Umm…maybe it was “Unscrew Ontario”! Actually I looked at both names for my blog and app last fall when I decided to finally launch. I don’t want to start the argument that seems to come up in every forum, but we all know screw caps are the better closure (unless we’re talking about sparkling, and then crown caps rule!) and I think the majority of Ontario wines are going this way if they haven’t already. But the names sounded harsh, and I’ve always missed the romanticism of having the wine pulled for you in a restaurant. So Deb and I decided on “Uncork Ontario”.
I did a business name search for “Uncork Ontario” and nothing came up. I did “whois” searches and bought both UncorkOntario.com and UncorkOntario.ca. And then set off on my busy work for the next few months developing the blog and the app.
A couple weeks before my app launched (and just before TasteCamp), a marketing firm from Burlington calls me and is wondering what I am doing with my URL…talks about potentially being interested in working together, etc. In the discussion with my wife, they mention a site called UncorkedOntario.com that they have also been looking at. I return the marketing agency’s call but never hear from them again.
I look up UncorkedOntario.com. Turns out is is owned by Gary Killops who also runs EssexWineReview.com. I am a little concerned but it seems to be getting updated less frequently than my blog is now, so I don’t worry about it. I later meet Gary at Tastecamp north, and besides being one of the nicest people I met on that trip, he tells me that he doesn’t really use the site that much anymore and isn’t worried about any confusion.
So cut to this week and I find out that there is another URL, registered by same marketing agency in Burlington, called “Ontario Uncorked”. Apparently they are working with the Winery and Grower Alliance of Ontario to build a new website listing Ontario wineries. I’m not sure how this fits (or doesn’t) with what the Wine Country Ontario folks are doing, but the fact that they are also contacting wineries to be listed on Ontario Uncorked is surely to confuse many of them that have already contributed information to my Uncork Ontario app.
I mean one similar name was enough. I think I might just go see if (Un)ScrewOntario.com is still available… 🙂
The Winery and Grower Alliance of Ontario is the splinter group from the Ontario Wine Council. It’s made up of the bigs guys, mostly Vincor and Peller and formed when Ontario changed rules for blending in Ontario that made it less favourable for the blenders. They felt the rules were unfair to the blenders, and argue that more blended wines are produced in Ontario than VQA, and decided they needed a singular voice on the matter to deal with the Ontario government as their own entity. They are no longer a part of the wine council and do their own marketing.