This Algorithm-Based Wine Club Will Help You Refine Your Palate

We’ve all done it; gone home from a busy work day to relax with a glass or two of the only rouge we could find in the cabinet. We open the bottle and sit back and take a slow sip from the mediocre bottle. It’s frustrating not to be able to drink a fine glass of wine after the stressful day at the office, but with such a limited selection we aren’t getting the ideal bottle we’re looking for.

The Tasting Room is a modern day wine club, changing how millennials are drinking wine with their innovative screening process. Given that it’s the digital age many younger adults are turning to the world-wide web to purchase their goods. This is no exception, with The Tasting Room taking over the nation it will soon be hard to imagine a time without it. Meredith McManus, Marketing Director, told us wine should work the same way as being able to watch movies or listen to music based on your preferences. “We set out to create the ‘Pandora of wine clubs,’ that would be tailored to individual members based on their palates and improve with each wine they rated.”

The Tasting Room Sample Kit

Those working for The Tasting Room only choose about 1 out of every 50 bottles of wine they try, according to McManus. These tasters travel all over the world to find the perfect selection including traveling to every major wine-producing country, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, and here in the US.

Initially, the user can go to their website and with a simple click, indicate they want a box of wine tastings sent right to their doorstep. The company will then send you 50 mL sized tasting bottles for you to sip and enjoy, which is where the fun begins. Once you receive the tasting kit you log on to their website to begin a survey that will rate how you like each wine and which ones you prefer over the others. This can be used as an excuse for a fun girls night or a night just enjoying the wine—either way, make the most of it.

Based on your selections, The Tasting Room’s algorithms will make smart assortments of wine to send you over time. “The member logs in to his or her account and tastes and rates each wine, both on its own and in comparison, to other wines in the tasting kit. This rating provides our baseline wine profile for the member and informs the first shipment of full-sized wine bottles he or she receives,” said McManus “The second piece is the ability to continue rating wines as they’re received in full-size shipments. This allows us to further hone our recommendations and continue to send wines we think members will love, as well as omit ones that might not fit their palate.”

It is becoming a fast and educational way to try wine outside of your comfort zone and become educated on the wine in the process. The website creates your own Wine Profile which describes to you the wine varieties, characteristics, and flavors you’ll like best as well as the foods which they pair well with. The Tasting Room is currently the second largest wine club in the United States and is well on its way to becoming number 1. “Our partners create award winning wines under their own house labels and often work in conjunction with major wine labels that you see in stores” declared McManus, “we only work with the best.”