“Wine tasting with a robot sommelier”. That’s what the sign on the street said. My wife and I didn’t hesitate. It had to be worth trying, at least once.
So we entered the tasting room of Maria Concetto winery in Calistoga, a small town in the famous Napa Valley (California).
We had seen the robot sommelier through the store window, and it looked like the kind of robot you see in a car manufacturing plant.
Is this robot just a marketing tool?
But was this robot sommelier really going to recommend wines to us? Was his sense of taste so fine that he could recommend wines we would like, just by looking at us?
This is not the case. At least, not yet.
In fact, as winery owner and former tech executive Maria Reznikova confessed, it’s a marketing gimmick.
It gets people through the door. Competition is tough, so anything that can be a differentiator – particularly, one imagines, for young people – is positive.
Why not use a robot to seduce? Everyone loves robots, right? In fact, everyone is fascinated by robots, especially since they could soon dominate us.
He grabs the bottle, he pours the wine, it’s a ballet
This so-called Robinovino has special talents that you don’t see every day in a wine cellar. It can grab a wine glass and a bottle of wine. It can pour a precise amount of wine from the bottle into the wine glass.
He doesn’t move quickly, but he creates a splendid sense of neurosis, as he constantly spins, nodding (what is supposed to be) his head.
Did I mention he dances? Well he try to dance.
We sat there, temporarily hypnotized. That’s what a marketing gimmick is supposed to do, right? If it can hypnotize you and make you believe that you are experiencing something extraordinary, then you will be willing to pay a little more. Is not it ?
When the ballet slips
But Robinovino missed the glass in front of me and spilled red wine on my lap.
I’m (almost) sure he didn’t do it on purpose. It seems he didn’t quite understand that the bottle of cabernet sauvignon was slightly larger than the bottle of pinot noir he had already used.
So he missed the glass and poured the wine directly on me.
It’s just a work in progress, we’re told, one that will perhaps even be injected with artificial intelligence, so that it can present a more personal – and more accurate – attitude.
On the other hand, it works wonders on passers-by. Many of those who didn’t enter felt compelled to grab their smartphones to film the spectacle unfolding through the window.
Is a robot worth more than a human?
It wouldn’t occur to me to comment on the quality of the wine poured by the robot, because it almost doesn’t matter when the robot is the star.
If you’re going to use a robot as a gadget for your business, clearly explain why it’s there and make sure it does just enough for your customers to feel like it’s worth it. penalty.
Which brings me to something that might be a curious omen for the future. To enjoy Robinovino’s gyrations – and spills – we had to pay an extra $20 each. Yes, in addition to the price of the tasting.
It’s an interesting principle. Will restaurants charge you more because you were served by a robot server rather than a human?
Still, as a climax, the robot finally handed me an empty glass decorated with the inscription “Tips are appreciated”. Naturally, we tipped, but I have to warn you that including the tip, our robot sommelier tasting of six wines came to over $220.
I wonder where other bots will appear to entertain, to improve the shopping experience.
Source: “ZDNet.com”