Will AI Ruin Winemaking or Help Wineries Thrive? w/ John Tan (Part 2)

Ep 127

What if the future of wine wasn’t about choosing between tradition and technology, but finding a way to let both thrive together?

In this episode, you’ll hear from John Tan, founder of CorkVision, an AI-powered copilot for wineries. After years in the tech world, John found himself in Napa Valley, blending his expertise with a deep passion for wine. The result? A platform designed to help wineries sell smarter, protect tradition, and connect more personally with customers.

John shares how wineries are responding to AI, why data matters more than ever, and how technology can actually preserve, rather than replace, the artistry of winemaking. He also explains how AI can help wineries adapt to challenges like climate change while keeping human creativity at the heart of every bottle.

So, if you’re curious about how tradition and technology can work together in the wine world and want to hear how AI may shape the future of winemaking without losing its artistry, this episode is for you.

And don’t miss part 1 of my episode with John where we talk about his journey from tech to wine and explore how AI is transforming customer experiences and winery operations.

Thank you to the following brands for sponsoring this podcast:

• Vacu Vin: Go to us.vacuvin.com and use code CORKANDFIZZ for 20% off your order!
• BonChocolats: Go to bonchocolats.com to order some delicious artisan chocolate (that actually pairs well with wine)!

Connect with John

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johntan/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/corkvision

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/runfatboyrun7/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cork.vision/

Website: https://www.corkvision.com/

Resources: 

Txakoli: Exploring Spain’s Basque Country Signature Wine

Episode Highlights:

• Why AI is a tool to support, not replace, winemakers
  
  
• How wineries can use AI for climate change planning and long-term vineyard health
  
  
• The balance between science, tradition, and artistry in wine
• Data privacy concerns (and why org-wide policies matter to prevent accidental leakage)
• Common hesitations wineries have about AI (privacy, cost, and job security)
  
  
• How CorkVision helps small family wineries stay competitive
  
  
• The role of data quality in building meaningful customer relationships
  
  
• The future of wine personalization: recognizing guests, tailored offers, and smarter mark

Don't Forget to Download my Free Wine Tasting Guide! - https://www.corkandfizz.com/free-wine-tasting-guide

Connect with me:
Cork and Fizz - https://www.corkandfizz.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/corkandfizz/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/corkandfizz/
Email - hailey@corkandfizz.com

Transcript

0:09

Interested in learning about wine but not sure where to start? You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. I'm your host, Hayley Bowlman, and I'm. So glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and and founder of the Seattle based wine tasting business Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable. And lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or. A total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. Today you'll be listening to part two of my interview with John Tan. If this is your first episode and you have not heard part one, I highly recommend pausing this and going back. To listen to episode 126 first. You don't have to, but it might make a little more sense. As a reminder, Jon Tan is the founder of Cork Vision, an AI co pilot for wineries powered by a smart assistant named Corky. After spending over a decade building a tech company in New York, John moved to Napa, seemingly without a plan, just a curiosity for wine and a willingness to get his hands dirty. That led to working a harvest, supporting friends in their wineries, and ultimately realizing how much time and opportunity was wineries were losing to outdated tools. Today, he's combining his tech background with deep industry empathy to build corkvision, a platform designed to help wineries sell smarter, connect with customers, and bring data to life. In this episode, we'll talk more about how John is ensuring that wineries preserve the human creativity and the traditionalism in wine while using Cork Vision. He also talks about what winery's responses have been to using Cork Vision and AI. He discusses how technology and AI can actually help winemakers adapt to challenges like climate change. And he recommends the$25 bottle of Spanish wine that you should be bringing to every dinner party. And of course, so much more. Let's get into the interview. The next question. I do kind of want to go into that idea of like, it's very interesting having this conversation because winemaking especially, I mean the general population, I think has some concerns about AI, but winemaking is such a, it is so steeped in tradition and I mean, there was time where like, there are some people that still don't, like, screw cap Wines because they don't have the cork and it's not romantic enough. Right. And like, there's still this sense of like you have to go out and you just have to do everything traditionally. Right. And so I imagine many wine lovers would worry that AI could dilute the artistry and that terroir driven, that thing that makes wine wine, in my opinion. Right. It's what makes it different. And so I think you kind of. Already addressed this, but can you address. It a little more directly? Like, how would you address this concern with folks being worried about diluting the artistry and the terroir driven aspects of wine? Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, it is similar in the sense. So we're talking about the hospitality person. We're not looking to replace the hospitality person. We're looking to arm them with more information and knowledge. And it's the same thing with winemaking, actually. I do think that winemaking should purely be based on humans in the sense that the humans should be the ones to decide when to pick the grapes, what to do with during fermentation, how do we age the wines? Are we aging it in barrels? Are we aging it in stainless steel? Whatever. Humans should absolutely be the ones making those decisions. With that said, I think there is place for AI to help wineries on the production side. So, so we know, for example, climate change, the climate is changing. Wineries are trying to figure out, oh, my God, what, what's the weather going to be like in the next 5 to 10 years? AI can help predict that and help figure out, okay, here's what the weather is likely going to be like in the next five to 10 years. And that's important because as you know, when you grow grapes, it takes a few years once you plant the grapes before you actually start making wine from the grapes. So it's not like I can decide, oh, no, next year is going to look hot, let me rip out my cabernet. And. I can't do that. It's going to take at least five years for me to actually get grapes that are good enough to go into my wine. So that's where AI can help with this long term planning. I think individual winemaking, every vintage should still be up to humans. And funny enough, last night I was actually at a tasting, a wonderful tasting with Corison Winery, as well as Dunn. And it was Kathy Corson and her daughter Grace. And this was Randy Dunn, Mike Dunn and my son Alex. Wow. All right, well, brag a little bit. Sounds like an amazing tasting. It was incredible. But, you know, but hearing them. And, like, the reason why I brought this up is hearing them and carrying, like, Randy, he walks the vineyard and tastes the grape and spits it out, and he decides when to pick based on the color of his spit, if it isn't too late. Exactly. Yeah. I thought you were gonna say based on the taste of the grape. And then you said the color of his fit. I was like, what? Yeah, it's a purple spit. He has to have purple spit. Oh, my God. And you relayed a story about, like. So he had another. This was years ago, but another good friend of his was considering buying grapes from a vineyard. And so he asked Randy, like, hey, what are you saying? So he walked the vineyard, tasted the grapes, spit out, and said, nope, don't buy it. But the guy was really set on it. He was like, I really want to buy it. But Randy was like, it's too late, and spit is too late. So the guy bought the. Bought the grapes, and then a few weeks later, and he's like, so how's. How's the wine? And he goes, oh, my God. It's the most, like, light cabernet I've ever had. Because I told you, you didn't trust the spit. I don't know what to tell you. Exactly. And Mike was saying, so what he was trying to do. So Randy is my stepson. And Mike was, like, saying, like, no, I was trying to relate the science behind Randy's. And so he was able to correlate. I don't recall exactly what he said, but the girl was able to correlate some of the science in there. But the point of it is that, yes, science can help us with guiding our decisions, but at the end of the day, wine is such a subjective product that you really need to have a human taste it and decide what to do. And so, yeah, that's where I see AI and wine production kind of intersecting health plan for the future. But the humans making the wines today. Yeah, definitely. Just a quick reminder, if you are not on my mailing list yet, what are you waiting for? I would love for you to join. When you do, you'll get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under $15. Head to corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips, recommendations, special special offers, and so much more. Now let's get back to the show. Okay, I want to ask about so I did a little stalking on your blog because I was so curious about learning more about this. And one thing I came across was this AI like the new sommelier in the cellar. The Tastry, I think is what it's called. And I'm curious your thoughts on this, because this is one where I'm like, ooh, I don't know how I feel about this on the terms of like. So for folks that haven't heard of this, because the first time I heard of it was when I was stalking last night was. So the idea is this is a, like, an AI Sommelier who can analyze the wine's chemical makeup and then compare it to, like, what customers or customers preferences or something like that. And let the winemaker know if it matches. And feel free to correct me where. If I'm missing anything, John. And first, like, give us a little more info on that if you know more about it than I do, which you probably do. And then how do you think that fits in with the idea of, like, you still want a human in the loop or how making sure that it doesn't take over the artistry of winemaking. Yep. So what we're talking about there is kind of like what Randy and Mike were talking about in terms of, like, spitting out the purple. And then, like, what does it actually mean scientifically? Like, are there certain phs, or basically, like, how acidic is is that wine right now? Or how much brix is it? Which is basically the sugar content in the grape. Right. Like, can you relate those to this particular color? And the same thing with tastes in wine. There are certain chemical compounds that make up the taste of that wine, and those compounds can be influenced by what barrel are you aging your wine. And you're getting a lot of chocolate or vanilla. Vanillin. How much toast was in that barrel? Meaning before you put the wine in, they char the barrels on the inside. How charred is it? And that affects all of those flavors that go into the wine, in addition to, obviously, things that are in the wine, in the grape itself, the fermentation process. So, yes, you can relate certain scientific values to certain flavor profiles that you can see in the wine. That's where science can go. But for me, it goes really goes back to the humans. For me, wine is a beverage that, yes, you can absolutely enjoy by yourself. And I do. I sit down, sit at home and drink a bottle of wine. That's like a Tuesday night. But the best memories and the best experiences I've had is when I'm sharing that wine with People and with friends and so, yeah. Can I pick a wine and just purely based on flavor profiles or tasting notes? Sure. Will I probably like it? Well, yeah, if I pick the wines that I that say the tasting notes. These are the tasting notes. And if I like those notes, sure. Will I enjoy the wine? Yes. But will I truly remember and memorialize that wine without having that shared experience? Probably not. So can technology help you find wines that you can potentially like? Sure, absolutely. AI can do that. Technology can do that. But to develop that memory, that lasting experience, you need people. You need to share that with the people. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't agree more. And I like how you say this, and I had this question here, but I think we've already answered it about, like, wineries balancing automation with preserving the human creativity. And it sounds like the answer is basically along the lines of, like, use AI to help you make things easier for yourself, but don't have it fully replace what, you know, the winemaker or what the person working at the winery is doing. Yeah, exactly. And I was actually having this conversation with Grace Corson Martin, the daughter of Kathy Corson. And, you know, there are schools of thought where. And there's a certain. Certain winemakers that study enology, study viticulture, study winemaking in college, or they have degrees in chemistry. And so they base purely their wine making based on these numbers. But that loses the whole, like, uniqueness of the wine and the uniqueness of the terroir. And so, yeah. Can you use those numbers to guide you? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, you need to trust your gut. You need to taste the grapes, and you need to taste as you. As you ferment it and as you age it. You need to taste along the way to really understand and to really say, here's what I'm going to do. Yeah, yeah. AI isn't any different than the other science or technology or other things that we've learned along the way in winemaking to make it easier. So we're like, we're honestly not making wine the same way the Greeks and the Romans were when they first started making it. We figured things out along the way to make it easier. And this is just kind of like the next step in that of, like, let's continue to make it easier, but we still gotta be the person making the wine. Tasting it and experience really is everything. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to your point, though, like, we've. The technology within winemaking has absolutely improved. And where we are with AI and technology today is that we are at the cusp of the next technology revolution. You know, we had the industrial revolution, we had the automotive revolution, we had, you know, the Internet when it first came out, the E commerce evolution, and now we're at the AI evolution. So I think why I'm excited about this is because wineries are actually excited to use AI, mainly because of how, and I will give OpenAI and ChatGPT a lot of credit for this. They really brought AI to mainstream. AI has been around for 50 years. As you know, we've been using AI whether or not we know it, whether it's a Netflix recommendation derived through machine learning or Waze or. I mean, the example. Yeah, the example we always give is like Google search. Like your Google search. Like it's using AI to give you answers. Even before there was that little AI thing at the top of the screen, you know, trying to summarize it for you. Exactly, exactly. So wineries are recognizing, and thanks to ChatGPT becoming popular in November 2022, that people are hearing about all these AI tools. Whether it's ChatGPT, Quad, Gemini, or even specific tools like Midjourney or Firefly for image generation, video generation, People are hearing about this in their normal lives. So now they're like, oh, wait, why can't I use it in the wine industry? And so the wine industry is actually very excited to use AI because they're hearing so much about it. They just don't know how to do. Yeah, the way I write it is more like if you take a novice wine drinker to a wine shop and they're like, oh, my God, look at all these labels, look at all these greenfalls, look at all the regions. Where do I start? And so the same thing, like when you take a winery to say, hey, we're having AI, like, okay, do I use ChatGPT? Do I use Gemini? Do you use cloud? What are these? What's an LLM? What's, you know, where do I begin? And so that's kind of like what I'm trying to do is like, help wineries understand what these different tools are. I'm actually teaching AI workshops with hospitality teams as well as with vendor owners to try to get them to understand the different tools that are out there, how to use it. What are specific use cases that can help you? And I think going forward, where we saw how email and smartphones change the business world, we're going to see AI change not just the business. Wine is a business, but also the wine world. Yeah. The tools that people use today in wineries like sales reports that we talked about, inventory spreadsheets, etc, email, the traditional generic email campaigns that people use, they will feel old fashioned. In a few years, AI and predictive analytics will become standard. So instead of looking back and being reactive, Winery is going to be more proactive. You're going to be able to use AI to say, here's the more personalized email campaigns we should send to our customers. Here are the special offers that we should generate based on our sales activities. Here's the personalized tasting that we can offer our people. And I will help people do that all automatically. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. And I swear, I mean, I know I sent you the questions, but I'm also like, this is just like flowing perfectly. Because as soon as you say something, I'm like, that's what I wanted to ask you about next because I was curious. That was kind of the next question of like, you know, how have wineries responded to Cork Vision? You know what, I know you talked about like the exciting part. What about on the flip side? What are kind of the main hesitations you hear when you, you talk about it? I mean, part of it is we touch on it a little bit. It's like just one reason not knowing how to, how to use AI and where, where, where to start. So that's a hesitation. The other hesitation we've, we've discussed as well. People are like, oh my God, I'm worried if I put an AI in, am I going to be out of a job? And you know, again, it's, we're not looking to replace people with, with AI. We're looking to enhance people's daily workflows using AI. But also the biggest part is privacy, the data privacy. Right. How are we going to keep our data safe? How do we keep our information that's proprietary to us? Proprietary. So those are some of the concerns that people have. And they should have these concerns, right? Because if you use ChatGPT, if you use any of these LLMs, and it's the free version, public version, there are questions and answers are going to be used to train future models. And so yes, that is absolutely concerned. There are certain things that we can do from a privacy standpoint and we take privacy very seriously. At CourtVision, I mentioned our former clients and my last company were mainly in the financial and legal verticals. So you can imagine the security and the privacy concerns that people had there. So I'm taking a lot of those lessons and applying them into what we're doing at Courtvision making sure that our winery's data is very secure. It's not being used to train publicly available AI and nobody else has access to their data except for the winery. But that is some people's concern. I'm actually doing a seminar at the end of the month with Napa Valley Vendors association to talk to winery owners and winery executives and talking about. Let's talk about some best practices and how to build data privacy standards for your organization. Because if you're not doing it today, if you don't have these policies in place today, I guarantee you that you are accidentally leaking data because people are expecting to use AI in the workforce today. So if you don't have a policy in place, if you don't have tools that use AI that are available for your people, people are going to use ChatGPT, people are going to use Gemini to help them with their jobs because it is helpful and that you run the risk of having your data out there if you don't control how people access these tools, utilize these tools. Yeah, I think that's such a great point. I think. Yeah, obviously, like, like we talked about. Yeah. Making sure we're not replacing a job. You know, is there a concern at all like price wise with quarkvision? I know you said you work with primarily smaller winer. Is it fairly approachable or. I'm trying to think of the word accessible to smaller wineries. Yeah, that's exactly. And nothing against the big wineries like the ones that are owned by the big conglomerates, but they have money. I was gonna say they have the money. We don't. They don't care if we have anything against them. They've got the money. Why does it even matter? What I'm trying to help are the small family owned wineries. Especially going back to the tasting I had last night with Port Horses and the Duns and seeing generationally, how are they, you know, passing the, the winery from one generation to another, how they continue to make a successful business. So I'm very cognizant that those are the clients that I'm servicing and I. CorkVision is priced in a monthly flat fee type of business model. We're not charging based on winery revenue. And so there are platforms in the industry that do charge based on revenue. I don't want to do that because I want wineries to feel comfortable with using my platform to help them increase sales without feeling like oh, corporation increased my sales, but then I'm paying more. So I'm really, am I really seeing the fruits of that of that increased revenue. So yeah, we're priced in a way that multi medium sized wineries can afford us and they don't have to worry about replacing people to afford us or not using tools to afford us. I hate saying this as a business owner, but like, especially somebody who needs the revenue to like, you know, continue to build core vision. But I'm building court vision as a way for me to give back to an industry that I truly love and I plan on being a part of for a long time. Yeah, I think that's so special and really great because yeah, those are the wineries that like need help getting out. Right. Like if I go to the grocery store, I'm going to find those big wineries, those big companies like on the shelf. Like, that's easy. It's going to be the other ones that are harder but, you know, harder to get to and harder to get access to. One of the questions I had, and this is, it's probably, I'm sorry, for folks listening that don't have like as much of a tech background, but I'm curious because I know for artificial intelligence and machine learning and for these things to actually work, you need data, you need information. And a lot of times I feel like wineries are so traditional in that they're, you know, they might be just keeping track of things in a spreadsheet or they're keeping track of things. Right. Have you run into any problems of. Like actually being able to gather enough of the data, enough of the information. To be helpful for the wineries and. What do you do in that case? Yeah, so one of the things that we talked about on hospitality side is the guest knowledge that the hospitality person has. Right. So the platforms of wineries use today to keep track of their guests, basically as a CRM, hospitality people can put in notes about the guest. The challenge with that is that you're relying on the hospitality person to put those notes in either in between tastings or after their shift. And if it's after the shift, do they remember everything that happened with that guest that they made eight hours ago? Maybe, maybe not. Also, do they want to spend an hour at the end of their day typing up these notes? Probably not. Or if they're trying to do it between shifts. Like how much can you really put in if your next tasting is coming in in 10 minutes and you have to set up? So that's, that's a challenge when I'm building tools within CorpVision where a person can actually talk to Corky and say, hey, Corky John Tan came in, he had these wines. He really liked these wines verbally. Even after setting up for the next tasting, in order to make that note taking much easier, I am running into issues where I am seeing inaccurate or incomplete data. So the inventory example that I gave earlier, where, you know, we recognize the inventory for the Chardonnay and we see that it's running low, we need to have that inventory data to be completely accurate. Problem with that is that the platform that they use may not have that data. The fulfillment house that they use has a different platform and has. Maybe they don't even have a platform. Maybe they're so old school. Maybe they do have an Excel spreadsheet or they have wine stored in fulfillment. They have wine stored at the winery. They have wine stored at somebody's house. Who knows? It's so true. They're always like, oh, yeah, I found this, like, box back here at my friend Bill's house. And then I was saving, for some reason, I forgot, great, it's old wine. I get to try. Exactly. So how are we kind of get all of that data? Well, for one, we're integrated with a lot of different platforms that wineries use. We're collecting all of that data into a centralized repository that Corpy has access to so he can give the information back to the winery, and we can use our AI to understand what that information is telling us and give wineries that insight. So that is one. The other thing is I recognize that even if you are using the platforms the way they're intended, we are still humans. And sometimes humans make mistakes. So I've seen missing information like people's birth dates. They're supposed to have that to make sure that they're. I mean, they're of age. Quantities do check that, but you're still supposed to have that information in the pro customer profile. They may not have that. So then I won't be able to alert you to say, hey, John Tan's birthday is next week, because if I don't have that information, I can't alert you on it. Or people's first names they put in the program's email address. So we're seeing those data quality issues. So what I'm actually building as part of our next phase is the ability for us to analyze that data, identify what's missing, what's critical for you to fill out, and also give the report to the wineries and give kind of a scorecard saying, oh, your data quality is a B minus. And here's how you can get it to an A. Fix these email addresses that are incorrect, fix these missing birth dates and so on. To help the wineries, you don't have to look through all of the data that they have, every single customer and every single field, and say, okay, what's missing, what's wrong will do that for them. Nice. I think that's so helpful because, yeah, that's the thing that, like, I imagine if I was a winery and I wanted to do this and I just looked at it and I'm like, I know my dad is not good enough to actually be able to. You know, it's like, I know that, like, it's all over the place. I just jot things down on a piece of paper or like, you know, Beverly or whatever name works at the tasting room, knows everybody, and she just has all the information in her head. Like, how can this actually be helpful to me? And it's like, well, either, you know, whatever data you have, we'll use it and we'll do something with it. And then it sounded like your other goal, you know, besides fixing the data that exists is then making it easier to gather the data as. As you go along. Absolutely. I mean, our AI is only as powerful as the data we have access to. So if I can help the wineries with collecting the data that they need that will help my AI become better for the wineries to help them increase their sales and increase the personalization, then, yeah, I'm definitely going to do that. Yeah, I love it. Okay, well, before we get to the very last questions, they're my speed round. They're just meant to be whatever comes to mind, I want to ask you, and we've hinted on this many times, but directly thinking about the future, what do you see for the future of both AI and wine? I know it's just one opinion. Yours. I'm not asking you to represent everyone, but AI and wine and then the future for Cork Vision, what do you see looking 10, 20 years down the road? I love producing this podcast for you every week, but here's the truth. It's not free. That's why I'm so grateful for sponsors. Like the following brands supporting me so that I can share everything I love. About wine with you. If you're able, show them some support back. I'll be honest, I never really believed chocolate could pair well with wine until I partnered with Bon Chocolatz for a local event. Racha, the owner, created four incredible truffles that matched perfectly with the wines we were tasting. 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Go to us.vacuvin.com and use code corkandfizz for 20% off your first order. Yeah, so I think we talked a little bit about the AI and wine. The future of AI and wine, where the traditional reporting that's available, where it's more reactive versus proactive, I think that's where AI will really shine, is be able to provide wineries with these actionable insights that help them predict the future or help them be more suited for the future. And also from a production standpoint, we talked about this a little bit earlier also where AI can help analyze weather patterns and say, okay, so we're going to see the weather change. It's going to warm up, climate's going to warm up, you know, 5, 10 degrees over the next 5, 10 years. So wineries can then be more forward thinking about how they're going to care for their vineyards, what grapes are they planting, when are they replanting, even orientation of rows. So, you know, I'm getting a little bit on the more technical side. But like winemakers, viticulturists are very specific in how they plant their grapes so that they get the maximum amount of sunshine that can change and that over time. And so AI can help predict that. As we talked about, you can't just plant a grape this year and expect to make wine next year. So that long term planning is where AI will really come in. On the marketing side, generative AI will continue to improve. They'll make it become very easy for small wineries without dedicated marketing teams to Create more personalized content to create more meaningful social media posts or even create video that they don't have to hire, you know, external companies for and spend thousands of dollars to create, you know, 30 second Instagram Reels. You know, they'll be able to use generative AI for that, and they'll be high quality. I will tell you this from a production side also. Every single winemaker that I know absolutely shouldn't be saying this, but they. They all hate running tasting notes. No, it's so true. I totally believe that. Well, like, how do. How. How many times can you say this tastes like blackberries? Whenever you ask a winemaker to des wine, they never really give you, like, flavors necessarily. It's always like, it's a feeling, it's a vibe, you know? Right, right, exactly. So AI can help with that because they get with what we talked about, how science. You can correlate some of the science with tasting notes. So if AI understands the science, understands the chemical components or even the ph level, the. Yeah, I don't. I'm not a winemaker. Whatever. Whatever science they have. Yeah, I can understand. I was like, okay, here's the. The tasting notes you can write or you can base your tasting notes off of. Again, it'll always still be a human. The winemaker will still have to taste that wine and like, write in what he or she thinks. But at least they don't have to start with a blank cursor on a word doc. Right, right. I love it. Okay. And then. Yeah. The future of Corkvision. What do you. What do you see for that? Yeah, so the future of Corkvision. I've ever seen the movie Minard Board with Tom Cruise back in the day? I don't think so. I'm so sorry. No, don't. It's like such, like. So it's basically set in like a dystopian future. And one of the things. I don't think we're going to go this far. I don't want to go this far, but one of the things that you see when Taku is walking around the city is that there are all these ads that are playing. And what it's doing, it's. It's recognizing the person by basically taking a snapshot of their eyes, identifying who they are, and then personalizing ads for them as they walk by. I don't see that happening in the wine industry. I don't want that to happen in the future. However, what I do want to be able to do is to give wineries with the ability to recognize people that may not go there as often. So the wineries will always know if a guest goes there multiple times a year. But if a guest goes there once a year, they may not recognize them. Especially, as we talked about, there could be back turnover. But if I can empower wineries to be able to recognize guests as soon as they walk in and say, oh, Haley's walking in today, by the way. Here's a quick synopsis of what she did or what she tasted or what she bought. And already now you feel welcome because I'm your host. I've never seen you before, but Corky on my iPad says, oh, Haley had this. Elander's. I can say, oh, Haley, welcome in. I saw you visited, you know, August 16, 2023. You tasted these wines. I'd love to pour you something special, something you've never had before. Like, that sounds great. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm going with Court Vision. Yeah, I love it. Well, because it makes me think of too. And this last thing. And then I'll get to our speed round. It makes me think of, like, wineries that, like, to me, are really special, but I've maybe only visited once or twice because they're not where I live. Right. So, like, Napa. I'm up in Seattle. So, like, there are some wineries in Napa I love, and I was a club member of them for a while, and then we stopped being club members when we got too much wine. But we still think of it all the time. And my husband and I, you know, there's a. There's a wine that's, like, our ultimate favorite wine, and it's the bottle we always grab when we're wanting, you know, something familiar. And the winery probably doesn't know that. Right? They only. We were only there once, and we were club members for, like, a year. And then I buy things occasionally. But it would be so nice for that winery to have all that information. To realize, like, she has bought our Chenin Blanc. Like, every time we release it, like, that means something. We should definitely make sure we talk about that. Absolutely. And by the way, I love the fact that you brought up Shannon Blanc. I love Shannon Blanc myself. I'd like to believe I liked it before. It was cool. I feel like it's very popular nowadays. But, yeah, I feel like that'd be so nice if. Or even if they emailed me specifically, like, hey, we know you love the Shannon. Here is this one. And then if I ever were to visit again, if they recognize the name and the. You know, all that. It would be such. It would be. It would be such a special experience. I would feel like, oh, they love me as much as I love them. Exactly, exactly. And that personalization and that, like, recognition. I mean, it doesn't take much to please me. And, like, but if you. If I walk into a place and it's like, oh, John, great to see you again, even if I've only been there once, I'm like, I want to come back here. Yeah, come back here. Absolutely. I think that's such a great, great thing to strive for. All right, speed round. This is meant. It's not meant to be like, go, go, go. It's just meant to be, like, don't think about it too hard, because otherwise the questions could take too long. So the first one, for example, is a great one to start off with, because, again, I feel like you could think forever. What is your favorite wine at the moment? Celos Jacques Celos, champion producer. His. I mean, whenever people ask me this question, like, I always say, give me the context. But really, my answer is Celos Rose. Like, I'm asking you to make it sound like I have other favorite wines, but really, I know what my answer is going to be. Yeah, exactly. Okay. All right. How about what's a Go to bottle of wine to bring to, like, a dinner party or to share with friends? So what I would like to bring to dinner parties would be Amastori Chocolina Robentis. So it's a Spanish wine made with hondurabi grapes. It is slightly effervescent. It's a. And I love to start off a dinner party or a night with it because it is so approachable. We call it summer in a glass. It is really reminiscent of summer, and there's a slight effervescence to it. So it's like, oh, it feels, like, light and refreshing and delicious and. Yeah. And it's also $25 a bottle with a screw cap, so not all screw cap lines are bad. But this is not. I love it. Is that, like, from the region? So the grape that you mentioned that I'm forgetting the name of, I think of that as Hondurabi. Is that Tcgli? Like the. Is that the region? Yes. Okay. Okay. For folks listening, there is. I did do a podcast a little while ago about Tacoli, so if you want to learn more about that grape, go, go check it out. I'm like, I recognize it. I know what you're talking about. Okay. So going to kind of a different area of the win is the favorite wine region you've ever visited. Oh. Besides Napa, that I live here. The fact that I moved here, I know I'm right. I'm like, I feel like the answer is Napa, but if you want to go beyond that, Portugal. So I've had the opportunity to my company, when we were expanding back in New York, we opened an office in Portugal. I spent a lot of time there. I've become very good friends with people that I used to work with in Portugal. So very special connection to that place. And I absolutely love the people, the food, the culture, the architecture, and, of course, the wine. And I remember going to a cafe. I know the speed on. Sorry, I'll be very quick. But I remember going to a cafe. And my first day there, and I was like, oh, can I have a glass of water? And they're like, sure. It's gonna be €3. And then I was looking at the wine list. I'm like, wait, a glass of wine is 250. Let me save some money. Just give me the. Give me one. Yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah. Oh, God. You gotta love Europe. And, yeah, I've heard from plenty of people that they like. They want to retire in Portugal because of how lovely it is. And, yeah, the wine is wonderful as well. Okay, how about a wine region you'd like to visit that you haven't yet? Oh, champagne. 100%. 100% champagne. I am. I was supposed to go on a trip to Champagne Burgundy in 2020. But you know what happened that year? And then I just. Life happened, and I just haven't gotten the chance to head back there, but. Or head there. Excuse me. I've never been there, but champagne is absolutely the top of my list. Yeah, yeah. Oh, definitely. And, yeah, I definitely recommend also visiting in Burgundy. I finally did my first trip to France last September and absolutely fell in love with Burgundy. I love that I didn't go to Champagne. It was so hard to choose which regions I wanted to go to. So champagne's definitely on my list as well still. Okay, how about a favorite wine and food pairing? Ooh. Champagne and fried chicken. Or going back to my harvest story. Champagne, French fries, and tears. The tears just add a little extra saltiness. Right. It's just perfect. Exactly. No, I love it. I'm a sucker for champagne and fried foods and salty foods. It is such a beautiful, beautiful pair. Okay. Yeah, Right. Exactly. All right, so I have two questions left. If you were given$1,000 to spend on wine, you had to spend it on wine. What Wine would you buy? Would it be. You don't even need to finish the question. I know the answer to this. I just need to have it always. I just want as many boxes as I can get of it. I love it. All right. Okay. And then last question. What is one wine myth that bugs you? Bugs you the most. Bugs you to no end. We've kind of talked a little bit about this one. People think that if a wine comes with a screw cap, it's automatically a bad wine or poor quality wine. That is absolutely not the case. So that is one. The other one, I will say, because I love champagne so much that people think, oh, champagne's only for celebrations. Not quite. I mean, yes, sure, celebrate with champagne. Absolutely. But you don't have to wait to celebrate. Something to drink. Champagne. Drink champagne every day. It brings you joy every single day. So, yes, I remember. I think I read it in a wine book somewhere where somebody said they're like, I always have a bottle of champagne in the fridge in case I need it for an occasion. Like, you know, Tuesday night. You just like, it's just always good to have it. You just never know when either the occasion comes up or you need to make the occasion to drink your champagne. Exactly. Hey, you're done with work. You came home oppo in a bottle. Celebrate. I love it. All right, well, that is everything I have. Thank you so much, John. I feel like this was so informative and really interesting conversation to have and really excited. I'll be mentioning Corkvision to all the wineries. Thanks so much that I know of, because I think it's really going to make a big difference in the wine world. Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited and thank you so much for having me on. Really had a great time. Love your podcast. So really honored an honor to be on as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, cheers. Cheers. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. You can learn more about Corky and Corkvision on their website@corkvision.com. and if there's a winery you love that you think would benefit from all the things John talked about, be sure to mention Corkvision to them. If you love this episode as much as I, please take a quick second, share it with a friend. Take a screenshot, post it on your social media. Let me know what you think about AI and wine. Do you think this is a good path for wineries to take? Do you. What are your concerns? Do you think, you know, they have the right mentality going into this. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. In next week's episode, we'll be doing a deep dive into one of the first grapes that I fell in love with, Pinot Noir. Far I'm honestly surprised that I've gotten. This far into the podcast without dedicating. An episode to this grape. Like, looking back and I was like, what am I doing? I have a feeling you're gonna want. A glass of Pinot Noir next to. You when you listen to this episode, because you'll be craving it by the time that word does. Thanks again for listening. And if you want to learn more about wine, come follow me at Cork and Fizz on Instagram. Cheers Sat.