Free / Storable Data owned corpus
| Source | Records | License | What it provides |
|---|
| TTB FOIA Wine Producer Permits | 18,063 | Public domain (FOIA) | US winery backbone: name, DBA, address, state, permit #. Updated weekly. |
| OpenStreetMap | ~25K–35K | ODbL | Global wineries: name, website, lat/lon, hours, phone. |
| Wikidata | ~8K–12K wineries + ~3K–5K appellations | CC0 | Cross-reference: names, coordinates, websites, countries, regions. |
| eAmbrosia (EU GIs) | ~1,700 | EU open data | EU appellation names + hierarchy + status. Not individual businesses. |
| EU PDO Geopackage | ~1,177 | EU open data | EU appellation boundary polygons. |
| UC Davis AVA Boundaries | 276 US AVAs | CC0 1.0 | All US AVA polygons, nested. Per-state files. |
| Natural Earth | — | Public domain | Base map: countries, states/provinces. |
Phase 1 (US only): ~12K–13K deduplicated records | Phase 2 (Global): ~37K–48K deduplicated records
Live Enrichment APIs fetch on demand
| Source | Free Tier | Paid Pricing | Storable? | Key Restrictions |
|---|
| Google Places (New) | $200/mo credit | Essentials $5/1K, Pro $17/1K, Enterprise $20/1K | Only place_id | Must display on Google Map. Cannot build competing directory. |
| Yelp Fusion | 5K calls (one-time) | $229/mo (5K), $299/mo (15K), $643/mo (50K) | IDs only; content 24h | Must display Yelp logo. Cannot blend ratings. |
| Mapbox GL JS | 50K loads/mo | $5/1K loads (50K–100K) | N/A (rendering) | Best free-tier map. Alt: Leaflet + OSM tiles (fully free). |
Paid-Gated Data do NOT purchase until approved
| Source | Cost | Coverage | What it Unlocks |
|---|
| Wine-Searcher API | ~$350/mo | 15M+ wines globally | Retail prices, critic scores, merchant links, vintage availability |
| Vinous API | $2,000/yr | Major wine reviews | Scores, tasting notes, vintage charts, vineyard maps |
| Liv-ex | ~£600/mo (~$760) | Fine wine trade | Multi-critic (RPWA, Vinous, Jancis Robinson, Wine Independent), transaction prices |
| Wine Spectator / SRN | Negotiation | 400K+ reviews | 100-pt scores, tasting notes, retailer inventory matching |
| CellarTracker | Negotiate (no public API) | ~10M+ notes | Community tasting notes, cellar data, community scores |
Annual Cost Projections
Phase 1 — US Launch (free data only)
| Item | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|
| TTB FOIA data | $0 | Public domain, bulk download |
| OSM + Wikidata ingest | $0 | CC0/ODbL, storable |
| AVA boundaries (UC Davis) | $0 | CC0, 42.7 MB GeoJSON |
| Leaflet + OSM tiles | $0 | Fully free map UI |
| Total | $0 | No API costs at launch |
Phase 1 — With Live Enrichment
| Item | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|
| Google Places | ~$0–50 | Covered by $200/mo free credit |
| Mapbox GL JS | ~$0 | Covered by 50K free loads |
| Yelp Fusion (Basic) | $229 | 5K calls/mo, 24h cache |
| Total | $229–279/mo | |
Phase 2 — Global + Premium Data
| Item | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|
| Wine-Searcher API | ~$350 | Retail pricing + critic scores |
| Liv-ex (multi-critic) | ~$760 | RPWA + Vinous + Jancis + trade data |
| Yelp Fusion (Professional) | $299 | 15K calls/mo |
| Google Places at scale | ~$200–500 | Depends on traffic |
| Mapbox GL JS at scale | ~$100–300 | Volume pricing |
| Total | $1,700–2,200/mo | |
Key Architecture Decisions
1. Owned review corpus is first-party only. Users review/photo/comment on winery.com. Third-party ratings (Yelp, Google) are separate, attributed, live modules — visually distinct from native ratings.
2. Geographic hierarchy: Country → Admin1 → Wine Region → Appellation → Sub-appellation. Stored as adjacency/closure table. Point-in-polygon matching at ingest.
3. Photo strategy: Wikimedia Commons (storable), Unsplash (storable), user uploads (via ToS). Google/Yelp photos: live-only with attribution. Fallback: vineyard placeholder.
4. All paid data shows as "available by API" with distinct placeholder caption. No purchases until approved.
Last updated: July 2025 | winery.com Research
