At Verticomm Network (Uvinum / Sportivic) we create international marketplaces with social recommendations, with a democratizing focus which aims to integrate the biggest international catalog of products in the world. Hence some of the profiles we now need are on the Contents area (still looking for a “web content editor (French / Italian)”). We are 13 people in Barcelona, we have a huge catalog (over 300,000 wines at Uvinum, for example), and we enjoy doing what we like and learning new things every day.

We are looking for a person to join our content team (international). If you work for a while on on line contents, you have very good English and German (preferably native), you are interested in the e-commerce world, and want to develop your professional career in a place where it is believed that work is a passion... this is your place. The job: Web Content Editor.

Send us an email explaining what you did and what you feel capable of doing at Verticomm Network. Send the message with your resume (the samples of your work will be assessed).

Responsibilities:

• Edit your own content and the content generated by teams of freelance editors (by language: English and German).
• Translate content and manage teams of freelance translators (by language: English and German).
• Generate periodic reports on the status of the content and the catalog of the different Uvinum sites (by country) and in the future from other English and German versions of the verticals inter-nations (Sportivic...).
• Help us targeting our content to English (UK / U.S.) and German (DE) markets.
• Find new content sources and coordinate the updating of our catalog and its quality (product listings).
• Search keywords and SEO of international content (internal training provided).
• Stay current and updated on trends, developments and news from the e-commerce world.

Minimum requirements:

• Essential high level of English and German (other languages will be valued, but mostly German).
• To have managed external content teams will be valued.
• Experience with on line content tasks.
• Ability to identify opportunities (business vision).
• Good skills in data analysis and reporting.
• Impeccable writing. Excellent written communication skills (examples of previous texts).
• Ability for teamwork.
• Organized person, very focused on detail
• Ability to work under pressure and with multiple simultaneous tasks with high priority. 
• Orientation to goals.
• Good time management skills.

Desired requirements:

• Active person in the web 2.0 (social profiles).
• Good communication skills.
• Knowledge of web metrics and analytics.
• Knowledge of Excel
• Experience using search and keyword analysis tools. Proactivity

Contract:

Permanent contract, with 6 months trial period.
Availability: Full time
Working hours: Mo-Th 9 am to 6:30 pm, Fr 9 am to 3 pm

Labor benefits:

• Percentage according to goals
• Organizational and hour flexibility

Note: applications that do not meet all minimum requirements will not be taken into consideration.

Send cover letter + resume + portfolio (if available) to: jobs@uvinum.com

Buy wine online is something that still surprises many consumers. Quite a few people I know -wine lovers and regular buyers in wine stores and supermarkets- say they haven't ever bought wine online. In our everyday work at Uvinum is to disclose our experience and preach about the advantages of the Internet over more traditional channels.

Buy wine online is now a reality. In the U.S., it represents already more than 8% of the B2C market, which equates to more than 2,000 million dollars. In Europe, online wine sales are growing year by year more than 10%, even if it is true that in Spain, consumers have failed to see (and companies might not have known how to educate well the user) the advantages and convenience of shopping on the Internet.

The most emblematic and known French spirits include armagnac and cognac, being the armagnac the oldest wine spirit in France.

There are 5 geographical sub-appellations for this drink:

• Armagnac
• Bas-Armagnac
• Haut-Armagnac
• Armagnac-Ténarèze
• Blanche Armagnac

Armagnac products are governed by continuous distillation combined with distillation in alembic. The lower toxicity of this type of liquor has led to greater consumption in France in relation to cognac.

Paprika, pimenton or sweet chili is a condiment powder red-colored and sweet flavor, obtained from the drying and subsequent grinding of different varieties of red pepper.

The red paprika is one of the fundamental ingredients of gourmet food in Spain, used in dishes such as Rioja style potatoes, Galician style octopus and chorizo, but is also used in other cuisines such as Hungarian. Some of the major paprika exporting countries are India and China, who distribute it worldwide.

From the beginning we have been obsessed in Uvinum in order to provide our customers the best shopping experience possible. For us that means providing a safe, consistent, quick and easy process. With the new feature we're launching today, we are definitely walkin' in this direction, eliminating one of the main barriers that our customers had have until now: today it's possible to purchase products from several stores in a single order.

The marketplace model offers many advantages when buying a product. For example, you can compare prices from multiple stores or find unusual products, all in one place.

However, sometimes it can lead to problems.

Many marketplaces choose the traditional affiliates model: once the customer has chosen the product to buy, the marketplace redirects him to the affiliate store to perform the checkout process there. This is the easiest option, from a trading point of view -no need to be very picky about the quality of catalog information, duplication or inconsistencies-, but possibly that's the most complex from the buyer point of view. Even if you do the searching process, comparison and selection in the marketplace, the experience is not consistent and it crushes at the most critical moment: the purchase decision. This point was the first we decided to improve: from December 2010 we have our own sales platform, so you don't need to leave Uvinum to buy the products you have selected. We got a consistent shopping experience.

We’re in 2011!

From Uvinum we want to wish you a very Happy New Year. This 2011 will bring many new wines and lots of moments of happiness for everyone!

It is time for new purposes for 2011 and to forget all these problems we’ve had along this year that have just ended. And for a good start, we will offer you some tips for buying wine, if you have not try yet, we can help you to enjoy better the new life that awaits for you on 2011:

Having usually been allowed to bring a special bottle of wine if I so chose to a nice restaurant as long as I was willing to pay a corkage fee, it was not until recently that it occurred to me that this could be considered a privilege and not a right. It was not actually until my first day at Uvinum that I learned that this was not a common practice in Spain, and since then I have noticed the online wine world has been commenting on a new BYOB (bottle in this case, not beer) club in London. Started by Christopher and Khadine Johnson-Rose, the idea is to pay an annual fee in exchange for permission to bring a bottle from your own collection to the restaurants on the list, most fine dining, and some of them among the big names in London's restaurant scene such as Tom Aikens and The Ledbury, both which have Michelin stars. Restaurants can still place restrictions, such as limiting it to lunch or certain days of the week, however, or charge small additional fees. 

It's a tricky one for restaurants as they make a substantial margin on wine sold in house, though they tend to cite service as the reason behind the big markups. It is true that a nice restaurant with a sommelier needs to pay that salary, but it is not the same rationale that can be claimed for food. There is no transformation with the product in question as there is with food in the kitchen; the server or sommelier, other than helping a guest select a wine, just needs to open and pour the bottle. This is still very important, but it is likely something that can be covered in a corkage charge. 

I have to admit I am biased coming from a place where this is not unusual, particularly in my hometown of San Francisco. Yet we also normally have a few unofficial rules:

• Bring a special bottle (not a cheap one).
• Never bring something that is on the restaurant's wine list.
• It is always nice to also buy a glass to start with from the restaurant, or another bottle depending on the size of the group. 

Despite the fact that bringing a bottle is frequently permitted in the US, the majority of customers chose not to. After all, selecting a wine is often one of the best parts of eating out. So I don't think restaurants in other countries have much to fear. It simply allows their guests additional options. And for some diners, there can certainly be financial incentives to bring a bottle- they can often drink a nicer bottle than if they had to order one. Which means for the restaurant, they have more money to spend on food, or justify a dinner out. In this economy, I think that's a win-win for both sides. 

Uvinum  just closed an investment round of € 300,000 thanks to important business angels. This investment will allow Uvinum to continue its plans for growth both in Spain and abroad in the major markets in the world of wine.

The investors include Luis Martin Cabiedes (Business Angel), Jaime Jimenez (VP Marketing & Sales of Softonic), Grupo Intercom, Tomás Diago (Founder and President of Softonic), Jaume Lladó Gomà (investor) or Jaume Gomà Llairó (Director of SegundaMano and investor). These are all business angels and prestigious professionals from the online world that will contribute their knowledge and experience to the company.

According to Nico Bour, cofounder of Uvinum:

"We are very satisfied that investors of this caliber have demonstrated their faith in our project.  Their input at all levels will be essential to continue with Uvinum’s plans for growth and to position ourselves as a worldwide reference in the wine sector network. Our aim is to be known as an innovative global project, with a clear social and transactional character in wine ecommerce.

And it is a clear sign of confidence that, despite being in very complicated global economic situation, many projects with strong potential like Uvinum continue to grow, as they seek market leadership on a global scale."

Nico Bour, Albert García & Albert López launched Uvinum on December 15, 2009 in Spain , followed by their first movements into international markets with entries into United Kingdom and The United States  in the following March.

Uvinum is an international site for wine recommendations. It allows each wine lover to discover a unique catalogue of still and sparkling wine, to receive personalized recommendations, and buy more than 10,000 different wines at the best price, making it the number 1 wine catalogue in Spain.

To contact Uvinum, you can send an email to press@uvinum.com or call +34 636590971 (Nico Bour).

The introduction at Marks & Spencer of Le Froglet's Wine-in-a-glass, an individual serving of either Chardonnay, Rosé, or Shiraz in a covered plastic glass has spurred a great deal of online discussion. Part of the story is the owner of the idea, Mr. James Nash, had his vision unkindly shot down by the BBC's Dragon's Den panel, who have been evidentially been proven wrong as Marks & Spencer reportedly cannot keep the glasses in stock.

However, some commenters have decried the environmental impact of the single use glasses, which is valid, but why should wine not be permitted in single use containers when so many other beverages are? (Target in the US offers more environmentally friendly single use wine tetrapacks, kind of like grown up juice boxes, but that concept hasn't taken off yet.) And some seem offended by the very idea, that it's déclassé and  "unromantic".

Wine has survived the introduction of wine cooler and white zinfandel, so I doubt it will suffer at the hand of a plastic glass. If anything, it's one more way for wine lovers to enjoy the product- and what's wrong with that? 

France has been slipping for a while from it's lofty seat at the top of the wine world  due to increased competition across the globe but also internal problems such as inconsistent quality standards, lack of government support, and the recent move among younger generations away from wine to beer and spirits. Yet the country's wine reputation still stems from having some of the world's top vineyards and producers. When you mention France many consumers continue to  conjure up images of first growth Bordeaux, rare Burgundies, and grand Champagne houses. But even this illustrious reputation is now being threatened it seems, for as The Independent recently reported, a senior French wine official has declared that French wine will become "like Coca Cola".

It is a disturbing thought, but some believe it's France's best option to compete, saying the top and upper middle tiered producers can remain unchanged but the lower tiers will benefit from being consolidated to create more uniform wines of dependable quality that will challenge Australian and other New World wines on the cheap and cheerful shelves of your supermarket. 

Is this a win for value seeking consumers disappointed by uneven quality or a tragic loss for the beloved and very French idea of terroir?