No. 02 — Sources

Every fact, back to a public URL.

CellarIQ is built on public data, ingested at known intervals, attributed to its source on the page where it appears. Below is the full list of where the information on this site comes from — what we take, how often we check, and what we deliberately leave out.

Primary sources

The winery's own website

What we take: Hours, varietals, experiences, food offering, contact details, booking policy, dog and family policy, accessibility statements, awards or ratings the winery itself displays, and photography (only for wineries on a paid subscription that has uploaded assets).

Refresh: Monthly re-scrape; structural changes are flagged for review.

Why we trust it: The winery is the canonical source for its own operating details. Where the winery's site conflicts with a third party, the winery wins.

Wine Australia GI register

What we take: Whether a wine labelled "Hunter Valley" can verifiably claim Hunter Valley GI status, and region and sub-region taxonomy.

Refresh: Quarterly.

External link: wineaustralia.com

Google Maps Places API

What we take: Latitude and longitude, opening hours, public photos (for free profiles), and aggregate review count and average rating.

Refresh: Weekly.

Why we use the aggregate, not individual reviews: Individual review text remains on Google's surface. We surface the aggregate signal — sentiment trend, rating distribution — and link out to the source for the visitor who wants to read individual reviews.

Award and competition sources

All show results below are public. We ingest only the published winner and medal data, attributed to the show and year on the page where the award appears.

Sydney Royal Wine Show — annual, conducted by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW. Considered the flagship Australian show. Royal Agricultural Society Sydney

Hunter Valley Wine Show — annual, the region's own show. Weighted heavily in the Wine Quality Score for Hunter wineries because the show's judges specialise in Hunter styles.

Royal Adelaide Wine Show — annual, conducted by the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia.

Royal Melbourne Wine Awards — annual, conducted by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria.

National Wine Show of Australia — annual, Canberra. Considered the most rigorous Australian wine show by trade.

Royal Queensland Wine Show — annual, Brisbane.

International shows — Decanter World Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge, ingested where Australian wineries are entered and recognised.

Tourism and review sources

Hunter Valley Wine & Tourism Association directory

What we take: Winery membership listing, sub-region attribution, public contact details.

Refresh: Monthly.

External link: winecountry.com.au

TripAdvisor public listings

What we take: Aggregate rating and review count only. Used as one signal among many in the Cellar Door Experience Score.

Vivino public ratings

What we take: Aggregate wine ratings where the wine has sufficient public review volume to be statistically meaningful. Used as a secondary signal in the Wine Quality Score.

What we deliberately do not use

Paywalled critic content. We do not scrape Halliday Wine Companion paywalled content, paid critic platforms, or subscription-only databases. Where a winery itself publishes critic ratings on its own website, we count them — the winery's display of a third-party rating is treated as the winery's own published claim.

Member-only forums. Private wine forums, paid trade networks, and member-only review platforms are outside our source set.

User-submitted content without verification. We do not yet accept open user submissions for winery facts or scores. If you want to contribute information, contact us. All submissions are verified against a second source before being incorporated.

Anything behind a login wall. If reaching the data requires authenticating as a logged-in user of a third-party service, we do not ingest it. Public means public.

How sources are attributed

Every claim on a winery profile that came from an external source carries a citation footnote at the bottom of the section where the claim appears. Every score component links to its source. Every award lists the show, year, medal, and category, with a link to the show's public results page where available.

If a source URL goes dead, the affected claim is flagged within seven days and marked Source unavailable — under review until a replacement is found or the claim is removed.

Reporting a source problem

If a source link is broken, a claim looks wrong, or you believe we've ingested something we shouldn't have, write to sources@cellariq.com.au. We acknowledge within one business day and resolve within 48 hours of verification.

Source-verified · Last reviewed November 2026. See also the methodology, the corrections log, and our editorial standards.