Winelist app makes pairing easy

Can you envision a time when all wine lists are digital?

Tastevin is an app that’s moving us closer to that tipping point. More than 250 hotels and restaurants in 37 states already are using it, according to Joshua Hermsmeyer, CEO and co-founder of Labrador, the Santa Rosa-based company that developed Tastevin.

Sommeliers in these hotels and restaurants are handing diners an iPad rather than a traditional wine list printed on paper. The digital version gives them a chance to view a wine label, get descriptors, learn how to pronounce a fancy French wine and even peruse videos.

“Eventually all wine lists will have a digital component,” said Hermsmeyer, a wine-loving inventor who finds himself at the crossroad of wine and technology. “Paper wine lists will not disappear altogether, but the value to the consumer, the restaurant and the environment that a digital list provides is extremely compelling.”

The number of screens people carry around “is proliferating, and that trend will only continue,” Hermsmeyer said. “Mass adoption of the digital menus will occur when the screen people bring with them to a restaurant is a more compelling experience than an iPad presented tableside.”

John Jordan, CEO of Healdsburg’s Jordan Winery, was a driving force behind the creation of Tastevin.

“Jordan winery was the first to place tasting note videos on a digital wine list in early 2011, months before Tastevin was created,” Hermsmeyer said.

“Jordan has long recognized the importance of the tableside experience. Aside from perhaps a winemaker dinner, Tastevin is the very best way to present wine to the consumer tableside, so it’s a natural pairing.”

Jordan and Hermsmeyer co-founded Labrador as a sister company to Jordan Winery, tasked with developing technology for the beverage industry.

Hermsmeyer said Tastevin now has wide appeal, priced at $15 per iPad per month.

“It can now be used for pretty much any application where a menu is needed,” he said. “We’ve been approached by everyone from hair salons to cannabis dispensaries to adapt the platform to their needs.”

Hermsmeyer said in May the company plans to launch its Digital Chalkboard, which is displayed on large screen TVs for brew pubs and restaurants that serve beer on tap.

“We’re extremely excited about the opportunities ahead,” Hermsmeyer said.

In the meantime, Tastevin has made a believer out of Brandon Schrey, wine and beverage manager at Santa Rosa’s John Ash Restaurant.

Schrey said the restaurant has used the app for nine months, and during that time only three people have asked for a traditional wine list.

“I was slightly nervous at first, but now I’m glad we use Tastevin because the wine list is always up-to-date and live,” Schrey said.

“It’s always current. With a paper list, if you run out of something, you can’t reprint the list mid-shift. With the app, I can just re-adjust it and it’s current. It’s huge.”

John Ash has a total of 20 iPads, allowing diners to digitally peruse 300 bottles of wine, 15 wines by the glass, 175 spirits, 20 specialty cocktails and eight beers on tap.

“I opted out of putting in videos because I thought it would take away from the dining experience,” Schrey said. He also bars people from surfing the Net on John Ash iPads.

He’s not afraid Tastevin will outsource sommeliers, however.

“It (Tastevin) will never replace sommeliers,” Schrey said. “You can’t replace someone walking around and helping people. You can’t replace the personality and presence of a sommelier.”

Find out more at tastevinapp.com.

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.