Hear this article read aloud.
Every good wine bar has someone who can look at what you ordered and tell you exactly what to drink with it. At Enology Wine Bar & Bistro in Saint James, that question comes up at nearly every table: what goes with the sole, what should I eat with this Barolo, where do we even start tonight. So we built The Somm, an AI sommelier that answers it from Enology’s own menu, for anyone, at any hour.
You can try The Somm right now on Enology’s website. It is free, it needs no account, and it is coming to the Enology app this November.
We are part of Enology, and we build and run its website, its online menu and the services behind its wine passport. The Somm grew out of that work, and it runs on the same live menu the bar edits every day.
Three ways to ask
The Somm answers three kinds of question.
- A wine. Pick any pour from the list and The Somm tells you what it is and how it tastes, then pairs it with plates from Chef Franco Pollini’s kitchen.
- A dish. Pick a plate and it pairs it with drinks: wines by the glass and bottle, flights, cocktails, spirits, and the non-alcoholic choices too.
- A whole evening. Choose the kind of night it is (date night, light and bright, big reds, something new, celebrating, or no alcohol tonight) and it plans three courses from the menu, with a pour for each.
Every dish and wine on Enology’s menu also carries an Ask the Somm link, so a guest reading the list can go straight to a pairing for the thing in front of them.
Every pairing explains itself
We did not want a pairing chart that says “white wine with fish” and stops. A sommelier tells you why, so The Somm does too. Every pairing comes with three things.
A lens. It is an echo, where the two share a flavor and amplify it; a contrast, where one cuts or lifts the other, like acid against fat or bubbles against salt; or a wildcard, a pairing almost nobody would think to order that genuinely works.
A bridge. The one flavor that links the two, in plain words.
A match score from one to five, scored honestly so you know which to try first. Not everything gets a five.
Here is what that looks like. We asked The Somm about the Sole Meunière while writing this post. It described the dish as “nutty, bright and briny all at once” and paired it with a Puligny Montrachet as an echo, bridged by hazelnut and brown butter. A Sancerre came back as a contrast, its citrus cutting the butter “like an extra squeeze of lemon.” Its wildcard was a small pour of 1999 Broadbent Colheita Madeira, for the browned, salty caramel it shares with the sauce. It even found a non-alcoholic match on the list. Each answer ends with a practical note from the floor, the kind of tip a server would give you.
It can only pair from tonight’s menu
This was the rule we built everything else around. An AI that suggests a dish the kitchen does not make, or a wine the bar does not pour, is worse than no answer at all. So The Somm cannot do either.
Behind it is Claude, Anthropic’s AI model. When you ask, The Somm loads Enology’s live menu, the same one the bar keeps current for its website, and hands it to the model as a numbered list. The model answers by number, not by name. Our server then maps every number back to a real item on the menu and drops anything that does not match, including a dish offered where a drink was asked for. Whatever reaches you is something you can actually order tonight. When a wine sells out or a new plate goes on, The Somm knows within minutes.
We gave it a sommelier’s brief, too: warm, exact, never pompous, the person who makes a guest braver about what they order. It never mentions prices. And it never says a dish is gluten free, vegan or safe for an allergy, because it does not know the kitchen’s ingredients and the server does. Every answer carries the same reminder: if you have allergies or dietary needs, tell your server before you order.
Built for a guest at the table
Speed mattered as much as accuracy. A guest asking The Somm is often sitting at the bar with a menu in hand, so we tuned it to answer in seconds rather than make them wait. Guests who sign in to their wine passport get one more thing: when The Somm plans their evening, it leans on the wines they rated highest and then stretches them once with something new.
The bar stays in charge of it. The Somm has an on and off switch in Enology’s admin, the same place the team edits the menu.
Try it now
Open The Somm and ask about your favorite wine, or a dish you have been meaning to order. Browse the menu and tap Ask the Somm on anything that catches your eye. Then come see whether it was right: reserve a table at Enology, 412 North Country Road in Saint James. The Somm arrives in the Enology app this November.
If your restaurant or bar wants guests to order with more confidence, a guide built on your own menu can do it. Talk to us about what that could look like for you.
