Wine: Screen Savior | Wireless Sommelier
F&W often gives advice on how to choose wine at a restaurant. "Call over the sommelier!" we say. "Tell him what you're eating, point to a bottle in your price range and he'll find something similar." The WineBook at Steve Hanson's Blue Fin restaurant in Manhattan is going to revolutionize this time-honored exchange. The wireless device lets you choose your own bottle--and you'll never again have to worry about making an embarrassing decision. Enter "sushi roll" and "sushi/sashimi" into the "flavor and food match" search, for instance, and you'll get a list of 29 white wines ranging in price from $18 to $60. Want to experiment with the "Wine Geek" section? It pays to have a sense of humor: If you try to match, say, "chilled lobster" and "full-bodied red," WineBook replies, "Gimme a break!" Master Sommelier Greg Harrington and his team spent five months perfecting the technology. Harrington, whose inspiration came from a similar model introduced last year at Aureole in Las Vegas, even wired the program to operate via the Internet (see www.bluefinwinebook.com). But going to the restaurant has its advantages: For extra help, you can always turn to the resident wine expert--the human one, that is.
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