Wine Apps

ARE WINE APPS FOR ME???
BY CONNIE MARTIN

There has been an explosion of apps for almost anything that you are interested. Wine and food apps are plentiful but the question becomes “Which app is right for you?” The six wine apps highlighted below are the most widely recognized in transforming your wine shopping and drinking experiences. A good wine app can help you pair wine with food, compare wine prices, read wine reviews, keep track of your own thoughts about particular wines and even track wines in your own cellar. Consider which app would be worth investing your time in.
Delectable—one of the best Smart-phone apps for scanning bottles to get user reviews, ratings and background. Easy to use by snapping a photo of the wine label to obtain data about the wine. Scanning of the wine label is fast and most of the popular wines are in the Delectable system. However, smaller vineyards and niche wines are not in the database. You are able to keep a personal wine journal of your favorite wines with your personal tasting notes. One of the most popular features of Delectable is the ability to access wine reviews from winemakers, sommeliers and wine editors. There is an option to purchase wines but the wine purchase goes through a separate website and may not be at the best available price.
Vivino—uses a photo label recognition system to provide information about a particular wine, its reviews, ratings and tasting notes. Vivino connects with Facebook and Twitter which makes it easy to develop an interactive conversation with other wine enthusiasts. When shopping for wine, Vivino offers an impressive amount of wine data and reviews making wine purchase much easier. There is an option to save your favorite wines. Purchasing of wine is available and free shipping is offered to members with premium tier memberships. The regular membership is free and works well. One reviewer of Vivino indicated that fewer wine experts use this app.
Hello Vino—the main strength of this app is ability to pair wine and food by allowing you to find a wine for a particular food by the food’s ingredients. The app easily pairs wines with particular ingredients which may be unusual or different than in standard dishes. This app is best used by individuals with some basic knowledge of wine and foods. The number of pop-ups is an issue. The wine data base is extensive with a good selection of niche wines. An option to save your favorite wines is available.
Wine Spectator Wine Ratings+—offers access to the Wine Spectator magazine’s extensive wine reviews. The app has a multitude of wine information and reviews which helps you make better choices of wines, discover great wine values and stay updated on what’s new. Two types of subscriptions are available—the free subscription has the extensive vintage wine charts which some feel is the greatest benefit of this app. The vintage wine charts can be accessed by particular wine region or specific wine varietal. Consider this app if you are a wine collector and/or you are trying to determine when to drink aged wines. Expanded wine education and updated news feed is found with the free subscription. The paid subscription has a small monthly fee providing you access to the editor’s review scores, release prices, current action prices and drinking windows for wine. A companion app to consider is the “Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards.” This app helps you find restaurants with leading wine lists in all 50 US states and 70+ countries. Each restaurant listed has received the Wine Spectator Restaurant Award for its dedication to wine. An excellent resource when traveling to find a spectacular dining experience.
Wine Events—offers the ability to discover wine related events listed by location or by date of offering. Although the app is available globally with most regions supported, the majority of events listed are US or Canada based. There is an option to submit wine events. Some feel this app is somewhat difficult to use.
Cellar Tracker—is one of the most popular wine tracking apps due to its barcode scanning functionality and extensive collections of wine reviews. This app provides an effective tool for organizing and tracking your own wine collection. Wine bottles can be logged in, completed with label recognition or scanned by barcode. A large data base of wine reviews with tasting notes is an excellent feature of this app. The premium version of this app offers wine collection valuation estimates and access to professional wine reviews. This app is particularly useful for larger wine collections as it will track bottle numbers and location. A guest option allows anyone to use the apps features without creating an account, which is particularly nice if you just want to try this app. Some feel the app looks dated and there is not a mechanism to manually enter wines not in the apps database.

There are a whole number of other wine apps available. Perhaps you will find one of the above apps useful. Apps can help you make sense of wine terminology, understand wines and become an expert in pairing wine and food. Isn’t that one of the best things in life—the best wine match to fabulous food?

To your Health—Alla tua salute!
A publication of the Council Bluffs Branch of the International Wine and Food Society