History of 1000 Corks
I first really got into wine about ten years ago. It was a great time to do so. The dollar was strong back then; oil was inexpensive too. That meant I could afford to pick up great wines at my local wine store almost every night.
Of course, over the last few years things have changed. The dollar has fallen, and most other currencies have risen. Oil is expensive, which means it costs more to ship wine around the world. And, every time there's another article in the paper about the health benefits of wine, demand goes up. In other words, wine is no longer cheap.
So I started buying wines online. But that meant a lot of comparison shopping. Eventually it became painful, switching from one company's website to another.
Luckily, having run one of the largest Linux server companies, I had some experience in building out distributed computer clusters: so I started writing a program that would visit my favorite wine stores and check the prices of my favorite wines.
As I found new wine stores and new wines I liked, I added them to the program. Eventually I became tired of adding wines by hand, and I had some new ideas about search algorithms. So I rewrote the program to record all of the wines each company offered.
These days I spend a lot of time doing Python and search consulting for other people. But it's nice to have 1000 Corks as somewhere I can try out new ideas.
Go ahead and give it a try. If it helps you find a good wine at a good price, I'll be happy.
-Sam Ockman