Amazon launched a free sommelier service to help customers buy wine

Here's a new service from Amazon you probably didn't predict: The online retail giant has launched a free sommelier service to help customers buy the best wines for their meal.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, the service is - for now at least - only available in Japan. You can call up between midday and 5PM and get free recommendations on the various wines that Amazon offers.

Amazon's Japanese arm sells 9,000 different wines.

The Verge's Sam Byford got to try it himself, and is positive about the experience. "I found her advice to be helpful and easy to understand. She explained the process by which Japanese wine is made, and the palate that makers tend to go for, and that the results tend to be quite light by Western standards," he writes. "It was interesting to hear all of this, particularly as the information was framed by my specific question."

Business Insider has reached out to Amazon to see if and when it will launch out the sommelier service in other countries. It's likely testing it in Japan to see how it performs before investing in rolling it out more widely.