Wellington trio launch Wine-oji, a global guide to buying wine

Josh Pointon (left) with Jessica Wood and Maciej Zimny. The trio have come up with an easy way to explain what's in wine. Photo / Supplied

A group of wine aficionados are tackling the communication barriers in the wine industry by producing a global visual guide that tells you exactly what's in the bottle.

In a bid to modernise the language of wine, Wellington wine professionals Maciej Zimny, Josh Pointon and Jessica Wood, of Noble Rot Wine Bar, have created Wine-oji, a visual profiling system that's being trialled at New World Island Bay until May.

While the March 2020 lockdown meant Noble Rot had to close, the trio continued their wine delivery service and discussions around the need for an instant way to communicate to consumers to help take the guesswork out of buying wine began.

Pointon said there might be 50 options of the same variety available to consumers, "but people tend to buy products because of the price, what the label looks like, or whether there are gold stickers on them".

"You often don't know what you're buying.

"People want to learn about wine but most people don't have the time - months or years - to fully understand it. In our experience people know what they like, but there's no quick reference out there to tell them what their wine tastes like," Pointon said.

Wood said by connecting people with wine on a new, visual level, "we'll be helping to educate them in a fun, engaging way".

"By providing emoji-like images to visualise what's in a bottle, they'll start to recognise what they like and then they'll be able to branch out and explore alternative varieties."

Wine-oji aims to help take the guesswork out of buying wine at the supermarket. Photo / Supplied

It's taken two years to gather information from wine producers, jumping intellectual property hurdles in the UK, US, Europe, Australia, China, and New Zealand, and getting the image designs and wine profiles off the ground.

For the New World trial, the team profiled wines by selecting a cross-section of wines from New Zealand and abroad. They then tasted the wines and created profiles to be placed around the price section of each wine on the shelves.

"New World has been very cooperative, they're not paying for the trial and are assisting us in gathering essential sales data. We want to see whether there's an appetite for Wine-oji among consumers," Wood said.

Zimny said the data could also be used in the future to help see what influences purchases, but it didn't have to stop there.

Not only could the Wine-oji system help consumers and retailers, it could help wine producers and distributors to provide a visual representation of their wine across their digital platforms and marketing, as well as for staff training and customer tasting, he said.

"It's a no-brainer. Everyone wins. We have a huge respect for the past but it's time to move forward. Wine-oji presents exactly what's in the bottle in a modern, visual way and, by breaking down wine's sometimes stuffy reputation, it simplifies a beverage which is notoriously complex yet widely consumed.

"We've got a start-up that has global potential. New Zealand is often treated as the young kid in the room but this will change the scene. It's great to think we can provide an accessible, user-friendly wine language to the world."