Me
Hi everyone,
I'm David. For those of you I haven't met yet, I thought a quick introduction would be a nice way to kick things off.
I've been a sommelier and wine buyer for almost a decade now. This brings me all over the world — I often find myself everywhere from super-lux properties, private clients, boutique importers, winemakers, and sometimes hopelessly lost in the woods.
Much to people's surprise, my job is not only opening bottles and designing wine lists. The core is telling the story of wine and crafting memorable experiences around those moments. A good sommelier is essentially a nerdy researcher and publicist. We help find interesting wines from unknown regions with eccentric winemakers (most are) and share them with the world.
Wine is one of the coolest experiments that humans are a part of. We grow specific grapes at specific locations, ferment and age in specific ways and voilà... wine.
We've been doing this in a very organized manner for thousands of years. Between each step nature, people, geology, biology, chemistry, climate, etc. influence infinite variations and complex exchanges we are nowhere near able to comprehend. All this gets neatly packaged into a bottle you can drink.
Ergo... wine is cool.
The Project - WineKē (wine key)
Now you know a little about me. Here's the twist - I am also a programmer and have built tools for almost every side of the wine industry. I've been waiting for someone to build a platform for us all, but it never happened. So this is my attempt to help.
WineKē puts these tools all together in one place and available to everyone. This way you can focus on what's important to you. You no longer have to manage a website or deal with complex online portfolios.
If you're on the buy-side, imagine being able to search for an appellation, producer, or wine by any metric and easily look up anything. For the sell-side folks, imagine easily finding your perfect customers.
How fun this magical world would be?
We are also building tools to help connect and grow our global wine community. If you're brand new to wine, don't fret, we make it easy to learn in a fun and meaningful way. And if you're a seasoned-pro trying to find new markets, wines, importers, restaurant buyers, or anything really, we have you covered too. Maybe you're looking for the latest soil study of your favorite appellation. Or want to learn more about the intricacies of food pairings. WineKē is building something flexible enough to handle all these tasks.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
We already piloted all these. For example in Brunello di Montalcino DOCG alone, we filmed 12+ locations to help visualize that appellation better.
I'll share more about that soon.
Everything you would want or need I will always listen and evolve with the needs of our community. The tech world kind of forgot about us and never made a good effort to help. I hope to fix that. Link to the project.
The Blog - blog.WineKē
This will be a space for me to communicate with everyone. Things like keeping you updated on our progress, seeing behind-the-scenes, and helping you gain a greater understanding of me and the project.
Instead of writing a sea of articles I'll curate fewer but quality articles and keep them updated. Link to the blog.
Here's what we've been building
4k Videos - Drone and Documentary Style
In-depth coverage of appellations and their terroir variations.
High-altitude drone
Low-altitude drone
Immersive
Region & Appellation Overviews
Comprehensive views of regions and appellations – summary, history, facts, main varietals and the kinds of wines they make, local cuisine and ingredients... and more.
Producer & Wine Label Overviews
In-depth information on everything. For example attaching wines to the specific vineyard plots they come from. This allows a whole new level of information and exciting ways for buyers and sellers to find each other.
Encyclopedia, Context, Search & Filters
Education and context on-the-fly allowing everyone to learn in the moment.
Search and filter by any metric – production level, elevation, soil, location... and much more.
Market Research & Communication
In the future we'll incorporate research tools for international markets. These will help you understand their regional markets and the businesses operating there (importers, distributors, restaurants, hotels, retailers, etc.).
Also we'll connect buyers and sellers in various ways making international business easier than ever.
Behind The Scenes
A glimpse of the long days driving, filming, and exploring.
We're launching with Tuscany and spent 35 days there, drove 10,000km, flew drones 230km, and filmed 14hrs of content to help explore this region like never before!
Member discussion