Let Us Entwine You: A Q&A with Wine Pairing App Developer

Q: How did the idea of the Entwine app come about?
A: Actually, necessity more than anything. Have you ever sat in a restaurant, chose your food and then find yourself having great difficulty in choosing the right wine to go with it? It all becomes even more complex if at the table there are 3 or 4 people having wine. This situation is very common and is mainly due to limited knowledge or even the tendency to stick to the same few familiar wines.

Q: Can you give us a brief description of the Entwine app which will be launched soon?
A: Entwine is made up of two critical but intertwined (excuse the pun) modules, namely the inventory management and order processing system for the restaurant and the front facing app for the consumer. In a nutshell when you are in a member restaurant, you open the app, tick all the dishes that will be consumed throughout the meal and which need to be paired with the wine, enter some of your preferences and your budget and hey presto the app provides you with the best pairing options, whether overall, by category or even by singular dish. It’s a bit like having your own sommelier in your pocket.

Q: Why does the restaurant industry need the services provided by this app?
A: We believe there are several benefits for the restaurant from efficient and accurate stock management, real time reporting at one’s fingertips, to fully automated order processing. Then there is obviously the enhanced experience for the patron who will surely have a more complete dining experience. Also, if the app is suggesting a wine in that specific restaurant, it only does so if it is actually in stock.

Q: Can you highlight the key advantages gained by the end user?
A: Well, the restaurant patron will become totally self-sufficient in terms of wine knowledge. You no longer need to either stick to the same wine or even worse, wing it. The end user will be in total control of the entire experience. You can decide to go for a bottle that compliments the majority of the dishes or indeed consume wine by the glass per dish, thus enhancing the overall experience. And you decide on the budget as the app is set in a way to pair the best wine within your budget.

Q: How will this app help add value to the dining out experience?
A: As Gerald Asher had said “A restaurant wine list is praised and given awards for reasons that have little to do with its real purpose. A wine list is good only when it functions well in tandem with a menu.” And this is what the app will do. It will make sure that every time the app suggests a wine this will enhance your dining experience and the more you use the app the more it becomes personalised as through AI the app will also start learning about your own personal likings and preferences and future recommendations will take this into consideration.

Q: Who are your target clients?
A: From a restaurants point of view, anyone who is after enhancing their patrons’ experience. So, whether you are a casual or a fine diner, you stand to gain a lot from this app. From a consumer’s point of view, anyone who dines out and drinks wine should have this app once it’s out there.

Q: Is this for local or international consumption?
A: There is nothing like it in the world so definitely the world is our vineyard.Q: How long have you been working on this project and when will this be rolled out?A: We have been at it for 10 months now. We are testing the inventory system with a handful of restaurants as we speak since this was developed with industry requirements in mind and we are very pleased to say that the feedback has been phenomenal. With regards to the app side of things we are in our 3rd iteration and at the moment being tested amongst hundreds of friendly testers and the plan is that we roll out commercially as of Q1 2025.