Sommelier creates wine app – The Press Democrat

A wine app where there’s nothing to buy. True.

Winelikes aims to make drinking fun with an emphasis on sipping, sharing and socializing.

Jeff Gillis launched the app last year because he was tired of wine apps “telling me what to drink without knowing the people behind them.”

His app lets you verify if someone is a sommelier or winemaker, using identifying tags that let users know if the person giving advice or commenting has experience in the industry.

Gillis, who lives in Southern California, has experience as a food and beverage director, including at Bardessono Hotel and Spa in Yountville. He is a Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 sommelier with a master’s degree in marketing.

“Not many wineries have a dedicated marketing person. We can take photos and help them get started with the app,” Gillis said.

He wants to support small wineries and restaurants, something he says current wine apps don’t do. It could be as simple as tracking conversations on the site, where people in the same area might be raving about a particular bottle of wine, but local restaurants don’t have it. Gillis could educate owners about what customers want to drink.

Although the app is designed for everyone, its target audience is people aged 25 to 55 who are just starting out in the world of wine.

“When you go to a market or a wine shop, it’s overwhelming. Where do you start? We have a little, fun wine palate wizard,” Gillis explained. It helps people figure out what wines they might prefer.

That’s why food and wine pairings are an important part of the site — so people can feel free to choose a wine for any occasion, even if pizza is on the menu. Recipes can also be submitted.

Gillis wants users to have fun with his app. Younger generations have grown up playing video games, so the gaming aspect is key to Winelikes. Participants have a choice of easy or difficult quizzes.

So he created Winedle, a version of the popular game Wordle in which the correct answers are words of five, six or seven letters, such as “cluster” and “aroma.”

“We have a few other features where you can brag about your score, where you can tell the world and say, come and challenge me with the challenge feature,” Gillis said. “We know that sommeliers love to talk about wine. They can create their own quiz and invite their friends to the app to see if they know as much as you do.”

The site isn’t just about learning about wine and playing games. It’s also interactive, where people can post about what they’re drinking, share photos, ask questions, and comment.

Winelikes is available for free download in 175 countries on iOS, Android, and Mac.

Gillis said more than 3,000 people have downloaded the app this summer. Half of them live in the United States, with most of the rest in Europe and some in Australia. Of those in the States, about 30% live in California, with Florida and New York each making up 10% and the rest scattered around.

So far, Gillis hasn’t made any money from the venture. He hopes to change that next year by placing ads for wineries and wine tours on the site.

While he didn’t say exactly how many people he wanted Winelikes to reach before he started trying to get companies to advertise, it’s more than he said today.

He also plans to offer businesses the ability to create quizzes or their own Winedle on the site. Or they could sponsor a wine of the day.

If we knew what people were drinking, we could target ads for specific beer varieties to people who drink them.

“Wine travel is the biggest new trend. Everyone wants to have a wine experience. We can shorten the ads (for companies),” Gillis said.