Tastings.com Terms and Conditions of Use

This Tastings.com website is owned by Beverage Testing Institute, Inc. Use of this site signifies your agreement with the following Terms and Conditions of Use. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to modify these terms at any time and you agree to be bound by such modifications through your use of the site. Please exit this site immediately if you do not accept these terms, are not of legal age for consuming alcoholic beverages in the country or territory in which you are located, or are accessing our site in a country or territory where use of our site is not permitted.

Trademarks, Copyrights & Restrictions

Tastings.com, Tastings®, Beverage Testing Institute®, World Wine Championships®, World Beer Championships®, International Review of Spirits®, The Bitter Battle®, and The Slurp® are trademarks and service marks held by Beverage Testing Institute, Inc. All other marks indicated by ® registration marks are trademarks held by their respective owners.

All materials on this site, including, but not limited to articles, reviews, directories, guides, text, HTML, source and object code, trademarks, logos, images, illustrations, audio clips, and video clips are protected by copyrights which are owned or licensed by Tastings.com. You may not reproduce, perform, create derivative works from, republish, scrape, re-catalog, aggregate, crawl with the intent of copying, upload, post, transmit, or distribute in any way whatsoever any ratings, reviews, and materials from any web site owned or operated by Beverage Testing Institute without the prior written permission of Beverage Testing Institute. Any modification of the materials, or any portion thereof, or use of the materials for any other purpose constitutes an infringement of Tastings.com's copyrights and other proprietary rights. Use of these ratings, reviews, and materials on any other website or other networked computer environment is prohibited without prior written permission from Beverage Testing Institute.

The owners, managers, marketers, or developers of sites, apps, publications, software, audio, video, and computer environments that republish or use Tastings.com's ratings and reviews in an aggregated manner beyond the scope of a single quotation, without a license, are hereby notified that they are to immediately remove any Tastings.com's content from their sites, materials, and applications or face possible legal consequences.

Tastings.com's Ratings and Reviews Policy

Beverage Testing Institute is an independent, privately owned corporation that conducts professional, blind tastings and reviews of beverage products. We do not accept advertising or sponsorship from any producer or commercial entity. Participation in Tastings.com's open-forum tastings and competitions is completely voluntary. The producers, brand owners, or marketers of the relevant brands enter the products that we taste into our tastings. Each producer pays the same standardized, per-product registration fee to enter their products into these tasting sessions or competitions. The registration fees cover the cost of administering the tastings and overhead associated with the distribution of the tasting results through various media.

Tastings.com conducts monthly tasting sessions by product category according to an annual tasting schedule. Participants are entitled to use their individual product's tasting note and score for just their own brands for marketing purposes; comparisons with other products are prohibited unless licensed and approved.  Specifically, category-based claims of "highest rated", "top rated", "best" or any other self-prescribed award or designations not issued by Tastings.com are not allowed without a media license and Tastings.com's factual approval of materials using such language. All uses of Tastings/BTI's name and content in press releases or advertising must be reviewed and cleared by Tastings/BTI prior to dissemination.

Tastings.com's logos can also be licensed for the purpose of supplementing the promotion of an individual product's review. Use of unauthorized copies or approximations of Tastings.com's logos for any purpose is not allowed. All uses of Tastings.com's name and content in press releases must be reviewed and cleared by Beverage Testing Institute prior to dissemination. It is our policy to allow licensed, approved reprints of the total results of any specific, individual tasting session for advertising purposes for a specified period of time. Because subsequent or prior sessions may be conducted by different panels, feature different groupings of products, and the possibility of product recipe re-formulations, we do not allow compiled listings of products from different sessions for advertising purposes. Results of various tastings are published on Tastings.com in the format of a searchable, additive guide that is updated with the most current review for a given product, as we taste it.

Because of the all-to-common possibilities of product reformulations and production and ingredient changes, beer and spirits reviews are only published on Tastings.com for 3-4 years. We do this so that our readers have the most accurate and up-to-date information for their purchases. We contact beer and spirits brand owners prior to their de-listing to obtain a current sample for review, however sometimes they chose not to re-enter their brands for our review and publication. If you are searching for a particular brand that was reviewed on Tastings.com and is no longer listed, this is why. We encourage you to also reach out the brand owners and distributors through email or social media and let them know that you would like to see their brands reviewed on Tastings.com.

Since wines vary by vintage, wine reviews are actively published for 4 years, after which time they are moved to our wine review archive. For purposes of site organization and efficiency, sake and mead are grouped in our wine review program and wine search page and ciders are grouped in our beer review program and beer search page.

All products are tasted in flights by category, in random order. Samples are tasted blind, neat, and at room temperature (68°F) in Riedel stemware. No more than fifteen-to-thirty products are tasted in a two-to-three hour morning tasting session. Our tasting room has been designed to minimize outside factors and optimize the critical perception of our panelists through a combination of natural and synthetic lighting and a standardized color and descriptive template.

Tasting.com's Logo Licensing Terms

The basic license for a Tastings.com spirits logo is a POS, Packaging, Website and Social Media-only license that extends to use of Tastings logos for a licensee product in the following specific applications or areas:

a.    Licensee Product Packaging for the U.S. market of a single country market. An international option is also available.
b.    Licensee Product Point-of-Sale Materials for the U.S. or a single country market. An international option is also available.
c.    Licensee Producer and Brand Websites.
d.    Licensee Producer and Brand Social Media Pages and Accounts.
e.    Licensee Product "Sell Sheets", product catalogs and direct supplier-to-distributor communications.

The basic license does not extend to other uses of Tastings.com's logos such as print campaigns and advertising in consumer or trade-only publications, print or online advertisements or banner ads, and consumer press releases. The license does not extend to the use or mention of the complete or partial Tastings spirit category results in which a licensee brand participated, or any other year, or any reference, by name or in general, to other brands in relation to licensee's brand(s). Specifically, category-based claims of "highest rated", "top rated", "best" or any other self-prescribed award or designation not issued by Tastings.com are not allowed without a media license and Tastings.com's factual approval of materials using such language.

Use of unauthorized copies or approximations (including generic medallions) of Tastings/BTI's logos for any purpose is not allowed.

Acceptable Use

You may use our site only for lawful purposes and we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to terminate your use of the site. You may not use our site:

• In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
• In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
• For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
• To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any materials which do not comply with our content standards below.
• To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
• To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.
• To create a user name that impersonates someone else, is protected by trademark or other proprietary right, law or is otherwise vulgar or offensive.

Consumer User-Provided Information and Content

By providing information to, communicating with, and/or placing material on Tastings.com, including, for example, communication during user registration, communication on any Tastings.com forums, message, commenting, rating or chat area, posting any content, placing any classified advertisement, entering any contests, etc., as a consumer user of Tastings.com, you represent and warrant: (1) you own or otherwise have all necessary rights to the content you provide and the rights to use it as provided in this Terms and Conditions of Use; (2) all information you provide is true, accurate, current and complete, and does not violate these terms; and, (3) the content will not cause injury to any person or entity. Using a name other than your own legal name is prohibited (except in those specific areas of Tastings.com that specifically allow unique, fictitious names, e.g., certain forums, message boards and chat rooms).

For all such consumer user submitted, non-copyrighted and/or non-trademarked information and material, you grant Tastings.com, affiliates and related entities a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, modify, display, archive, store, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works from such information, in any form, media, software or technology of any kind now existing or developed in the future.

The above grant of rights to reproduce and create derivative works does not apply to Tastings.com trade users when participating in Tastings.com trade reviews and competitions.

Disclaimers

By using this site and/or posting materials, you agree to indemnify the company, its officers, directors, employees, agents, distributors and affiliates for any and all claims, damages, losses and causes of action arising out of your breach or alleged breach of this agreement.

Tastings shall be entitled to obtain an injunction, without bond, to preclude further breaches of the Terms and Conditions, and that Tastings Shall be entitled to recover its legal fees and costs of litigation in any such action.

The materials provided on this web site are for entertainment and promotional purposes only. Neither Tastings.com, nor its officers, directors, employees, agents, distributors or affiliates are responsible or liable for any loss damage (including, but not limited to, actual, consequential, or punitive), liability, claim, or other injury or cause related to or resulting from any information posted on Tastings.com's web site.

Posting Rules

Interactive areas, comments, ratings, forums, chat rooms, etc., are intended to foster spirited discussion and debate. Judgment and opinion are subjective things. We expect people to differ and we encourage freedom of speech and a healthy exchange of ideas. But by using these areas of Tastings.com, you are participating in a community that is intended for all our users. Therefore, we reserve the right to remove any content posted on our site at any time for any reason. Decisions as to whether content violates any Posting Rule will be made by Tastings.com at its discretion. Without limiting our right to remove content, we have attempted to provide guidelines to those posting content on our site. When using Tastings.com, please do not post material that:

a.    Contains vulgar, profane, abusive, racist or hateful language or expressions, epithets or slurs, text, photographs or illustrations in poor taste, inflammatory attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature.
b.    Is defamatory, libelous, obscene, pornographic, threatening, disparaging, grossly inflammatory, false, misleading, fraudulent, inaccurate, unfair, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violates the privacy rights of any third party, is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual or community, or otherwise illegal material.
c.    Violates or inappropriately encourages the violation of any municipal, state, federal or international law, rule, regulation or ordinance.
d.    Unfairly interferes with any third party's uninterrupted use of Tastings.com.
e.    Advertises, promotes or offers to trade any goods or services, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose.
f.    Uploads copyrighted or other proprietary material of any kind on Tastings.com without the express permission of the owner of that material.
g.    Uses or attempts to use another's account, password, service or system except as expressly permitted by the Terms and Conditions of Use.

Termination

Tastings.com may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the site. In the event this agreement is terminated, the restrictions regarding materials appearing on the site, and the representations and warranties, indemnities and limitations of liabilities set forth in this agreement shall survive any such termination.
Communications with Third Parties

Your dealings or communications through Tastings.com with any party other than Tastings.com are solely between you and that third party. For example, certain areas of Tastings.com may allow you to conduct transactions or purchase goods or services. In most cases, these transactions will be conducted by our third-party partners and vendors. Under no circumstances will Tastings.com be liable for any goods, services, resources or content available through such third party dealings or communications, or for any harm related thereto. Please review carefully that third party's policies and practices and make sure you are comfortable with them before you engage in any transaction. Complaints, concerns or questions relating to materials provided by third parties should be forwarded directly to the third party.

On occasion, a product or service may not be available at the time or the price as it appears in an advertisement or on our website. In such event, or in the event a product is listed at an incorrect price or with incorrect information due to typographical error, technology effort, error in the date or length of publication, or error in pricing or product information received from our advertisers or suppliers, you agree Tastings.com is not responsible for such errors or discrepancies.

During your visit to Tastings.com, you may link to, or view as part of a frame, certain content that is actually created or hosted by a third party. You may be introduced to, or be able access information, websites, advertisements, features, contests or sweepstakes offered by other parties. Tastings.com is not responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable terms of service and privacy policies of those third parties when providing information on such a feature or page.

Jurisdiction and Venue

This site is controlled and operated by The Beverage Testing Institute, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois USA. Tastings.com/Beverage Testing Institute does not represent or warrant that materials on the site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. If you choose to access this site from other locations, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with any and all local laws.

This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, as it is applied to agreements entered into and performed within that state. Any action brought to enforce the Terms and Conditions should be in Federal or state courts in Cook County Illinois. If any provision of this agreement is deemed void, unlawful or otherwise unenforceable for any reason, that provision shall be severed from this agreement and the remaining provisions of this agreement shall remain in force.

This contains the entire agreement between you and Tastings.com concerning your use of the site, and Beverage Testing Institute may modify the agreement at any time.