A while back I posted about Twitter, the micro-blogging service; and also posted about a (now defunct) way of turning Twitter into a group SMS chat which I knocked together over a weekend.

Twitter is a simple service that people are doing some really interesting things with.

I’ve used it to join a real-time chatroom while watching the TV show Dragon’s Den; some of the results show healthy if snide comments from others watching. Twitter used in this way allows sharing an experience with others in spite of geographical differences, or online ‘friends’ lists. It’s the equivalent of chatting with strangers while watching football, fireworks, or the Notting Hil Carnival.

On Thursday night, people used it across the globe for a slightly different thing – for a mass wine taste.

The guest of Robert McIntosh from the rather good wineconversation.com, we were lucky enough to try a number of different wines from Hugel & Fils. Robert has the details of the wines; and Annie Mole from Going Underground has also blogged about the event. There are even photographs, including a rare picture or two of yours truly drinking wine.

The wine was, for the most part, delicious (though I must confess, on my Twitter-notes for one of them, I wrote “run, run away!”). The accompanying food was excellent. The regret was having to run for the last train to take me back to civilisation (aka ‘North of the River’).

The theory (thwarted slightly by timezones) is that we all taste these wines on Twitter, sharing our tasting notes (surprisingly difficult to fill 140 characters, incidentally), and feeling part of a community. It’s a fascinating idea, and once more turns something from being a solitary or local experience into something which is an entirely global one. Even Mr Hugel from the winery was taking part (though I don’t think Mr Fils was available. That’s a joke.)

This was a bright plan. I feel the use of hashcodes would have helped (since that allows you to instantly search for them (that page also refreshes, which is nice). But it’s another bright way of using Twitter, and one I’ve not thought of.

I’m quite keen to look at a Twitter Live tasting for beer, incidentally. No idea where to start, but we can’t let the wine people have all the fun, now, can we? Ideas?

(By the way, if you’re a wine person, you might also like http://thirstforrioja.co.uk/.)

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