How Pay-Per-Taste Technology Is Democratizing Wine Tasting | Eater SF

"At a chic wine retailer in Napa Valley I could pay $47 for a one-ounce taste of the Harlan family’s Promontory — a bottle that otherwise goes for $1,000 and up — via a 100-point wine wall that automatically dispenses perfect-score wines and rare cabernet sauvignons such as Harbison Estate, Hundred Acre, and Bond’s Vecina. Last year they were even selling $65 tastes of the Flight by Screaming Eagle, and with a swipe of a card visitors can sample wines starting at $3 from a dozen Wine Stations focused on Napa Valley; the machines are currently pouring names like Opus One, Ovid, the Mascot, and the Debate. Tasting room manager Ashley Ogburn calls it “the adult candy store,” and owner Jean-Charles Boisset says the idea was to open access to wines and tasting rooms that are difficult to get into instead of forcing people to buy $600 bottles." - Maria C. Hunt