Vivino: Harnessing Technology For The Perfect Wine Selection

Ever found yourself wishing for a personal wine expert to guide your choices?

Imagine a wine that not only aligns with your taste preferences but also fits your budget and occasion. That’s what Vivino offers. As the largest online wine marketplace globally, Vivino leverages insights from its extensive user base to help you discover your ideal wine.

I spoke with Heini Zachariassen, Vivino’s Founder and CEO, to discuss how the platform leverages advanced technology to assist users in their wine selection journey.

Navigating The Wine Selection Process

For many, choosing wine can be daunting, given the vast array of options available. Vivino, created by Heini Zachariassen, was born out of a desire to simplify this process, making wine selection more accessible and less mysterious.

By taking a photo of a wine label, users can access a wealth of information including community reviews, pricing, and even order directly through their phones. This feature is also handy in restaurants, helping diners choose the ideal wine from a menu.

Vivino thrives on community involvement, with thousands of new users joining daily, contributing to its rich database of wine knowledge.

Heini highlights the significance of their user-contributed data:

“The real game-changer for us is that we know all these wines by now. We have 1.5 billion pictures of wine labels, 200 million ratings, and 10 million wines in the database. 200 million ratings. This information is vital to our business, and no other company can match our database, thanks to our 50 million users who help us maintain it.”

The app is designed to provide insights on wine characteristics like smoothness or dryness, suitability with your meal, and value for money. Users can also add their own ratings and tasting notes, which the app uses to refine its understanding of their preferences.

Tailored Recommendations For Every Wine Enthusiast

Vivino has developed algorithms, built upon their extensive data, to offer personalized wine recommendations. Once a user rates at least five wines, every wine in the database gets a unique match score, indicating how likely they are to enjoy it.

These scores are highly individualized, acknowledging that a wine highly rated by one person may not necessarily appeal to another.

Heini shares his own experience with the app’s precision:

“Even I’m surprised how accurate it is,” Heini says. “The app knows things about me that I didn’t even realize. For example, I love champagne. Some champagnes are based on Pinot Noir, and some are based on Chardonnay. The Vivino algorithm actually recognized that the champagnes I didn’t care for were all Chardonnay-based ones. I had no idea.”

Linking Consumers Directly to Wineries

Heini envisages a future where the wine industry leverages the insights gained from Vivino and similar platforms. Through machine learning and sophisticated algorithms, these technologies can further revolutionize wine selection and appreciation.

You can watch my full interview with Vivino founder and CEO Heini Zachariassen here: