Re: Ensh*ttification of the Wine Industry - A Technologist's Perspective

An article about wine industry "ensh█ttification" showed up in my feed and struck a chord. The diagnosis is mostly spot-on (read: there's a problem), but there's one critical word that doesn't pop up in the analysis: Transparency.

(For those unfamiliar with the term, "ensh█ttification" was coined by Cory Doctorow, EFF Special Advisor and digital rights advocate, to describe how platforms systematically degrade user experience to extract maximum value. The irony of the term diffusing into a wine-related article is not lost on me.)

As an award-winning Computer Science researcher, I've seen how open source software and data transparency revolutionized tech. As a Certified Sommelier I can conduct *Proper* Champagne service and glean wine lists and fact sheets for fun. So I'll tell you why this industry is failing wine consumers: information asymmetry by design.

Data Transparency Changes Everything

Every problem Tincknell identifies (premiumization, restaurant gouging, consolidation effects, score bias) exists because consumers can't see the data. The wine industry has built elaborate structures to keep pricing opaque, and there are limits to what we can ascribe to accident versus deliberate dark patterns. It's killing wine discovery and consumer value.

Want to know what enrages engaged wine consumers even more than premiumization on r/wine? Restaurants' prices for wines on their wine menus and by-the-glass lists. [...] There’s only so much that people can eat, and therefore spend on food, but the limits are off when it comes to wine [...] Restaurant wine pricing is simply obscene [...]

When that "$50 Napa Cabernet became $120 seemingly overnight" consumers had no way to track this change or understand why. When restaurants charge $85 for a $22 bottle, diners can't easily verify the markup. When distributors consolidate, small wineries lose market access because pricing becomes even more opaque.

There's a palpable disconnect when wine quality keeps improving while consumer value declines. Without transparent data, the industry defaults to extraction over service.

The tech world learned this lesson decades ago: information asymmetries eventually collapse under the weight of connected consumers and digital tools.

Every Industry Gets Its Transparency Moment

Real estate had Zillow. Cars had Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds. Hotels had TripAdvisor and booking sites. Stock trading had online brokerages that demolished commission structures.

Wine's reckoning is overdue.

In tech, we call it "open source." In wine, we should call it what it is: Basic consumer respect.

The $100 Wine List Challenge

I created a challenge: $100 for any restaurant with a 6+ page wine list that doesn't have pricing errors, typos, inconsistencies, or basic factual mistakes. I haven't paid out once. The industry cares so little about accuracy that they can't even get their own data right, yet they expect consumers to trust their pricing.

Sloppiness has turned into systematic negligence enabled by the assumption that consumers will never check.

What Real Transparency Looks Like

We're building tools to show exactly what transparent wine pricing should look like. Imagine a wine ecosystem where:

• Restaurants compete on curation and service. Not information hiding.
• Pricing reflects actual costs and reasonable margins, not "what we can get away with"
• Consumers build loyalty based on proven value, not blind trust
• Small producers can reach customers through merit, not just marketing budgets

What does the solution look like? It's a data stream. Continuous and real-time wine list publishing with radical transparency. Breakdowns of provenance and costs. Directly accessible for open evaluation and embedded information that demonstrates commitment to consumer value.

For Honest Restaurants, Transparency Is Opportunity

Tincknell hints at the price and influencer moderation as reversal strategies. Let me be more specific: Transparency represents an opportunity for honest restaurants.

Establishments exist that deliver real value and they can prove it. These are far and in between. One interesting example: most restaurants work with a markup multiplier: 1.5x, 2x, 3x, so on. Uniquely, as far as I know, Bob Bob Ricard added the idea of a constant markup:

Over a decade ago [we introduced] a £75 markup on any bottle, no matter the price – a bold approach that redefined fine wine pricing. While that original cap has since evolved, our commitment to exceptional value remains.

Say what you will about amounts and workability, but the principle sticks: Show consumers exactly how they price wine, why they choose specific bottles, and how their markups compare to competitors.

Consumer loyalty follows transparency.

Restaurants that resist transparency are showing their hand. They're the ones extracting maximum value without delivering it. They should be worried.

Data Beats Marketing Every Time

Tincknell suggests the industry needs better marketing, new platforms, longer-form content. I disagree. The industry needs data.

You can't solve premiumization with "appropriate pricing and benchmarking" without price transparency. Where's the impetus for change? You can't fix tasting room gouging without transparent fee structures. You can't help small wineries find distributors without transparent placement data.

Every solution proposed requires the one thing the industry refuses to provide: Transparent data.

And not the data privy to industry insiders or three-tier. Accessible, value-informed, consumer-oriented data.

The GPL Parallel: When Transparency Disrupted Software

The wine industry's resistance to transparency mirrors what the software industry faced in the 1980s and 1990s. Before the GPL and open source movement, software companies operated on the same principle as today's wine industry: Maximum information opacity to extract maximum value.

Proprietary software vendors charged thousands for products with hidden source code, unknown development costs, and locked-in customers who couldn't see how anything worked.

That sounds familiar. Same playbook as restaurants with wine lists and distributors with portfolio pricing.

Today open source runs the internet: web servers, operating systems, development frameworks. Companies that embraced transparency thrived (Red Hat, Google, even Microsoft eventually). Those that fought it became footnotes in tech history.

When your source code is visible, your development costs become calculable. When competitors can copy your product ("fork", for the techies), your pricing must reflect actual value, not extractive tactics.

The good path of wine's future is one where transparent pricing forces transparent value.

Restaurants charging 4x markup will either have to justify it with exceptional service or lose customers to establishments with honest pricing. The distributors hiding costs will lose suppliers to transparent alternatives.

GPL isn't end-all be-all but it forced business model and licensing transparency. It proved that forced transparency leads to competition based on merit instead of information asymmetry. Wine needs its GPL moment.

What's Brewing is Already Here

I don't believe "price-insensitive customers" is a segment. Every wine drinker is price-sensitive because everyone hates feeling ripped off. When information asymmetries (invariably) collapse, the businesses built on transparency will capture market share from those built on opacity. Smart restaurants, distributors, and wine professionals understand this and will be the ones using transparent pricing data to pursue consumer trust and prove their value.

The rest are still playing the old extraction game, not realizing the rules are changing. Starting with wine lists. Transparency isn't in the far off horizon. The tech is already here. The only question is whether you're part of the solution or part of the problem.

Vantage: Wine List Data Platform

The transparency tools referenced in this article. See comparative pricing across markets and help build the transparent wine ecosystem. Built for industry professionals ready to be part of the solution.

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Disclaimer: This article was handwritten, not AI-generated. Just like I don't like poorly priced wines, I don't like AI writing slop online. Difficult problems deserve real and informed human takes.