Tremble, sommelier community, because inventors have their eye on the wine industry. In this article we will tell you what robotics has achieved and whether it will affect our favorite sommeliers.

First of all, the Japanese encroached on the sacred, because their love for robots knows no bounds. The first robot sommelier was created in 2006 and was able to recognize what type of grape a wine was made from. The result was not one hundred percent, since the robot did not know all types of wine, but a start was made. Wine-bot, as this invention was called, with the help of infrared rays passing through the object, learned to understand what kind of product was in front of it. Then the robot moved on to wine analysis and received another interesting function: the ability to make wine recommendations based on human preferences.
Then the scientists took a break and during this time they created quite simple robots, whose tasks include pouring wine into glasses, mixing cocktails and delivering orders. Until the Spaniards entered the game. They created a robot that is well versed in their native drink: cava, a Spanish sparkling wine made using the classic method. Thanks to its “electric tongue” sensors, the invention could recognize the chemical composition of the drink. This helped him figure out the category of kava based on sugar content: brut, medium dry, brut still. The robot was also able to recognize defects in wine.
In 2023, Belgium presented its brainchild: a smart wine cabinet. You can put it at home, but it takes up a lot of space, because their smallest cabinet can hold 250 bottles. This invention is interesting because it can recognize the labels of at least 600 thousand wines, as well as remember your drink preferences and recommend a new bottle. He also controls the temperature and monitors the condition of the wine.
In Crimea, they also tried to make their own robot, although the spare parts were borrowed from their neighbors: Germany, South Korea and Italy. The robot sommelier can serve 10 people at once, ask questions about wine preferences and, based on this, recommend what is on the establishment’s wine list. This diligent employee was named Kondraty.

Robots can do a lot, but sommeliers can still do more, since technology is not yet capable of recognizing notes in the taste and aroma of wine, and it won’t be long before it can do this.