AI and special apps can help you choose your next restaurant wine

By TOM MARQUARDT

Unless you’re dining at an upscale establishment, don’t expect a wine expert to be standing by your table. Servers rarely have time to taste every vintage alongside every dish, so their recommendations tend to be more hopeful than informed. Ultimately, your own palate is your most reliable guide when choosing between a robust Côte-Rôtie and a lighter California syrah. If a knowledgeable wine steward or certified sommelier is on the premises, your problem is solved.

But there’s a new option that’s actually fun: AI-powered wine selection tools. Using one can be as simple as visiting a restaurant’s website from the comfort of your home, or opening one of the many apps designed for tableside use. To test the idea, I browsed the websites of five restaurants from my home computer. One caveat: this approach works only if the restaurant posts its wine list online.

I asked AI to choose a wine to go with a specific entree at a certain restaurant, e.g., “Recommend a wine to go with shrimp and grits at O’Leary’s Seafood restaurant.” Within a minute, it examined the restaurant’s website and scanned the wine list to choose several wines. Each choice came with an explanation of why it would work well with the food.

Here is what AI had to say about a wine to go with duck confit at a French restaurant in Naples:

“Clos la Coutale: These tannins act like a palate cleaner against the richness of the duck fat.”

Or, “Descombes Pinot Noir: Duck and pinot noir are a match made in heaven because the wine’s high acidity balances the grease, while its earthy, red-fruit notes complement the gaminess of the meat.”

At another restaurant, we let AI choose a wine from the list to enjoy with rigatoni alla norcina:

“For a tried-and-true pairing, look for the Barbera d’Asti by Cantina del Pino. Barbera is high in acidity and low in tannins, making it the ultimate ‘food wine.’ Its natural brightness cuts through the heavy cream and sausage fat, while its earthy, dark fruit notes harmonize beautifully with the black truffle.”

AI also recommended a Brunello di Montalcino as the “sophisticated pick” and a Soave Classico for someone who prefers white wine.

I liked that the advice was specific to the preparation rather than just the meat or fish.

The results came amazingly fast and can be used tableside. You can take a photo of the wine list and ask for a recommendation. You also can download the apps Pocket Sommelier or SommSnap. The first one, which partners with several retail stores, allows you to take a photo of the dish, which didn’t work well for me. A plate of meatballs can look like something that came off our lawns. SommSnap allowed us to scan a wine list and get an analysis, but it balked when the list was too long.

Two other apps—Enolisa and Vino AI—will create a palate profile if you log wines and then suggest a pairing based on your history. Enolisa allowed me to easily catalog my recently opened wines by taking a photo of the label. But you need to pay for premium service to get recommendations.

It is best to be specific. Don’t ask for a wine to go with steak; specify that it is a filet with a béarnaise sauce. Add that you like red more than white wine or that you want a cabernet sauvignon and not a pinot noir. Be sure to let AI know if there is any strong seasoning: spice, Asian, jalapeño, etc.

These apps or AI in general can be useful when standing before a vast sea of choices in a retail store with no one around to help you. And you can use it when surveying the wines in your private cellar. But at the end of the day, your palate and a discussion with a sommelier are irreplaceable.

You may not want to go to all this trouble to select a wine. AI can be a novelty, but a fun one to play with. If you insist on being on your phone at the dinner table, you may as well put it to good use.