Amazon Japan Offers Free Wine Advice with Sommelier

Amazon sells all manner of products, from books to furniture and even food and alcohol can be delivered directly to your door. When you don’t know what to choose, many online stores offer staff on-hand to chat with and determine the best products for your needs and prices. Now Amazon Japan is taking this on board for those who don’t know their whites from their rose with its new Sommelier service.

The service is available between 12 and 5 pm local time, users can supply their phone number and will be called up by one of the professional wine advisors who are on-hand. They can let you know anything from the tastes and quality of wines to more wine-amateur requests such as suggestions for what to serve with particular meals within your budget or what would make a good gift for an occasion. The sommelier offers wines from around the world too, such as a Japanese Continental Koshu Heart or KWV Classic Collection Pinotage to be served with yakitori.

For those who can’t remember the vast array of foreign names often thrown around when discussing wine, Sommelier even provides users with emailed summaries of their discussions to ensure they can remember the advice when they may come to order.

Whether the service will ever move beyond Japan is questionable, with no mention from Amazon. Japan is a good proving ground for it, though, having one of the largest wine catalogues out of all the international Amazon sites. I think many of us would welcome the help when it comes to trying to buy a wine for an occasion and avoid the shame of a bad pick.