Building a wine pairing MCP server with deterministic scoring and x402 payments

SommelierX — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:50:13 +0000

TL;DR

I published an MCP server that gives AI assistants (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf) access to a sommelier-grade wine pairing algorithm. It supports both API key auth and x402 USDC payments for autonomous agents.

npx @sommelierx/mcp-server

Free tier: 50 calls/day, no signup. Live on npm, Glama, and the Official MCP Registry.

Why this exists

Ask Claude "what wine goes with grilled salmon?" and you get a reasonable paragraph. Ask again tomorrow and the answer changes. No score, no explanation, no consistency.

That is because language models generate text. They do not calculate pairings.

We built the calculation.

How it works

The SommelierX pairing algorithm scores 609 wine styles across 17 flavour dimensions (body, acidity, tannin, sweetness, minerality, and more). The same scoring applies to 3,000+ dishes. A matching function returns a compatibility score between 0 and 100.

The server exposes 7 tools:

Tool	Input	Tier
pair_wine_with_meal	Meal name	Free
pair_wine_with_ingredients	Ingredient list	Free
find_meals_for_wine	Wine style	Free
pair_wine_with_recipe_url	Recipe URL	Pro
group_pairing	Multiple meals	Pro
search_ingredients	Query	Free
search_meals	Query	Free

x402 payments

The interesting part for the agent economy: the server accepts x402 payments.

x402 is an HTTP protocol where the client pays per call in USDC on a blockchain (we use Base for low fees). Flow:

Agent calls the endpoint without credentials
API responds 402 Payment Required with the price ($0.005 - $0.03)
Agent attaches a signed USDC payment header
API validates on-chain and returns the data

No account. No API key. No human approval. Fully autonomous.

Install in Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sommelierx": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@sommelierx/mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Then ask: "What wine goes with tonight's dinner?"

Same config works for Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP-compatible client.