What is the best online wine board?

Obviously a loaded question - what is the best online wine board?

Put another way, what do you all say about the other wine boards, to someone (me) who uses just WB. What about Squires, eBob, winespectator, etc.

For those of you who use them, what do you get out of them which you can’t get out of WB?

Squires / eBob is dead. The only posts one typically sees on there relate to Lisa’s shortcomings as Editor in Chief. Sad really, like a lone wolf howling at the moon. Vinous is the only other wine board I frequent. WB takes the cake in my opinion.

WS is a small dead club, as well.

WB is the place to be!

It’s easy to sit in the safety of one wine forum, and criticise others. I remember one forum owner in the past be very firm that he saw no value in his forumites getting into a flame war with other forum (and at the time the other forum in the cross-hairs was this one). I agree with him.

I currently post on 2 wine forums and a travel forum. That’s enough considering the length of my waffle.

In terms of other forums and why to post there, firstly the active forums:

Auswine - Generally very polite & supportive, a great place to get a feel for the always dynamic Aussie wine scene, but also now increasingly interesting for Nebbiolo / Italian wines and Burgundy, plus growing interest elsewhere. Very hands-off moderation - there is no need given the positive attitudes.

Wine Berserkers - Very active, and has been at the heart of unearthing some major wine stories (Rudy, Premier Cru, Maison Ilan). A definite edge to it at times, and that can occasionally boil over from feisty to something worse, but it has a reputation that inaccurately focuses on the train wrecks and not the other 99% of threads. There is much more considered thought than it is given credit for. Also strong away from wine (beer, travel,etc.).

SlowEurope (Travel forum). Re-born after the original SlowTrav website was bought out, left to rot and then closed. A focus on ‘Slow’ travel, the opposite of those glossy brochures that claim you can ‘see Italy’ in a week. Not everyone travels ‘slow’, and a credit to the forumites that those seeking whistlestop tours are given helpful advice. A very friendly site with active moderation. Much more clued-up posters than (say) Trip Advisor, but way less traffic than it. Go here first, but then if you can’t find anything, try Trip Advisor. Italy a particular focus, but UK, France and the rest of Europe also get a good look-in. The best site I’m aware of for asking ‘I think I want to go to X, but need help in working out exactly where to go’.

Other sites
Wine Pages. Again very friendly and actively moderated. Broad cross-section of interests, maybe not quite as old-school as it was, but still a major part. Active London-based offline sub-forum, and have been welcoming to visitors from outside the UK / the forum.

Wine Lovers Discussion Forum. One of the oldest online wine forums. Very friendly and with food an active part of the discussion. Much less posting than here, though some familiar names post across the two sites. Also hosts an Israeli wine forum, which was set up by (Daniel) Rogov. Despite having no experience of Israeli wines, I used to enjoy posting there when he was still alive, as for me he was as good as anyone at the (very difficult) art of moderation, using discussion to defuse and offer alternative opinions without ever resorting to criticism or trenchant rhetoric. That sub-forum still persists, but I believe it’s now more about the wines than the wider ranging topics that would get mulled over.

Thanks, Ian!

Thanks Ian, will have a look at those others, especially Slow Europe, sounds up my alley…

I read and post on this, Wine Spectator, and CellarTracker forums with some regularity. Here’s my take:

WineBerserkers: by far the deepest knowledge base. A true wine geek’s treasure.
Wine Spectator: good knowledge/experience, some funny trolls, enjoyable read.
CellarTracker: the friendliest board of the three, IMO. Lots of PacNW knowledge, not terribly active. I really enjoy it.

Vinous is very good. Heavy leaning towards Italian wine of course

WB would be my third favourite wine board, which I joined in 2014 because I was looking to participate more actively in wine-related discussions. It has more traffic than the other two sites I regularly visit, with lots of interesting insights, informed opinions and technical expertise. There is an insider-outsider issue, and I would not think of initiating a thread here, but there are usually plenty of interesting discussions in which to participate. The board seems to have its fair share of alpha males who like to beat their chests. It can get nasty, which is fascinating but sometimes equally disturbing to observe, and there is still a fair bit of fatuous boys own stuff too. I think that is why these sites are so male dominated. A lot of women get turned off by all the willy waving. But there always seems to be something interesting going on here, when other sites can go into a dormant phase. Overall I would give WB 92 points.

Winepages would be my second favourite site. It is moderated by Tom Cannavan from Glasgow, and is very UK-centric. Within the UK the centre of gravity on WP is in London where we do a lot of offlines, which people travel many miles from other parts of the country to attend, or even from continental Europe. Perhaps the pinnacle is the monthly themed ‘wimps’ lunches, but there are usually plenty of evening events to attend if you live in the capital. While ostensibly very welcoming to newbies there is still a certain cliquey-ness on WP. The new system of ‘likes’ reinforces confirmation bias and group think. There are proportionately even fewer women on WP than WB, even though willy waving is often frowned on, a source of serial navel gazing. Until recently the WP fish wives patrolled the site ruthlessly to close down any political discussion. To his eternal credit Tom set up a separate politics forum after the Brexit vote on which we have a lively and generally civil set of discussions. In the UK Brexit is the defining issue of our time and it is too important not to discuss among friends.There are often lots of good technical and arcane wine and food-related discussions on WP and there is an enormous wealth of knowledge on the forum; but occasionally there is remarkably little of substance being discussed or a dearth of tasting notes. Having been a member since 2006 you feel a sense of community on WP and I have made many good friends on the forum. It is remarkably, perhaps even dangerously, addictive, which must be testament to its overall appeal. When Tom introduced the political forum I bumped up my rating from 93 to 95 points.

The best wine forum in the world is Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts. The lion’s share of members are located on the east coast. I joined in 2001 a year after the site was launched by Jim How. Whereas WP are friends and community BWE are family. BWErs’ camaraderie and generosity knows no bounds, as we saw at the recent annual convention in Washington DC. The BWE 2015 Bordeaux Tour was the absolute pinnacle. As the name implies BWE is Bordeaux-centric, but we also branch out into other interesting and useful discussions on other regions and other subjects. We have a long running political thread with no hand wringing as to whether it should be allowed. We just say it how we see it, and it is utterly civil and grown up. BWE is a much smaller site than WB and WP and at times it can go quiet, but I think we have now reached escape velocity. BWE has never been stronger. 98 points.

How very interesting - thanks to all - some boards/sites I had never even heard of.

TWA/MS: yes, this is as dead as the dodo. It’s a shame because it used to be excellent.

Vinous: I’ve only been there a short time - I followed Neal Martin - but I like it a lot. There are one or two willy-wavers who seem to move from board to board, posting the same look-at-me drivel, but generally speaking posters are polite and well-informed. Interaction with pro-tasters is the norm, which is also great. The reports are numerous and frequent - they don’t follow a monthly pattern like TWA and they’re high quality. As a paying site for wine reports with a decent BB, you probably can’t do better today, so I recommend it. The only weakness is the Loire coverage, like anywhere else.

WB: Very wide range of topics, certainly the broadest I’ve encountered and the only BB where the Loire is so prominent. Very knowledgeable participants who, if you ask them nicely, are more than happy to share their experiences. Sometimes a little heated but generally good fun. The only downside is that even for the initiated, WB can be a little daunting.

The best wine forum in the world is Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts. The lion’s share of members are located on the east coast. I joined in 2001 a year after the site was launched by Jim How. Whereas WP are friends and community BWE are family. BWErs’ camaraderie and generosity knows no bounds, as we saw at the recent annual convention in Washington DC. The BWE 2015 Bordeaux Tour was the absolute pinnacle. As the name implies BWE is Bordeaux-centric, but we also branch out into other interesting and useful discussions on other regions and other subjects. We have a long running political thread with no hand wringing as to whether it should be allowed. We just say it how we see it, and it is utterly civil and grown up. BWE is a much smaller site than WB and WP and at times it can go quiet, but I think we have now reached escape velocity. BWE has never been stronger. 98 points.[/quote]

Gotta agree, BWE is very informative, fun with unrestricted dialogue while maintaining civility.

Gotta agree, BWE is very informative, fun with unrestricted dialogue while maintaining civility.[/quote]

Really nice people on BWE. A wealth of Bordeaux knowledge. Probably the most civilized, friendly board.

For me, it comes down to a question of time, community and breadth. This forum takes the cake.

+1.

With the qualification that I’m a lurker there (here to) I’ve learned a ton about AFWE wines and enjoyed some great creative writing at Wine Disorder. Be prepared for an even more insular and self-referential community than here but the expertise and distinct voices are worth it.
It’s a bit quiet and more subdued of late-you may even miss the traditional welcome should you join in.

Ditto re Wine Disorder. And don’t worry,Kevin, I will give Karl the official WD welcome should he be brave enough to post.

Disorder is what happens when ex-WLDGers are committed to the Asylum, ultimately released into Therapy on their own recognizance, and suddenly find their canine leader/mascot has flown the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Along the way you find lifelong friends, comprehensive wine knowledge, residents and ex-residents of Hiatus, grammatical tyranny and ridicule, a little monkey, and on lucky days Florida Jim, Steve Edmunds, and my irascible buddy and NY area wine note mantle holder and maven Jeff Grossman.

This is the best wine board to discuss cycling.

I imagine it also must have the most sophisticated emojis.

I only participate here and on BWE, and for those who are interested in the BDX region, would recommend BWE as a site to check out. It’s a good place for discussing both kinds of wines - Medocs and Libournaise

Hear, Hear!