Science-Backed Wine Recommendation Tool Leverages Sensory Analysis and Artificial Intelligence to Help Consumers Define Palates

Cameron Hughes, founder of de Négoce, the nation's number one direct-to-consumer wine brand, today unveiled an innovative wine discovery tool to help consumers find the perfect match for their palates. Through a partnership with Tastry, a wine sensory analysis company, consumers are now able to identify their preferences through a short taste and aroma quiz, enabling artificial intelligence to objectively recommend ideal bottles from de Négoce's extensive portfolio of Tastry flavor-mapped wines. The new wine discovery tool is available now at www.denegoce.com.

The partnership with Tastry furthers Cameron Hughes' mission to democratize the wine industry by offering the highest quality wines at 60-80% savings from traditional retail. In offering the new service, de Négoce has removed an additional barrier to fine wine, providing wine lovers the opportunity to enjoy affordable premium wines tailored to their individual palates.

"Our mission at de Négoce is to offer our customers fantastic, artisan-crafted wines from around the world at incredible, "direct-to-you" prices that no one else in the market can touch. However, choosing between the hundreds of wines we offer can be daunting. This new discovery platform is incredibly powerful and unlike anything that has come before. Powered by millions of palates, both entry-level and expert, and combined with a multi-factor analysis of the underlying chemistry of our wines, together with Tastry we will create a level of personalization that no other recommendation engine can achieve" says Hughes. "By leveraging Tastry's sensory science, machine learning algorithms and vast library of molecular data, we are truly empowering consumers in a whole new way."

With a portfolio of over 400 Lots of premium wines, sourced from renowned vineyards and producers throughout the globe and offered exclusively direct-to-consumer, de Négoce wines have undergone comprehensive analysis of flavor, aroma, texture and color based off countless compounds, including phenols, esters, anthocyanins, acidity, alcohol and more. The wines are then mapped onto a sensory profile, creating a flavor fingerprint for each bottling. Using this advanced sensory data, TastryAI is able to curate a collection of de Négoce wines to match each individual's unique flavor preferences. Recommendations will continue to improve as consumers interact with the platform, providing their own ratings and feedback.

Based in Central California, Tastry launched in mid-2019 to offer hyper-focused recommendations rooted in chemistry, mathematics and statistical data, rather than the subjective impressions of tasting panels. In blind wine sample tests, the company was able to predict how wines were rated in the aggregate U.S. market with 92.8% accuracy. After initially focusing on retail stores, Tastry launched its consumer-facing Tastry Uncorked service in December 2021. To date, de Négoce is among the first wine companies to fully embrace the new recommendation tool.

According to Tastry founder Katerina Axelsson, de Négoce's commitment to quality and innovation makes it the ideal partner. "de Négoce and Tastry share a similar loyalty to the consumer above all else," says Axelsson. "We have analyzed many of de Négoce's wines over the years, prior to working with Cameron, and there has been more than one conversation at Tastry grappling with what TastryAI is clearly identifying as a $100+ wine, but yet it is selling for $16 to $20. Finding one-off high-end productions at a low price is not unusual; however, doing that at de Négoce's scale is something I haven't seen. Tastry will help guide de Négoce customers to the subset of wines they are going to love. This empowers customers to choose confidently as they explore new wines to try."

About de Négoce

Founded by Cameron Hughes in 2020, de Négoce is the nation's leading direct-to-consumer wine brand, dedicated to offering consumers the opportunity to pre-purchase ultra-premium wines from around the globe before they are bottled. Known in the trade as en primeur or "futures," the unique négociant business model removes the inefficiencies of the traditional 3-tier distribution system, allowing consumers to acquire high-caliber wines for pricing at 60 to 80 percent less than what they would pay under its original label. For more information, please visit www.deNegoce.com.

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