When a bottle isn't in Curate yet, you define it — once, for everyone. A wine's definition starts with a handful of identity fields, goes as deep as you care to take it, and joins the shared library where every member's notes can find it.
The Identity Fields
Seven fields establish what the wine is:
Brand — the winery on the label, with Producer and Vineyard available as refinements where the distinction matters.
Designation — the label or cuvée name that sets this bottling apart.
Style / Varietal — what kind of wine it is. Styles carry their wine type (red, white, rosé, sparkling, fortified), which shapes the rest of the experience, from color palettes in the builder onward.
Region — with autocomplete that shows each candidate's country and hierarchy. Style and region assist each other: choosing a style can narrow or prefill the region, since much of the wine world ties the two together.
Vintage — the year, or non-vintage where that's the truth of it.
That's a complete definition. Everything further is optional depth.
Two Ways In
From the wines page — the full wine form, with everything below available.
From inside a note — the builder's Wine Details takes the same identity fields without leaving your tasting. Define the wine in a few fields, finish your note, and both arrive together. See How the Tasting Note Builder Works.
Going Deeper
Beyond identity, the wine form carries optional groups for the members who relish them: photos (the bottle shot that anchors the wine's page), variety composition, barrel aging, beverage attributes, bottle characteristics, terroir, production, scores, and notes at the wine level. None are required; each makes the wine's page more useful to the next person who finds it. A guided tour of the form walks every group for members who want the orientation.
Stewardship of Shared Data
Because wines are shared in Curate, definitions are treated as common ground. New wines added on the fly may pass through a brief data-quality review before settling into the shared library — a light editorial pass in service of the member a year from now who searches for the same bottle and should find one clean entry, not three competing spellings. If a review touches something you added, it's stewardship, not judgment.
When the Wine Already Exists
Search first — the shared library is likely ahead of you, and a found wine is better than a duplicate one. See Finding Wines. If you find the wine but not your vintage, adding the vintage to the existing wine keeps its page whole.