Port Wine Institute's Website

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:04 pm

I assume most of you have at one time or another, visited the Port and Douro Wine Institute's website: (in English) http://www.ivdp.pt/index.asp?idioma=1&

I have from time to time sent them some suggestions for improving the site for casual Port lovers who are not in the industry. Do you have any suggestions that you would like to have forwarded?

Frederick Blais · Post by **Frederick Blais** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:09 pm

Well one thing that comes straight to my mind is to write better French for the French part of the website. The translation is often really bad or full or errors. I assume they use web translation tools and not a real person translator.

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:29 am

I would like them to create a web service where you could type in the reference number from an IDVP label and it would tell you the Shipper and Vintage the number relates to. This would allow people to check the authenticity of older bottles.

Derek

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:11 am

I really wish they would finish the site. Many of the links (like the port legislation link and weather link) are still dead pages with the old "soon available." They have been like this for at least a year that I know of.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:06 pm

Very good suggestions thus far. I wish the government (agency) had more money at its disposal.

Do you think folks would be willing to pay a small fee say, 5-10 Euros to have their bottles authenticated based on the IVDP Seal number? I could propose this service to them ... if they thought there was any chance that the fees would cover the costs of having someone handle this for emails/calls from around the globe.

I will be happy to mention the French/English translations not really matching the language, but doubt that will change. Many of the IVDPs most important regulatory changes, never make it into other languages. For example, last year's major modification to the "Special Categories" nomenclature and definitions, was never put into other languages by the IVDP. Thanks to Mario, we broke the news to the world that does not speak Portuguese. In fact, there were a few folks up in the Douro who thanked me (us) for sharing the new regulations that they were not aware of.

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:01 pm

Roy Hersh wrote:
I will be happy to mention the French/English translations not really matching the language, but doubt that will change. Many of the IVDPs most important regulatory changes, never make it into other languages. For example, last year's major modification to the "Special Categories" nomenclature and definitions, was never put into other languages by the IVDP. Thanks to Mario, we broke the news to the world that does not speak Portuguese. In fact, there were a few folks up in the Douro who thanked me (us) for sharing the new regulations that they were not aware of.

In business this single thing can really put people off to your product. Port and douro reds are a world wide drink. By not translating into, at bare minimum English and French, you are really doing a dis-service to your consumers. The IVDP has a world wide audience and that fact alone should tell them something and should dictate HOW they do business. The cost to professionally translate a handfull of items a year is very small.

Roy and Mario, I applaud your efforts to help inform others by taking matters into your own hands. However, if the IVDP really wants to promote their wines they need to step forward, educate, and inform.

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:36 am

I would be happy to pay a small fee to have bottles authenticated but I'm not sure there is a big enough market to allow them to entirely cover the cost of this.

Having given this some more thought, if I were a fraudster with a supply of dark bottles, a printing machine, a corking machine and some lead capsules I would love to have an online service which allowed me to convince potential buyers that my produce was the real thing :?

Derek

Mario Ferreira · Post by **Mario Ferreira** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:19 pm

To the best of my knowledge, IVDP doesn't have a person working full-time on the website.
The Institute, which has a total of about 200 employees in 6 or 7 facilities, has a Computer Department to assist the needs of the daily network. I guess that the Computer Dept. is responsible also for the upgrades on the website, but since they are always quite busy, the website suffers from the lack of assistance !! ...
... well, this is just a personal opinion.

Frédérick Blais wrote:Well one thing that comes straight to my mind is to write better French for the French part of the website. The translation is often really bad or full or errors. [...].

I'm not taking any risk by saying that others & I share Fred's opinion on this.
There's no doubt that for several years now, the French part of the IVDP's website has been getting too little attention, which unfortunately is a shame.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:35 pm

I'm not taking any risk by saying that others & I share Fred's opinion on this. There's no doubt that for several years now, the French part of the IVDP's website has been getting too little attention, which unfortunately is a shame.

It's no more of a shame then the way the French abuse Port, drinking the cheapest plonk they can find and consuming it before dinner. How un-refined! :beat:

Of course, Canadian's that speak French, well, that is an entirely different story.

Steven Kooij · Post by **Steven Kooij** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:36 pm

I found the list of (web)addresses of all shippers and producers on the previous site quite useful - it was their when it was still "just" the IVP, but was not incorporated when they gave they site a new design (or at least I cannot find it).

Mario Ferreira · Post by **Mario Ferreira** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:49 pm

Steven Kooij wrote:I found the list of (web)addresses of all shippers and producers on the previous site quite useful - it was their when it was still "just" the IVP, but was not incorporated when they gave they site a new design (or at least I cannot find it).

Hi Steven,
I do share the same opinion.
When it was still "just" the IVP, I found those links very useful too.
After it changed to IVDP, I still used to access the former website, the IVP, that was still online but not available to the public, just to search for web-addresses of Port Producers.

Anyway, guess what?, the good news is now you may access the Port Producers websites right here at the For The Love Of Port website

URL: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/producers.htm
/MF/

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 3:32 pm

It's great that Roy's got the links right here. I went through all of them, some were much better then others. But at least I can easily find them now.