Liv-ex makes LWIN free ‘forever’

Liv-ex the Fine Wine Exchange has announced that its LWIN system has been given a Creative Commons licence and is now completely free.

The Liv-ex Wine Identification Number (LWIN) is a system crated by Liv-ex to standardise wine names and make trade more accurate and effective.

For example, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, la Romanée-Conti may be written as such on one list but elsewhere shortened to DRC, Romanée-Conti or any other combination. The LWIN system joins all of these together under the ID code – LWIN: 1028687.

The new licence gives companies the right to share, use and build upon the existing LWIN dictionary themselves – a dictionary that already contains IDs for 45,000 wines.

“We are delighted that LWIN is being widely adopted by the trade. In challenging times, LWIN offers opportunities to both streamline operations and grow sales. It has always been Liv-ex’s ambition to make the LWIN database free and universal. The new LWIN Creative Commons Licence commits this principle to law,” said James Miles, managing director, & co-founder of Liv-ex.

READ MORE: The case for efficiency