Wine by numbers, with a digital content twist

We’ve seen several innovations at the intersection of wine and technology, including Aromicon’s “virtual taste search engine,” which we featured just last week. Dutch startup 94wines is now bringing a new technological twist to the table, so to speak, by offering a line of numbered and colour-coded wines that can be personalized with digital content. Launched a week ago, 94wines offers a line of French wines in which each variety is indicated by a number and a bottle colour rather than a name linked to its maker, vintage or region. Consumers begin by taking a short quiz of six questions regarding their likes and dislikes. That, in turn, produces their personal WineID, which can then be used to guide their choices from among the company’s series of wines. The use of numbers and colours makes wine preferences easy to remember, while personal ID profiles allow friends to see each other’s preferences for gift-giving purposes. Perhaps even more interesting, however, is that—much the way Enthusem allows consumers to create printed greeting cards with digital attachments—94wines customers can attach electronic content to any bottle of wine. Upon placing an order, they simply upload a text, photo or video file (one is allowed per bottle of wine), which 94wines stores on its server. 94wines then converts that content into a QR code, which it attaches to the bottle. (QR codes are included on all 94wines bottles, so if consumers don’t upload their own content, the company includes a standard message instead.) Recipients can view the attached content using their mobile phone’s camera or by entering the code at 94wines.com. There’s also a free 94wines application for iPhones that includes an advanced QR reader along with the WineID test, an overview of the 94Wines assortment and the ability to view the profiles of friends. Per-bottle pricing at 94wines ranges between EUR 5.99 and EUR 9.99, with no extra charge for personalization. Another shining example of the OFF=ON trend, 94wines currently delivers primarily within the Netherlands, with delivery elsewhere in Europe by request only. One to partner with or emulate for personalization-happy oenophiles in other parts of the world…? (Related: Wine tastings via Twitter — Selling wine by sms — Wine tastings, smart cards included.) Spotted by: Angelique Brinkman