Mention Artificial Intelligence (AI) after a couple of glasses of wine and watch chaos descend as debate erupts!
“Did you see Terminator??? AI is going to enslave us!” quips one camp.
“Are you mad, AI helped me solve my taxes, regulate my sleep patterns and define optimum nutrition for my dogs diet!” retorts the other.
As I watched each side hotly argue their point, it did get me thinking about AI’s role in the industry. I am currently aware that AI is already stirring the proverbial barrel – from vineyard management to predictive analytics for winemaking, AI has already begun shaping how wine is produced, marketed, and consumed. But can AI ever truly replace human intuition, passion and good ol’ fashioned know-how?
As I understand it – disclaimer alert: I am no Gary Vee – AI uses databases of stored knowledge including tasting notes, chemical analysis, terroir and other bytes of 0’s and 1’s to predict what a wine may taste like. If you asked me, well that sounds…boring? Wine is family, it is history and at it’s very essence, wine is deeply human.
Experiencing wine is not just about identifying flavors—it’s about perception, emotion, and context. The human nose and palate are incredibly complex, capable of detecting thousands of aromas and making subconscious associations based on personal memories, cultural background, and experience. Some of the best winemakers don’t rely on spreadsheets or lab results alone—they just know. There are legendary stories of producers who could tell it was time to harvest because their dogs started eating the ripest grapes off the vines. Try programming AI to account for that!
Can AI replicate this? In theory, I’m sure there will come a day when it does but maybe only as a tool to complement our seasoned wine makers and not replace them? I do know that for now, I’ll leave the theory to the machine but the soul of the wine to my own intuition.
What do you think? Could AI ever truly replace the role of a winemaker or sommelier, or is wine an inherently human experience that technology can only assist but never replicate?
hashtagArtificialintelligence hashtagwinegeek hashtagwine hashtaggaryvee
