I am thrilled to be the first to announce that Ideum has released a new touch table called the Tasting Table. It comes bundled with software that facilitates wine tasting. The Wine Experience allows guests to learn more about the tasting process and share what they experience. The software provides a new way to experience wine, demystifying and deepening the tasting experience. The video on this post introduces the Tasting Table and The Wine Experience application. You can also learn more at our new Sensory Dining website which has additional information, in our press release, or read the story published by Blooloop covering the release of the Tasting Table.

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It is not hyperbole to say that we’ve been working on this new interactive experience for decades. The last project I managed at the Exploratorium in San Francisco was the Science of Wine in 1999. During that project, I was introduced to Ann Noble, the U.C. Davis Professor who developed the Wine Aroma Wheel. A custom and highly modified version of the open-source Wine Aroma Wheel is important in The Wine Experience application. We’ve made it interactive, where guests can select and share the flavors they are tasting.  Analytics are built into the software, so a winery that uses this application can see what their guests are experiencing, effectively crowd sourcing their tasting notes.

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The Wine Experience software is paired with our new Tasting Table, developed explicitly for tasting rooms, popup events, and other spaces where wine tastings happen. The Tasting Table has a unique design: It is bar-height and has an optically bonded 55” touch display. An onboard computer makes the system plug-and-play. The system is lockable, and the software only requires an internet connection to load new content. The table builds on our 15 years of experience developing touch tables.

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In addition, the experience uses our object-recognition system, Tangible Engine. Developed over the last eight years, this software allows the interactive coasters that are part of the Tasting Table to recognize up to eight different wines. Tangible Engine was the first object-recognition software package for projected-capacitive touch tables; many design firms, including ours, use it. 

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Over the years, using our technology, we developed experimental applications that involved tasting. The Interactive Coffee Experience was designed with Starbucks and appeared at several pop-up events. We developed an interactive wine-tasting experience, the JCB Tasting Salon with JCB Wines. More recently we worked with MSC Cruises to create the Interactive Wine Bar for the Euribia cruise ship. These experiences and the great and knowledgeable collaborators we worked with have contributed to our thinking as we developed this exciting new wine-tasting experience. In addition, we worked closely with VARA Winery & Distillery, who provided excellent feedback during our extensive testing and tasting sessions!

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The video demonstrates the many individual features of The Wine Experience. Our mission was to create a guest-centric experience, focusing on individuals tasting the wine. We want to enhance the tasting experience, making the interactive less of a brochure for the winery and more about the social experience surrounding tasting and the joy of tasting fine wines.

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I’ve been interested in wine since working in a wine shop and a restaurant in my early twenties. I also have a small vineyard in Corrales, New Mexico, with 150 vines I’ve been growing for over a decade. This project blends my personal and professional interests like no other endeavor has. We’ve had our first pop-up event with VARA, with more planned, and will have our first permanent installation at the New Mexico Wine Association’s new tasting room in Old Town later this year. We will let you know about future tasting events and installations!

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