The first virtual sommelier is now available online – Combivino is the smart app that pairs 2,000 recipes to hundreds of wine labels and over 70 types of craft beers.
Rome, Italy April 13th 2022 – Combivino, the international app that enables the pairing of wine and beer with food, is available in English and all over the world.
Combivino is the first app that pairs wine and craft beers with food simultaneously via smart matching: there are almost 2,000 regional and international recipes, over 900 types of wine and 76 beer styles. The application is free to download from Google Play and the App Store and enables everyone to discover the basics of wine tasting.
A success that stems from Italy and numbers over 1 million interactions including clicks and internal searches with an increasing number of downloads on the Italian market alone. A boom of downloads is expected for the English version.
The global wine and beer market reaches astonishing figures. According to Statista, the wine segment is set to reach $366 billion in 2022 while that of beer will reach $643 billion, with an estimated growth ratio of around 7% for the next few years.
Combivino is a ‘Virtual Sommelier’ ideal for consulting the wine list in a restaurant or choosing the right bottle in the wine shop or supermarket. But the app is also a great opportunity to ‘flaunt’ your knowledge with business partners, partner or friends. The app is also useful for sector experts to learn more about pairings with little known wines and beers in their multiple nuances and geographical indications.
Federica Zevi explains: “our wine classification system is based on the body and prevailing organoleptic note. The body goes hand in hand with the texture of the food, while the organoleptic note matches the tactile and aromatic characteristics. Combivino also has two special functions exclusive to our pairing system: the Multi-course pairing, which enables the finding of pairings suitable for multiple courses, and the Tasting option, which recommends wines according to the correct tasting order based on intensity and persistence.”
The Italian start-up set up the project three years ago thanks to a team of sommeliers and technology experts made up of Alessio Papasergio, founder of the project, Federica Zevi, co-founder and pairing manager for food and wine, and Salvatore Cosenza, professor and expert craft beer taster. The aim was to complete a map of the leading global wine-producing regions and pair hundreds of grape varieties and appellations with international dishes.
Since the app was first presented in Italy, Combivino has registered tens of thousands of searches every month, with peaks of consultations and downloads at lunchtime and at dinner depending on the time zones of the various nations and mainly at weekends and holiday periods. Combivino was in fact developed to be easily used when faced with a restaurant wine list or the choice of the right bottle to open at home.
And these figures are destined to grow thanks to the continuous additions of pairings and content and thanks to attending international events and the kind collaboration of foreign sales offices and local promotional bodies. The challenge is even more ambitious with the international launch, as Combivino must supply pairing options useful for all kinds of users and cuisines as well as representing lesser-known production areas.
Alessio Papasergio, founder of Combivino: ”The outstanding results of the project, which are growing constantly, depend on our team’s culture and passion for good food and good wine. Now the objective is to promote Combivino all over the world involving companies, the media and sector organizations. In the meantime, I can say we are working on lots of related projects. Mixology is getting more and more popular and, after wine and beer, we are thinking about adding pairings with cocktails and spirits. We have also been working for months on a prototype of Virtual Sommelier for the big retail chain, which is based on our classification and pairing system. How would the purchase experience in supermarkets improve if we could suggest the pairing of the right bottle with the products in the trolley? As happened with Combivino, it is a service that is currently not available on the market.”
About Combivino
Combivino is an app developed by Portale Chef S.r.l., an Italian company experienced in consultancies for the restaurant industry, and which selects food & beverage products for restaurants, E-commerce sites and purchasing groups.
