A place for curiosity, with care for the people who bring it.
Who we are
Talk to the Cork ~ Discovery, at talktothecork.com, is a growing collection of wine knowledge, stories, people, and places. Graham, the Keeper of the Cork, is your contact for questions about this website and your information: hello@TalktotheCork.com.
This notice describes browsing, contacting us, commenting where comments are available, and leaving a Corkprint. The Cork Report newsletter and Cork Dork membership are planned features; browsing or contacting us does not enroll you in either. We will explain any new uses of information before introducing them.
Your Corkprint and your privacy
A little of you helps this collection grow. Here is how we look after what you share.
When you contribute, we receive your name, email address, contribution, credit preferences, and permissions, along with any optional details you provide. We use these to review your contribution, check information, contact you about it, and prepare accepted material for publication.
Your email address is not published. We follow your agreed credit preferences and ask before making substantial changes to your story or using it beyond the permission you gave. Submitting a contribution does not subscribe you to a newsletter or create a membership.
Contributions are delivered to our dedicated Talk to the Cork inbox at hello@TalktotheCork.com, which the Keeper of the Cork uses as the working record. Our website and email hosting providers help process and store them. We use WPForms to handle submissions, including cloud entry backups retained for up to one year, and Google reCAPTCHA to help prevent spam. Spam protection may process technical information about your browser, device, and interaction with the form.
We keep submissions that are not accepted for up to 12 months after receipt. For accepted contributions, we retain the material and the contact, credit, and permission records needed to support its publication while it remains on our websites. We review those records when material is removed. Copies in service-provider backups may remain until those backups expire.
Please avoid including sensitive personal information or someone else’s private details.
To ask about your information, request a correction or deletion, or discuss removing a published contribution, email hello@TalktotheCork.com. We will explain any records we need to retain and why.
When you contact us
If you email us or use a contact form, we receive the details you choose to share and your email address. We use them to respond and follow up on your request. We keep ordinary enquiries only as long as needed to deal with them, then review whether they should be deleted. The specific retention periods above apply to contributions.
Public comments
Where comments are enabled, WordPress collects the information entered in the comment form, together with an IP address and browser information to help detect abuse. Your comment and display name may appear publicly; your email address is not displayed. Please do not put private information in the comment itself. Comments and their moderation records may remain while the discussion is retained. You can contact us to request removal.
Avatars are enabled. WordPress may send a coded version of your email address to Gravatar to look for a profile image, which can appear beside your comment. See Automattic’s privacy notice for details.
Cookies and technical information
WordPress and our hosting and security services process technical information needed to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the site, such as IP addresses, browser information, requested pages, and access times. Our installed tools include Bluehost, Jetpack and Jetpack Protect, WPForms, WP Mail SMTP, and Yoast SEO. The information processed depends on the features in use.
Cookies support functions such as signing in and remembering preferences. If you choose to save your details when commenting, WordPress remembers those details in cookies for up to one year. Login and editor cookies apply to people signing in to manage the site. You can clear or block cookies in your browser, although some functions may stop working.
For provider information, see the Bluehost/Newfold privacy center and Jetpack privacy center. Google reCAPTCHA processing for contribution forms is described above.
Advertising and sponsorship
We plan to support the collection through advertising, including possible Google-served ads and direct arrangements with wine, travel, and related businesses. Paid placements will be identified. An ordinary link or sponsor mention does not by itself mean that we give the sponsor your contribution or email address.
If we introduce advertising tools that use cookies or similar technology to personalise ads or measure their performance, we will update this notice to identify the providers and explain the information used and the choices available. Where required, we will ask for consent before activating that tracking. Giving us a contribution is not consent to advertising tracking or marketing emails.
Links, pictures, and other websites
We link to wineries, sources, and our travel website at talktothecork.net. This notice covers talktothecork.com; please check the notices on other sites you visit. Embedded material, such as a video displayed within a page, may connect to its provider and allow that provider to collect information or use cookies.
Before sharing a photograph or a link, check that you have permission and that it does not reveal private information. Photographs can contain location information in their metadata. Material accepted for publication, including its agreed credit, can be viewed and copied by visitors.
Service providers and security
We use service providers to host the website, deliver email, process forms, maintain backups, and protect against spam and abuse. Information may be processed in countries other than your own. We take reasonable steps to limit access and protect information, but no website, email service, or backup can be guaranteed completely secure. We may also disclose information where required by law or necessary to address misuse or protect someone’s rights or safety.
Your choices and requests
Email hello@TalktotheCork.com to ask what information we hold about you, request a copy, correct it, or ask us to delete it. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights to object to or restrict processing or raise a concern with a privacy regulator. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. We will explain any records that must be retained, including permission records or information needed for legal or security reasons.
As the collection grows
We will update this notice when our features or handling of information change. Changes to this notice do not expand the publication permission you have already given us.