a startup that has only been around for the better half of a year.
We spoke with CTO and co-founder Mark Angelillo for a first look at Wine Rack. He explained that the initial idea behind Wine Rack was "to give users a better idea of how they were learning and growing with wine, how they were getting interested in the product and how they were progressing through playing with wine data."
Angelillo and his team (which includes himself, another engineer and a designer) put extensive research into the product, consulting with social gaming experts at Foursquare, Zynga and Badgeville; reading papers on gaming theory; and discussing the app's functionality and features with wine specialists, including Snooth Editor Gregory Dal Piaz.
Check out Wine Rack's features in the gallery below, and, in the comments below, let us know your thoughts on the service and if you'd use it.