Your wine box in Pass the Glass

Do you sell wine boxes to taste at home? Put a QR code on the card in the box. Your customer scans it in Pass the Glass and every wine is ready for the tasting, with its name, vintage, price and a photo of the label.

Joining is free and there's nothing to sign up for. All you need is a web page and a QR code. Works from version 1.5 of the app.

How it works for your customer

New tasting. Your customer opens Pass the Glass and taps Scan Wine Box under the wines.
Scan. The app reads the QR code on the card and fetches the box from your website.
Taste. The wines are ready and the tasting has your box's name. Add the tasters, and pass the phone around.

The results stay on your customer's phone. The app sends nothing back to you and nothing is tracked. Want to know which wine won? Ask on the card, for example by WhatsApp or email.

Join in five steps

Put the label photos online. On your own website, on a hidden page, or in a public Dropbox folder. For each photo, copy the address of the image itself (right-click › Copy Image Address), not the address of the page. Photos are optional.
Write the box. Copy the example and fill in your own wines. One line per detail, like vintage: 2021. For each wine, paste the photo address after photo:.
Put the box online. There are three ways:
- as a text file (.txt) on your website;
- as text on a web page, for example a page that isn't in your menu. Each line has to stay on a line of its own;
- as a public Dropbox link to the text file.
The address has to start with https://.
Make a QR code of that address. Any free QR code maker will do. Put it on the card in the box, with a short explanation (see the tips).
Test it. Scan the QR code yourself in Pass the Glass: Tastings › New Tasting › Scan Wine Box. If you see your wines, it works.

After the cards are printed, you can still change the box, say to fix a typo or swap a wine. The QR code stays the same as long as the address doesn't change. Keep the page online while your customers are still tasting the box.

The format

A box is plain text. The first line is always passtheglass-box 1. Then come the details of the box, and then the wines. Each wine starts with wine:; every line below it belongs to that wine, up to the next wine:.

Key	In the app	What to fill in
The box (once, at the top)
`passtheglass-box 1`	Recognition	Required, as the first line.
`tasting`	Name of the tasting	Text, up to 60 characters. Exactly as you write it, for example `Club Box October`.
`shop`	Your name, after scanning	Text, up to 40 characters.
`currency`	Currency of the prices	`EUR`, `USD`, `GBP`… Without this line: euros.
A wine (as often as needed, up to 30 wines)
`wine`	Name of the wine	Required. Text, up to 80 characters. Without the vintage: that goes under `vintage`.
`vintage`	Vintage	A year, like `2021`.
`country`	Origin, with flag	Two-letter country code: `FR`, `IT`, `ES`, `PT`, `DE`, `AT`, `ZA`, `CL`, `AR`, `AU`, `NZ`, `US`…
`type`	Type	`white`, `red`, `rose` or `sparkling`.
`producer`	Producer	Text.
`grape`	Grape	Text; several grapes with commas.
`price`	Price per bottle	`12.95` or `12,95`, without a currency sign. With prices, the results show the Best Value.
`photo`	Photo of the label	Address of a jpg, png or heic, starting with `https://`. Up to 5 MB.
`notes`	Notes	One line of text, for example a food pairing.
`end`	End of the box	Optional. Useful on a web page: the app skips everything after it.

Good to know

Only passtheglass-box 1 and a wine: for each wine are needed. You can leave out every other line.
Lines starting with # are comments. Blank lines are fine anywhere.
If a value isn't right (vintage 3021, country Italy instead of IT), the app leaves that field empty. The wine is still added.
The keys are in English, so shops in every country use the same format. Upper or lower case doesn't matter.
Prices only come along when the phone uses the same currency. A customer whose phone uses dollars won't see prices from a box in euros.
Your customer chooses in the app whether to taste blind or not.

Example

A box with four wines. The first wine has every field; the others show that you can leave fields out. Copy the text below, or download the full example with real photo addresses.

passtheglass-box 1
tasting: Club Box October
shop: QURK Wijn
currency: EUR

wine: Chianti Superiore
vintage: 2021
country: IT
type: red
producer: Burchino
grape: Sangiovese
price: 12.95
photo: https://www.yourshop.com/photos/chianti.jpg
notes: Lovely with pasta or a piece of aged cheese.

wine: Vinho Verde
vintage: 2024
country: PT
type: white
producer: Quinta da Lixa
grape: Loureiro, Alvarinho
price: 8.50

wine: Côtes de Provence Rosé
vintage: 2024
country: FR
type: rose
producer: Domaine Houchart
price: 11.95

wine: Cava Brut Nature
country: ES
type: sparkling
grape: Macabeo, Xarel·lo, Parellada
price: 14.50
notes: No vintage, like most cava.

end

Try it yourself

Scan this QR code in Pass the Glass, under New Tasting › Scan Wine Box. You'll get the four wines from the example, with photos.

Tips for the card

Put a short explanation next to the QR code. For example:

Taste this box together with Pass the Glass. Open the app, tap New Tasting › Scan Wine Box and scan this code. Don't have the app yet? Search for "Pass the Glass" in the App Store.

If someone scans the code with the regular iPhone camera, the address opens in the browser. If you put the box on a web page, you can add a link to the app there too.

Questions?

Something not working, or missing a field? Email qurk.wijn@gmail.com.