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eSommelier Introduces the First Residential, Integrated Wine Management Server (20/12/2004)

Automated system allows oenophiles and collectors to easily manage their wine cellar at home or abroad.

eSommelier introduces the first all-in-one hardware and software system that allows wine lovers to easily manage their collection of fine wines. Designed as a simple "plug and play" solution, the eSommelier Wine Management Server allows collectors access to their entire wine library at the touch of a button.

Before eSommelier, wine management consisted of either handwritten "cellar journals" or clunky spreadsheet-type software programs that required the user to manually enter all of the information about each bottle of wine in their collection. This may be fine for a small collection of young, ready to drink wines, but many wine collections exceed 1000 bottles and typing in that much information would take forever! eSommelier solves this problem by providing an automated Wine Management Server that is simple to use - even for those who are not "computer-inclined".

The eSommelier system consists of a touch screen interface that has an internal hard drive that stores eSommelier's database of over 130,000 wines from across the globe. When cataloging a bottle of wine, the user simply selects the Country, Region, Variety, Winery and Vintage of the wine from a prompted list instead of manually typing in all of this information. It typically takes 2 minutes to catalog a bottle of wine with eSommelier versus an average of 10 minutes per bottle with a spreadsheet-type program. The user can also enter in their own rating and tasting notes - a helpful tool for oenophiles that like to track the progression of each wine in their collection as it ages. Each wine in the eSommelier database that has been reviewed by a renowned expert contains that reviewer's tasting notes and rating.

The eSommelier system gives collectors unprecedented control over managing and searching their wine cellar. Via its integrated Ethernet port, the eSommelier system can be accessed from any networked device in the home, as well as from anywhere around the world. This is particularly useful for collectors that have either a second home or store their wine collection off site. Searching for a particular bottle for dinner is also a simple task. Users can search by any parameter they wish, whether it be Country or Varietal, to find the perfect wine to pair with their meal. The eSommelier system can also recall the exact location of a bottle in a wine cellar - no more disappearing into the wine cellar for an hour trying to find that "special bottle" for dinner.

A rack mountable eSommelier server is also available for those that wish to use existing touch screens, and the eSommelier Integrator's Model is compatible with both AMX and Crestron home automation systems. An optional bar code scanner is available to catalog wines that provide a unique bar code. Once the bar code is scanned and that wine's information entered into the system, subsequent bottles of the same wine can be scanned to be added or removed from the system, or simply scanned to quickly retrieve that wine's information.

MSRP of the eSommelier standard touch screen server is $5,000. The integrator's model - compatible with both AMX and Crestron home automation systems - is $8,000. MSRP of the rack mount server is $6,000. MSRP of the bar code scanner is $1,000. All are shipping now.

Designed and engineered by Media Access Solutions, eSommelier is the first residential, integrated Wine Management Server that gives wine lovers unprecedented access to their wine collections. Via a simple to use touch screen interface, collector's can search their entire wine cellar from anywhere in their home or abroad.

www.esommelier.net