Jeremy Oliver, one of Australia’s most outspoken and influential wine critics, has extended his resume further with the launch of Oliver’s Wines, an online retail platform that seeks to reframe not only the customer buying experience but customer attitudes themselves. Taking a leaf out of ecommerce leaders in music, books, films and tv, Jeremy’s new venture combines industry leading recommendation software with his own personal and professional wine tasting database to accurately recommend wines based on users’ past preferences.
“Developed locally in Melbourne, the world’s leading wine recommendation engine is able to treat every single user as an audience of one and suggest wines for them based on their very own favourites,” said Jeremy.
“Customers can create and manage their own lists of favourite wines, buy the wines our system recommends and then give feedback to help the system do its job even better.”
The platform, which includes both a website and an app, will include Jeremy Oliver’s four decade’s of ratings, tasting notes, articles and videos. No subscription cost is charged, similar to how Jeremy refuses to charge producers to tasting and rating their wines.
“We’re providing wine enthusiasts with a place to learn, research, engage with and buy from. We’re not at all interested in discounting wines; we just want to ensure that people enjoy the wines they are buying online,” said Jeremy.
“In short, we want to help the wine buyer through the provision of unbiased information and truly personalised recommendation. We want to help the industry by removing the costs associated with wine media coverage and by supporting wine brands that focus on quality. We want to build long-term relationships with buyers and producers of wine that stands out from the pack – not by price but by quality.”
“Consumers are being fed the lie they should be happy to buy wines simply because they are cheaper than their typical retail price, rather than because they will actually enjoy the contents of the bottle.”
Jeremy Oliver, author of 30 books, was listed in the World’s Top 20 Wine Critics in the 2018 BWW competition and is currently rated by Sopexa as one of the World’s Top 100 Palates.
“I’m excited to be going back to my old day job as an independent critic,” said Jeremy.
“I’ll be rating and commenting on all the major wines in Australia, regardless of whether or not they’re for sale on this platform. My opinion is not for sale, just as it never has been.”
The new platform has been launched at the same time as an IWSR study advises brand owners to keep ecommerce a key priority.
