{"id":289991,"date":"2026-04-28T17:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289991\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:40:19","slug":"bay-area-sommeliers-say-ai-cant-replace-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289991\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area sommeliers say AI can’t replace them"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Bay Area \u2014 ground zero<\/a> of the AI boom<\/a>, where nearly half of San Francisco\u2019s roughly 500 billboards belong to artificial intelligence companies<\/a> and a growing subset of people are outsourcing as many decisions to AI<\/a> as possible in the hopes of getting to the future first<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s hardly surprising that diners are using AI chatbots, such as OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Google\u2019s Gemini, to make their wine selections in restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Castleberry, sommelier at Mediterranean restaurant Eos & Nyx<\/a> in San Jose, said he sees a diner using AI to choose a wine off his list \u201cevery other night, if not once a night.\u201d It picks up, he said, when a big tech conference is in the area, such as Nvidia GTC, a global conference for AI developers that took place in San Jose in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wine drinkers have been using technology to guide their buying decisions for years. There are plenty of apps<\/a>, like Vivino, that analyze a user\u2019s purchase history and preferences to make recommendations. From that perspective, chatbots are simply the latest tool \u2014 and according to a recent survey<\/a> of U.S. wine drinkers from industry researcher Wine Opinions, 25% of respondents have used them at least once to choose wine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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But there has suddenly been a lot of existentialist-tinged wine industry discourse about them: The New York Times declared<\/a> that \u201cAI is coming for the sommeliers.\u201d Given that \u201cAI can\u2019t taste,\u201d Bon App\u00e9tit asked<\/a>, \u201cWhy do people let it pick their wine?\u201d In an Instagram post<\/a>, a sommelier who said they work at a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City called it \u201ccrushing\u201d when guests ask \u201cthe little robot in (their) phone\u201d when she\u2019s \u201cstudied this s\u2014 for years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The consensus is that diners are using AI because wine often feels impenetrable: They\u2019re overwhelmed by vast or esoteric wine lists, or simply embarrassed to ask questions. Yet Castleberry offered another theory about the shift: It shows that the decades-long stigma against the sommelier prevails. \u201cThe idea of the pretentious jerky somm is a real bummer. I personally have seen and worked with people constantly pushing big bottles and price points, and not listening to what the guest wants,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe with a chatbot, people worry less about the agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The consensus is that diners are using AI because they\u2019re overwhelmed by vast or esoteric wine lists, or simply embarrassed to ask questions. Some restaurants are responding by featuring shorter lists. Pictured: the wine list at Lord Stanley, now closed, in San Francisco in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n

Laurel Livezey, head sommelier at Healdsburg vegan marketplace Little Saint,<\/a> said these \u201cmisconceptions\u201d may have carried over from the \u201990s and 2000s, when there was a \u201chistory of supplier relationships outweighing customer relationships,\u201d which she thinks diluted trust in sommeliers. \u201cThis idea that we\u2019re only there to make the big sale, to judge your wine preferences and tell you what you want to drink,\u201d Livezey said, \u201cthat\u2019s in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Castleberry makes sure his list \u201chas something for everyone\u201d so he doesn\u2019t \u201calienate\u201d any customers. Many restaurants have also shifted to shorter wine lists<\/a> to make the selection process less intimidating. But the increasing reliance on AI to navigate a wine list suggests bigger changes are needed to make wine more approachable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Zoltan Nagy, the general manager and wine director at Macarena in Palo Alto \u2014 the upscale Spanish tapas restaurant that hosted Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl afterparty<\/a> \u2014 said he sees customers using chatbots once or twice a night. \u201cThey turn a page or two (of the wine list) and when they feel a little like, \u2018Oh my God, I can\u2019t understand anything,\u2019 they pick up their phone, take a picture and have ChatGPT recommend a wine,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noting that he has tasted more than 10,000 wines over the past five years, Nagy asked, \u201cWhy do you trust AI and not trust somebody who puts on a smile and tastes wine every day?\u201d<\/p>\n

Restaurant jobs are largely considered safe from <\/a>AI; they require physical tasks, and for now, it\u2019s more affordable to pay humans to bus tables than to purchase a robot. And while sommeliers do have some physical components to their job \u2014 including serving wine and stocking the cellar \u2014 their value lies in the knowledge they have accumulated through years of expensive study, tasting and testing. That knowledge is, to some degree, replaceable by AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, sommeliers interviewed by the Chronicle argued, chatbots lack their ability to assemble an exciting, well-rounded wine list, which often entails procuring hard-to-find bottles through longstanding, personal relationships. A chatbot can pull tasting notes off the internet, but it can\u2019t experience how particular vintages of a wine might taste differently. \u201cI don\u2019t know if AI will ever reach the depth of knowledge we get from tasting and experimenting, trying new things and getting creative with what we have at our disposal,\u201d Livezey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wines<\/p>\n

Wines on display at the checkout counter in the wine retail section at Little Saint in Healdsburg in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Erik Castro\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n

Castleberry said that there can be a disconnect between what a bot says will pair with a specific dish and the type of wine the person actually likes to drink \u2014 especially if the diner isn\u2019t giving it \u201cvery specific parameters and prompts\u201d to help it \u201cdig deeper and understand your tastes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve had a couple of incidents where people were like, \u2018Ugh, that’s not really my style,\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nagy has had similar experiences. \u201cI have had guests say, \u2018I don\u2019t like the wine AI gave me,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here, that\u2019s why I ask you questions about what you drink every day, about what you\u2019re eating tonight. I\u2019m not sure AI understands the guest and what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI recommendations also tend to be quite basic<\/a>: Castleberry said chatbots seem to almost always recommend an Italian wine to his diners, likely drawing from the Italian and Greek influences on the food menu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s way more simplistic,\u201d Livezey said. \u201cIf I\u2019m thinking oxidative Jura, (the chatbot) is typically giving me Chardonnay. It works, but it\u2019s not the creativity I’m going for.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That said, she believes chatbots could act as support staff, helping bridge the gap between self-conscious drinkers and sommeliers. \u201cIf a recommendation from ChatGPT is the start of a conversation, who am I to judge that?\u201d Livezey said. \u201cIf wine is being talked about and ordered, that excites me, period.\u201d<\/p>\n