Amazon launches sommelier-by-phone service

Online retailer Amazon has launched a sommelier service with a difference, giving customers expert wine advice over the phone.

Amazon has taken the traditional role of the sommelier and brought it to a digital audience with its latest service (Photo: Wiki)

The Amazon Sommelier service, currently available only in Japan, allows Amazon users to leave their phone number on the purchasing page when looking at a bottle of wine.

They then receive a call from a sommelier who can answer questions such about food-pairing and what flavours one can expect from the wine. The sommeliers can also recommend different wines.

Amazon’s sommeliers can also follow-up by email after the conversation, providing the customer with a more comprehensive list of wines that may better fit their needs.

The service is led by Japanese wine expert Miyuki Hara who heads a team of certified sommeliers that can answer requests between 12pm and 5pm every weekday.

Sam Byford, a writer at tech and entertainment site The Verge said: “Amazon Sommelier is a pretty impressive service, and an example of the things that can be achieved with the company’s dominant scale”.

Amazon has been asked to confirm wether the service will be rolled out to other countries in the future.