Student Entrepreneur Revolutionizes the Dinner Party

After finding inspiration on a family vacation, University of Colorado Boulder Student Frederik Jelert decided to revolutionize the way people drink wine.

As CEO and Founder of Barrique, Jelert decided it was time to design an app that helps people to find the perfect wine to accompany any meal.

Frederik Jelert is a sophomore at CU Boulder studying Business. He’s originally from Denmark, Copenhagen. His family moved to the US because of his father’s job and they currently live in New York. He decided to attend CU because he used to work as a ski instructor in Austria and couldn’t picture himself giving up the sport. With Boulder’s prime location near the mountains and numerous ski resorts, he knew it was the right choice.

He developed his love for wine while on a wine tasting tour during a family trip to Austria. He has casually been drinking under the supervision of his family since he was about 12, but never really appreciated the differences in various types of wine until recently.

The idea for his venture came to him as he was hosting a dinner party for his friends. He always received complements on his choice of wine. People assumed it was extremely expensive, while in reality it was just a clever choice of pairing for the food he served. He suggests that it’s reasonable to pay around $15 for a good bottle of wine. He also suggested that people can be shy when trying new wine, and tend to stick to what they’re familiar with.

“My venture is primarily to help people to pair their wines with food. I think a lot of people have a misconception about wine, that it has to be a complicated process to match food and Wine. People are missing out on the pleasures of trying different wines and enhancing the wine drinking experience by matching it with the right food,” said Jelert.

Over the last year, Jelert has dedicated countless hours to developing the idea for this new technology. A few issues he’s faced have been his own inexperience with app development, funding issues, and a design idea for the simple Artificial Intelligence that would be required to adapt to peoples’ preferences. When he gets further along with the development of his app, he also hopes to speak with professional wine connoisseur, to enhance the accuracy of the app.

“I picture it as a house hold app, so that whenever people have questions about wine, they know what to turn to,” said Jelert.