Diners are reading the list differently.
The anxiety is real, and the people who write about wine are watching diners reach for their phones to get past it.
The diners are already doing it, and the writers keep noticing the same limit: the tool meets them cold and starts from scratch every time.
A.I. Is Coming for the Sommeliers
A PwC engineer tells Asimov that ordering wine in a restaurant feels like “a quiz you didn't prepare for,” so he photographs the list into ChatGPT. Asimov's read: a chatbot can name a bottle, but it can't read the table or steer you to the one the sommelier just fell for.
Read the piece →Does AI Have a Place in Restaurant Wine Programs? Nine Sommeliers Weigh In
Wine directors describe guests snapping the list into a chatbot instead of asking the somm. Their verdict on the tool: a starting point, but it can't point you to the small producer with no online footprint. One sums it up: “I'm glad AI can't taste wine.”
Read the piece →More people are consulting AI to pick wine in a restaurant. Where does that leave sommeliers?
At the Michelin-starred Dabney, the sommelier watches a guest type “what does Barbera taste like?” into her phone mid-meal. His take: the chatbot gives only generic descriptions, so he uses it for inventory and purchasing and keeps the human read for the floor.
Listen →A chatbot starts over. sommelai remembers.
The writers are right that a chatbot meets you cold, every time, and you'd have to hand it your whole palate from scratch to get close. sommelai is the part that remembers. It reads your taste before the first pour and keeps it current as you go, so the next bottle is chosen with a running sense of what you actually reach for.
The gap they describe is the one sommelai is built to close.
Writing about how people order wine? We're glad to talk.
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