Mr Vine: New App Delivers More Great Wine For Your Money!

Clever new mobile app launching this week set to change the way wine lovers find and buy their favourite wines

The market for fine wines can be both baffling and confusing at times, for both casual wine drinkers and committed 'oenophiles' alike, but the new Mr Vine app – launching Monday 18th May 2015 for iPhones – demystifies the process of selecting the best wines from Britain's best specialist retailers, for any budget and for all occasions, whether you need one or two bottles for dinner or several cases for weddings or events!

Mr Vine offers British wine drinkers an unparalleled service – helping them to select, source and buy the best wines to suit their palates and personal tastes, at the best prices, from the UK's leading independent wine merchants. It makes the entire process of choosing and buying your favourite wines fun, easy and great to share!

Mr Vine is the brainchild of Charlie Martin, a London-based wine entrepreneur, who realised that there was a clear opportunity to use the latest smartphone and social networking technology to offer British wine drinkers a far better experience of buying, tasting and sharing wine than that currently on offer from UK supermarkets and traditional wine retailers.

"What Mr Vine offers really is quite simple," says Charlie Martin, founder and CEO of Mr Vine. "Our app makes buying wine and sharing your best tips fun and social. It learns about what you like as you use it, so you can be confident that Mr Vine is sifting through the best wines out there to suit your palate."

"The existing process of selecting the best wine that will satisfy your tastebuds at the right budget is pretty confusing, mainly because of the way in which wine is being marketed and sold at supermarkets and off-licences in Britain. We decided to bring together the best independent wine retailers to list their most popular wines on Mr Vine, so we believe the app can offer the best quality wines at all price levels, in one place: that's the core aim. The system makes the purchase of your favourite wines easy and fun."

The innovative Mr Vine app lets you select your favourite wines by grape or region, and constantly learns your tastes and preferences in wines as you make purchases. The app contains a built-in wine encyclopaedia designed to demystify the wine-buying process and clever social networking style features to connect you with local and national communities of wine-lovers to share your favourite discoveries with.

There are no restrictions on orders, from single bottles through to cases and, should you be confused or unsure about your choice of wine, then Mr Vine himself is always on hand to give you expert advice, tips and suggestions on the best local wine offers and events.

Trust Mr Vine to find your wine and you'll never waste money on expensive plonk from the local supermarket or off-licence again!

ENDS

Notes for Editors

What is Mr Vine?

Mr Vine is an app for iPhone (also launching for iPad and Android devices in summer 2015), which lets you discover, choose and buy wine, which is then delivered to you from one of Mr Vine's unique network of independent wine merchants. It has been designed to appeal to all types of wine-drinkers – from casual ones to oenophiles -- and to cater for all budgets.

Its key features include:

• Ever-expanding choice of around 1,000 wines and spirits from more than 10 wine merchants
• Ability to select wines by grape or region
• Constantly learns your taste in wine as you make purchases
• Ability to send wines as gifts, or purchase in bulk for events and catering
• Built-in wine encyclopaedia designed to demystify the wine-buying process
• Social networking features that give you access to a community of wine-lovers
• Mr Vine himself always available to answer queries, plus highlight offers and events
• No restriction on orders: from single bottles to multiple cases

How does Mr Vine work?

Once you download the free app, from Apple's App Store (or, when it launches on Android, Google's Play Store), you're invited to answer a few basic questions designed to establish your taste in wine. Here you can pick out favourite wine types, individual regions or even drill down into specific grapes, and set price preferences.

Next, you simply input your details, and set up a Mr Vine profile (for which you can upload a photo). Among other things, this allows you to rate wines which you have bought via Mr Vine, have conversations with other Mr Vine users who have given feedback about specific wines and communicate with Mr Vine himself, who will answer any queries.

And you're ready to start buying your wine. Mr Vine will offer recommendations based on your stated wine preferences, and you can browse its extensive stock of wines and spirits to your heart's content, via a huge number of criteria (for example, you can quickly drill down to wines you have already bought, and see comparable wines to those). Mr Vine's key screen – equivalent to the app's homepage – is Mr Vine Suggests, which is tailored to your stated preferences, will notify you when relevant offers become available and will hone its suggestions continually according to what wine you buy from Mr Vine and how you change or expand your preferences.

An extensive Glossary – essentially a wine encyclopaedia – is also accessible, providing information on wine regions, grapes and wine-related terms and jargon. As you make purchases and provide feedback about them, Mr Vine's algorithms will automatically refine their knowledge of your preferences, and adjust recommendations accordingly.

What makes Mr Vine unique?

Although there are several wine-buying apps available, Mr Vine is unique in a number of ways. It is the only wine-buying app that stocks wines from a network of the UK's finest independent wine-merchants, rather than a single source. It is the only wine-buying app that continues to learn your wine preferences as you make purchases. And it is the only wine app with a social networking element, which effectively gives users access to a Trip Advisor-style critical resource of fellow users.

How does Mr Vine's social networking work?

Everyone who sets up a Mr Vine account can create a social networking-style profile, uploading a photo and any information about themselves which they deem relevant. They can then make comments about Mr Vine purchases, rate individual wines and have conversations with other Mr Vine users, as well as Mr Vine himself.

A system of hashtags, similar to Twitter's, allows Mr Vine users, for example, to tag wines as perfect for drinking with fish, and you can base searches on those hashtags. When you look at the pages for individual wines, you will be able to see the comments that other Mr Vine users have made, and you will be able to recommend wines to your friends. Mr Vine's social networking will be moderated: you can report comments, or even block other users.

Where will Mr Vine go in the future?

As Mr Vine's user base grows, so will the number of independent wine merchants it gives access to. More than ten independent wine merchants will be listing their products at launch and that number will grow throughout 2015 with up to 25 already showing keen interest to join. This will likely triple Mr Vine's launch offer of well over 1,000 wines. Mr Vine will also become steadily more active as far as events are concerned, establishing a timetable of regular wine-tastings around the UK. And, ultimately, it will expand to other countries.

Technical details

Runs on iOS versions 7.1 and later.

Will launch for iPad and Android devices in summer 2015

App is free to download

Wine Tech: company details

The Mr Vine app was produced by Wine Tech Ltd

Address: 48 Charlotte Street, London W1T 2NS

Press enquiries: Telephone Adam Hartley 07882 982890

Adam Hartley: adam@mrvine.co.uk

Steve Boxer: steve@mrvine.co.uk

Biographies

CEO: Charlie Martin

Charlie Martin came up with the idea for the Mr Vine app and founded parent company Wine Tech Ltd to run it as a corporate entity from day one. As its CEO, he will have brand and business development responsibilities for the company and he already holds a very unique mix of both brand marketing and Wine business experience. After completing his business degree at Brunel University he founded an award winning communications agency before changing course for a career in the wine industry ten years ago.

He now runs leading fine wine consultancy First Growth Bordeaux (FGB) in London; during this time he formed key relationships with the best UK wine retailers: companies which he now considers important suppliers to the Mr Vine app project. The product list offered by these retailers is considered to be of the highest quality available in the UK, at all price points, and these are wines not normally found in large supermarkets and off-licence chains. Charlie's aim is to give the wider public access to these great wines via his Mr Vine app., by putting these offers "Under one digital roof, so the power when choosing wines is truly with the consumer."

Greg Jones, Head of Operations and Sales

After over twenty years in the wine industry, Greg brings to Mr Vine his experience as the former Retail Director of Majestic Wine Warehouses PLC, alongside his enduring passion for the product and his belief in the importance of educating consumers about the joy of wine.

Inspired by a trip to the Barossa Valley in early 1993, Greg Jones joined Majestic Wine PLC as a Trainee Manager later that year and moved to through the ranks to spend eight years on the board of Directors at Majestic, successfully overseeing the dramatic growth of the business as Retail Director. He decided it was time for a new challenge at the emerging technology end of the wine trade where the retail proposition is most dynamic. Having initially joined the Mr Vine story as a consultant, Greg is delighted to be working full-time at a company he believes is well positioned for the future of quality wine retailing.

Greg has won the Champagne Scholarship for his Distinction in the WSET Diploma.

Greg Jones says: "With Mr Vine, the customer really is king, as their own preferences define the offers and wines that are marketed to them. The variety of independent suppliers delivers the consumer an eclectic and broad selection of quality wines. Mr Vine delivers a winning combination of old-fashioned excellence in wine buying with the latest in mobile technology. We want to help consumers really enjoy the process of buying wine and help them get to know - using information from other App users - a bit more about the wine before they press 'buy'."