Photo/Illutration Sommelier Toyoaki Kamiya (Provided by Cultivate Japan Co.)

SAITAMA--Sommelier Toyoaki Kamiya is floating an idea to consumers unsure of what kind of wine to pick up off the liquor store shelf: try using his "reference wine."

He created the insipid product after he was shocked to discover how greatly some imbibers' preferences differ.

Using grapes produced in southern France, the specially-brewed wine was developed by a start-up firm here, based on an analysis of 3,500 bottles of wine from all over the world.

But how will such a bland bottle, touting a thoroughly average and "characterless" taste, help drinkers?

The story begins 20 years ago, when a restaurant opened in Aichi Prefecture.

Kamiya, now 44 and living in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, was then in his mid-20s, struggling to find a way to better serve customers with drastically different taste buds. He found a glass of sweet wine evaluated by one person as "too sweet" could be described as "lacking sweetness" by another.

Kamiya was astonished at how some people can have practically polar opposite palates.

Trying to figure out the difference in people's preferences, Kamiya asked his customers questions about other drinks and meals.

"How much sugar do you put in your coffee?" he would ask. "Which ramen do you like better: salty ramen or soy sauce ramen?"

But he found it was limited in predicting their tastes.

It was around that time Kamiya came up with a plan to "show the tastes of various wine products in numerical values, so objective criteria can be provided."

"That would enable even those who are not knowledgeable about wine to discover products that meet their tastes," recalled Kamiya.

He bought a taste sensor for 10 million yen ($92,000) just after he turned 30.

Kamiya then spent six years using the equipment to measure the sweetness and richness levels of a total of 3,500 bottles of red, white and other wine. He charted the results, creating an original database he could then use to map out wine flavors.

But it was difficult for wine novices to identify their favorites only using the taste diagram.

So Kamiya decided to create a reference wine, which acts as an average across the various flavor categories, based on the thousands of bottles of wine he analyzed.

He said the base wine will help people compare and discover wine with the best sweetness and astringency suited for them.

Kamiya’s wine supplier, Keishiro Sakashita, 29, who lives in Saitama, became interested in the project once he heard about it.

After quitting a job at a food maker in February last year, Sakashita established his own business called Sakelavo four months later. The product was finally completed in October last year.

Sakelavo provides tablet computers to show the taste chart for department stores and supermarkets that have purchased the reference wine. The mobile devices are equipped with an exclusive app that lets customers enter the sweetness and astringency levels they like, then discover their optimal choices in the shops.

The new method is anticipated to boost the number of wine lovers, but could the new product be so useful that it could deprive sommeliers of the chance to serve and recommend wines to customers? 

When asked about that possibility, Kamiya grinned and said there are some tasks only humans can do.

"We may have nothing to do if our only duty is discovering customers' preferences," he said. "But even the same wine brands could boast different flavors depending on the degree of maturity and the type of glasses.

"Only sommeliers can suggest the best way to enjoy wine, taking into account those factors and by making a novel and surprising proposal for customers."

Sakelavo has also been collecting flavor data on 600 sorts of Japanese sake and is looking to develop a reference sake like its wine counterpart in June.

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