this is such a tough question to answer.  i guess i started thinking about a technology solution to make sense of the gazillions – a technical term and actual number – pieces of information published over the web for quite some time now.  yet, i never could find a subject matter that would get me passionate enough.  until about six months ago when i stared at a bottle of wine, then slapped myself in utter bewilderment.  easy enough, i found my subject matter while starring at a bottle of wine.  go figure.

What is the core problem Booquet solves for wine lovers?

i think we solve two main issues.  the first issue we solve is that of reducing the time/effort it takes to find a wine you love: whether you are an expert or casual wine consumer and lover, we give you recommendations in an easy, fast and reliable way, all the tme.  the second issue we solve is that of making sense out of chaos.  the first two months we started classifying and analyzing information published about wine over the web, we came up with over 150,000 posts.  that is a huge amount of data on an annualized basis.  so much so that one cannot easily analyze, understand, aggregate on one’s own.  we make that an easy task for the novice, the wine afficionado or the industry expert.  in other words we make sense out of chaos, we increase the signal while reducing the noise.

How does Booquet help consumers learn about wine?

we allow them to tap the power of crowdsourcing and deliver top trends, whether wine specific, i.e. top charts of wines most discussed or consumed, or general topics about wine.  we save them time, effort and headaches by making it so simple to discover, keep track, learn  track down what they love.

How can a novice become more comfortable making wine selections?

i would say a novice should stop relying on “expert” advice and rely more on a) their own likes/dislikes and b) what like minded people around him/her like or dislike.  that is why i think crowdsourcing and aggregating data is of such value to a novice wine consumer or even a wine consumer that does not want to invest the time to become a connoisseur.

What does the next phase of Booquet look like?

we are just at the beginning of our vision.  ultimately, we will build a real time wine genome, where wine attributes and inferences, based on what people write, taste, comment, the words they use to describe wines, and the crowdsourcing thereof will create solid, trustworthy and significant recommendations.  this is the ultimate value we at booquet will bring to help wine consumers hone their tastes and preferences.  and by wine consumers i do not only mean novices.  so i guess a combination of regular use of booquet top charts, booquet recommendations and personal tasting experiences will do the trick! even more fun than the first phase.  can’t really talk specifics here.  suffiice it to say that we are hard at work on a mobile app, as well as strengthening our recommendation algorithms.

If you could predict the future of the wine industry, tell us a little bit about what you’d see.

… last time i checked my stock portfolio it did not look like i could predict the future accurately. so please take the following with a huge grain of salt.  first off i believe overall quality is going to improve the world over.  second, most producers will adopt more environmental friendly production processes to make wine, whether the independent winery or the large wine group.  third, new generations of wine consumers will take over from their elders in shaping consumer trends – this is starting to happen with gen x and gen y drinking more and earlier than their parents and grandparents in the usa or europe.  fourth, technology – and by that i mean social media but not social media alone – will reshape how wines are “created”,  manufactured, distributed and sold.  finally, and this is more applicable to the usa, regulations and laws will have to evolve into a more flexible distribution channel – the web is going to put so much pressure on the three tier system in the us over the near future that change is inevitable.

Tell us something we’d never know about you.

i have so many quirks, so many ways to make myself look foolish by answering this question!

ok, i love fruit trees, and have planted at least one fruit tree in the backyard of every house i have ever owned.  i have not planted vines yet, but that is one of my goals – either that or owning a small vineyard.