Wine Picker - the sommelier in your pocket
by Startacus Admin
Wine Picker. The pocket sommelier - a social wine app to enjoy food and wine matching!
We’ve all been there. Sitting in a restaurant with friends or family when the time comes to choose the wine. Inevitably there will be some of us avoiding eye contact in the hopes of not being the one handed the wine list; there will be someone honest enough to admit they know nothing about wine; and there will be the one who leaps at the chance to pretend they know it all. Using highly scientific methods, we deduce that a good 99% of the time, you will not be dining with a wine connoisseur, and you will only be detecting notes of pretentious babble. The obvious choice is to just pick the third cheapest wine and sound confident, but perhaps there’s a simpler way to choose a good wine at a decent price...
Wine Picker is that simpler way! It is an app built by a team of 2 - a programmer and a sommelier - that works in both the UK and the US to help you find the best wine to go with your choice of food. All you need to do is choose your restaurant, wine colour, budget, and your chosen dishes, and the app will reduce the wine list to the best 5 options.
If your chosen restaurant isn’t already in the app, you can simply take a picture of the wine list to add it.
There is, inevitably, a social aspect to the app, where you can share your favourite bottles with friends, create private and public groups to share content, and add tasting notes to your wines for both yourself and your connections.
The sommelier of the team is Julien Sahut, "sommelier to the stars", apparently, who has chosen 
wine for the likes of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.
He knows that restaurants fail to properly utilise the high markup on wines to generate a higher turnover. So not only can Wine Picker help diners better choose their wine, but it can benefit restaurants which might otherwise end up serving unsatisfactory wine, which naturally results in a lack of sales.
Wine Picker is currently taking part in MassChallenge Switzerland, where they will benefit from world-class mentorship, programming, and resources.
Given how much this easy to use app could help people have a better dining experience, we think Wine Picker deserve their place on the programme and hopefully beyond.
We’ll drink to that.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
11 disruptive European travel tech startups are selected to showcase their innovations to 6000+ attendees as part of Travel Technology Europe’s Disrupt Launchpad.
The eco-friendly shopping assistant that helps you find the most nutritious food for the lowest environmental impact.
Small Robot Company, a British agritech robotics startup for sustainable farming, has raised £1.2 million via equity crowdfunding.
Cycle.land, the bike sharing marketplace unlocking the assets of unused bikes, raises over £200k thanks to their successful 2nd equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
IgniteNI looks to build on legacy with 2nd accelerator programme and San Fran base for 5 selected founders. Applications close asap so be quick to apply.
The startup that's creating technologies to measure and demonstrate sustainability in the food chain.
The lowdown on the London based barbershop and app that will come to you...
UrbanVolt - The Lighting as a Service startup that is on a mission to radically reduce global energy consumption...
From understanding what counts as intellectual property, to what to do if you think IP theft has occurred, we chatted to Andrew Kirke, Director at commercial law firm Tughans to find out more.
The startup that has created the world’s first video-only review and booking platform...
Published on: 16th June 2018
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- 11 Travel tech startups selected for Travel Technology Europe’s Disrupt Launchpad 18th Jan 2019 11 disruptive European travel tech startups are selected to showcase their innovations to 6000+ attendees as part of Travel Technology Europe’s Disrupt Launchpad.
- Cycle.land raises £200k to continue their bike sharing journey 16th Jan 2019 Cycle.land, the bike sharing marketplace unlocking the assets of unused bikes, raises over £200k thanks to their successful 2nd equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
- IgniteNI Accelerator to offer startups San Francisco landing pad 14th Dec 2018 Ignite Accelerator is putting investment-ready tech companies on a global stage thanks to their new San Francisco 'landing pad'.
- Falmouth University Launchpad incubates tech legacy 7th Dec 2018 Developed by Falmouth University in Cornwall, Launchpad is an innovative, post-grad incubation and acceleration programme. We take a look at some of the previous Launchpad alumni.
