Yes, I am a wine freak. It’s I who started the creation of the WineFreak Digital Wine Cellar. I want to tell you why.
I am not a wine specialist at all. I have lived a long life in the IT industry. First many years as a software developer. Then, after running my own software development company for 10 years, I sold it and continued my career being an IT industry manager at a large IT Solution Provider. Great international assignments for many years. That was really fun.
So, where does WineFreak come in?
This is a long story. To make it short: In reality, the process started already when I purchased a little vineyard in Italy, about 20 years ago. The next milestone was when our daughter motivated me to start my wine cellar home in Oslo. In fact, she gave me part of the very first wine cabinet as a Christmas present…
But it really took off when I lost my spread sheet! Yes, as almost all wine collectors do, I maintained a nice spreadsheet about my wines. All important information about my bottles were there. Even the pictures of the labels.
When I lost it, I really felt lost. Should I type all this information into a new spread sheet? That was a horrifying thought. By then, I had gathered about 80 different labels in my cellar. When I passed 20, I understood that it would be impossible to maintain my collection in a proper way without a system, and I thought a spread sheet would be a good idea. But that was then…
So, I started to scan the market for a proper wine cellar solution. I did not find any covering my ambitions. What I found were companies who supplied complete wine cellars with furniture, air conditioning and you name it. I called one of the most respectable of them, asking whether they could also provide a digital wine cellar together with all that gear. I will never forget the answer: “We would love doing so, and we have been looking for a solution the last 10 years”.
That was the point when I decided to create a solution for wine collectors, wine shops, restaurants and last but not least for myself. I started the company InWinCo (Increase your Wine Competence) for software production and solution ownership, and WineFreak AS for sales and distribution.
Increase your wine competence?? Yes, since I am not a wine specialist, one important demand for the solution was that it would contain all possible information – on the fingertips – about the wine in the cellar, so that the system can also educate you.
And here we are. I hope you will enjoy the ride into the WineFreak solution.
I personally garanty you that our products are of superb quality.
Michael Wittwer, CEO