How to get the wine you really want

IT’S enough to make sommeliers splutter into their spittoons: a wine-blending machine that lets drinkers craft a glass specifically to their personal palate, rather than having to pick a tipple, possibly as a result of guesswork, from the range a restaurant or bar chooses to keep in its cellar.

Vinfusion, as the machine in question is called, was launched this week by Cambridge Consultants, a technology company based in that British city. In designing it the firm’s researchers first undertook a study of the wines people buy in pubs, bars and restaurants. They found that most customers are stick-in-the-muds. Instead of sampling different regions, grape varieties and vintages, they tend to order the same plonk every time they go out.

Many of the survey’s participants admitted reluctance to ask for advice—often because of the snobbery and mystique that (at least in Britain) surrounds wine drinking. This conservatism does not, however, lead to satisfaction. The survey, which polled 138 drinkers, found that 70% were regularly disappointed by the wines they ordered. But it also found that the idea of having wines customised on the fly…Continue reading
Source: Economist