Discovering wine in Esselunga will be a totally innovative, engaging experience: we are opening the in-store VINHOOD kiosk! The virtual Sommelier service, which is already present in the online shopping section of the Esselunga website, enters the store, with more functions and contents.
And we couldn’t do otherwise than start from the Esselunga Superstore in Via Triumplina 43, Brescia, which is celebrating its opening today.
When we say “Super” you’d better take our word for it: indeed, we are talking about one of the largest (and most innovative) supermarkets in Italy, with a 4,600 square meter sales space.
It will be a cutting edge store introduced as part of the project that aims to recover and renovate the former Idra Presse in Brescia.
THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN VINHOOD AND ESSELUNGA
Our partnership with Esselunga began about 3 years ago when our taste tests were added to the shopping online section of the Esselunga website. A solution that guides all types of people, from beginners to experts, as they choose their ideal wine, accompanying them until they find and purchase the labels that best match their tastes.
The tests were designed to offer personalised wine recommendations quickly and easily, making people capable of autonomously choosing their wines.
Since then, a great deal of progress has been made…
FROM THE ONLINE SHOPPING SITE TO THE PHYSICAL STORE, FROM THE VIRTUAL SOMMELIER TO YOUR TASTE EXPERT FRIEND
The VINHOOD service enters the first Esselunga store, evolving and acquiring more contents with a view to constantly improving its interaction with people and providing a customised service.
A kiosk located in the Wine section of the Esselunga store in Via Triumplina, Brescia, will welcome Customers, where they can interact with the VINHOOD Service.
VINHOOD, like a friend of yours who is an expert in taste, will ask you some very simple questions, mainly about your personal eating habits, suggest which wine is most suitable for your taste or occasion and provide you with contents and information about various wines.
VINHOOD uses a very simple, entertaining language, suitable both for people who know next to nothing about wine and those who are more of an expert.
You can begin by interacting with the taste test, to discover your own #character in terms of taste and the most suitable wines for your palate, or with the “expert” test, to find the ideal wine based on the organoleptic characteristics of the product. Instead, the food pairing function enables you to find the wine that best accompanies your chosen recipe, either by using the ingredients Test or by directly entering the name of your chosen dish.
The experience then continues with the story of the #Character of the Wine; this provides a series of entertaining but also technical contents about the #Character of the Wine, the producer company or the Bottle. We have also included a few interesting facts to share with friends or relatives over dinner.
THE NEW FUNCTION OF SCAN
The kiosk also has the Scan option: it will be possible to scan the barcode of wine to find out all the information about it, or the barcode of the Table-Ready products from the Gastronomy department, to find the ideal wines for the recipes.
Finally, so that you don’t get lost among the 850 wine labels, you can discover where the bottles are located on the shelves of the Wine department. Choose the right bottle for you and click on “WHERE YOU’LL FIND ME” in the wine info sheet.
All you have to do is give it a go and let us know what you think!
In the landscape of Italian food and wine tourism, Vinhood stands out for a unique approach that goes far beyond simple tasting. It’s not just about enjoying good wine and food, it’s about truly experiencing the region, discovering the stories, traditions, and landscapes that make each Italian region a universe of flavors to explore.
In a Tower of Babel papered with labels, of the kind you can only find in the wine aisle of a supermarket, you need a set of commandments to ensure you choose the right wine, especially if you don’t want to break the bank.
What if going live with wine producers became a chance to learn something new? This was the idea behind our project with producers during lockdown.