Find your favourite new wine by picking your favourite chocolate bar

I can name 50 different craft beers off the top of my head, but put me in the world of wine, and the labels all blend together.

I know California zins will wake me up in the middle of the night with a sugar high, and cabs from Chile tend to taste too much like licorice for my palate. But my go-to red is from a vineyard I can’t even name.

I’ll admit all that because I know that I’m not alone in the wine aisle, trying to distinguish one serifed typeface from another. And for people like us, a subscription service called Bright Cellars—developed by two MIT graduates—has been working for the last year to help people figure out what they like.

It subtly and simply asks you about flavours you like, such as dark chocolate, milk chocolate, orange juice or tomato juice. There’s no mention of dry or sweet, currant or stone, single grape or blend, or regional preference. In the brief quiz, the only time you pick from wines is to say whether you’re usually a red or a white drinker, and whether or not you’re willing to venture out of your comfort zone.

On the backend, an algorithm sorts through your answers to fit within 18 different qualities of wine, and then you’re matched up with choices from there. Over time, as you review the bottles, the service will fine tune its suggestions in response.


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