At 22, Tony Fournales, a computer science student from Auch, is preparing to launch Glouglou, an app designed to make managing a wine cellar easier. Born out of a family meal where choosing a bottle proved complicated, it lets users catalogue their wines, find information about a bottle by scanning its label, and get food-and-wine pairing suggestions based on the bottles they already have.
At 22, Tony Fournales launches Glouglou, the app that makes managing your wine cellar easier
A well-stocked cellar does not always make it easy to choose a wine when it is time to sit down to eat. When there are lots of bottles and no inventory showing exactly what is in storage, finding a wine to go with the meal can take time. This practical problem inspired Tony Fournales and led him to create Glouglou, a digital tool for managing wine cellars.
The young man from Gers, a computer science student, set out to develop the app himself. His project is primarily aimed at individuals who want to organise their collection and learn more about the bottles they own. Glouglou brings together several features in a single interface: a wine inventory, tracking of drinking windows, and recommendations for pairing wines with dishes.
An idea born during a family meal
The idea came to him one Christmas Eve, when Tony Fournales went down to the cellar with his grandfather. The family had to choose a bottle to go with the meal prepared by his grandmother, but it was difficult to search through the cellar without a detailed list. Despite the large number of wines, the two men could not easily tell which ones were available or which would best suit the menu.
This indecision raised a simple question: how can you quickly find out which bottles are in a cellar and choose one that goes with the meal? Tony Fournales then suggested to his grandfather that they create an inventory. As he was studying computer science, he soon started thinking about a more comprehensive solution than a simple handwritten list: an app that could store the information and make it available in moments.
The project therefore began with a family need, but the same difficulty can affect many wine lovers. Over time, a cellar can fill with bottles from different estates, vintages, or regions. Without a tracking tool, it is easy to forget about a bottle, lose track of where it is, or lose sight of the best time to open it.
An inventory to easily find your bottles
With Glouglou, each user can create a personal account and build a database for their own cellar. The app is designed to centralise information about bottles, making it easier to check your stock. Instead of searching through the rows one by one, users can consult their saved inventory to find out what they have.
This feature is particularly useful for people whose cellars contain a large number of wines. Manually entering details can quickly become tedious when there are hundreds of bottles. A recognition tool is intended to speed up this step and reduce the time spent adding each wine to the inventory.
The inventory is not just for counting bottles. It also keeps a record of what is in the cellar and provides useful information to help plan when to drink the wines. In particular, Glouglou includes notifications about drinking windows, helping users keep track of their bottles and know when to consider opening them.
Label scanning uses artificial intelligence
To make it easier to add wines to the inventory, Glouglou includes a label-scanning feature. Users can take a photo of a bottle’s label instead of entering all its details by hand. The app uses artificial intelligence to identify the wine, then can search the internet for additional information.
This process is designed to reduce the steps involved in creating a detailed inventory. When a cellar contains several hundred bottles, entering each one individually is a substantial task. Identifying wines from their labels can therefore speed up the process of adding them and make it easier to keep the inventory up to date.
Once a bottle has been identified, searches can retrieve information about its characteristics. The aim is to save users from having to fill in every entry themselves and give them quicker access to details about the wine. This feature could also be of interest to professionals, particularly those managing a large number of wines, although the app is primarily designed for individuals.
Food-and-wine pairings based on what is in the cellar
Glouglou does more than list the available bottles. The app also aims to help users choose a wine to go with a planned meal. Users enter the dish they intend to serve, and the service suggests a suitable bottle from the wines already listed in their cellar.
This approach sets the recommendations apart from general advice: the app works with the bottles the user actually owns. It can therefore pair the menu with a wine that is readily available, without requiring the user to buy another bottle. By linking the inventory with food-and-wine pairing suggestions, the app turns a list of bottles into a decision-making tool.
This feature directly addresses the situation that gave rise to the project. Instead of spending a long time wondering which bottle to open, users can consult the app’s suggestions based on the dish they have prepared. Glouglou thus aims to make the cellar easier to navigate and simplify the moment of choosing, whether it holds just a few bottles or a much larger collection.
Six months of development in preparation for launch
Tony Fournales spent around six months developing Glouglou. Creating the app gave him the opportunity to put his computer science knowledge into practice while working on a project inspired by an everyday need. The student designed an initial version that brings together bottle management, recommendations, and label recognition.
Before it opens to the public, testers have been able to try out the premium features. Their feedback helped identify potential problems and suggest improvements. This testing phase gives the developer a chance to see how the app fits different usage habits and to check whether its features meet the needs of people managing their own cellars.
To raise awareness of the project, its creator has also established partnerships with influencers. Glouglou’s launch is said to be imminent, with the aim of making the app available to as many people as possible very soon.
A student project with room to grow
Tony Fournales is from Auch and attended Pardailhan High School. He is now studying computer science in Toulouse and is in Mexico on an exchange programme during his fourth year of study. Alongside his academic work, he devotes some of his time to preparing Glouglou, his first project of this scale.
In the long term, he is considering a career in software development or cybersecurity. For now, he is focused on launching the app and hearing from its first users. The service could also expand beyond managing bottles already at home.
In particular, the creator is considering a feature that could suggest wines available at shops near the user. This would complement the current recommendations, which focus on bottles in a personal cellar. It would provide an alternative when the desired wine is out of stock, while extending Glouglou’s role as a tool for helping users choose and manage wines.
