The style, sensibility, and romance to wine gives it a near universal allure. In fact, it’s so alluring that in 2016, US wine sales totaled nearly $60 billion. Whether used to relax after work or to toast a special occasion, most of us could use a little help finding, selecting, and enjoying the best wines around.
Technology is making it easier to access and understand great wines, with 25% of wine consumers looking for information about wine online, 22% sharing a wine experience, and 20% seeking wine recommendations. The five great apps below are designed to help users more easily engage and immerse in the world of wine. There is something here for everyone – from novices to collectors, traditionalist and surprise seekers, those that simply enjoy a sip to ride or die oenophiles. With these resources, anyone can up their wine game and find their next great grape love. Here’s a link to a nifty infographic that summarizes it in case you’ve had a few too many glasses. Cheers to that!
Hello Vino: Wine Assistant
Hello Vino touts itself as the wine assistant for “normal” people, so it’s great for those just starting out, or for every day when you’re looking for something at the supermarket or local liquor store. Its key feature is recommendation. Tell Hello Vino what you’re going to eat or typically like to eat, what kind of wine you’ve enjoyed in the past, and it will recommend wine selections that will best suite your meals and your taste. The app also makes buying the recommended wine easy. You can purchase directly from the app and have it shipped to your home.
For those wanting even more personalized recommendation, the app offers premium users access to consultations with a wine expert. Preparing a lavish party and need wine parings for a variety of foods and guest? Or maybe you’ll be sharing a special meal to mark an anniversary or major achievement. Whatever the occasion, a personal consultation will assure even the most amateur wine enthusiast can come away with something truly enjoyable.
Vivino Wine Scanner
Want to know more about the wine you’re about to buy? Vivino to the rescue. It’s the most comprehensive wine scanner on the market. It offers ratings, notes about possible tastings and reviews of the wine you’re considering to buy. Also, if the wine label you’ve scanned isn’t available in Vivino’s database, its team of experts will identify it manually as quickly as possible.
Besides this Vivino also has a strange but quite useful feature that you’d never know you needed. With this feature you can scan a restaurant’s wine list, in text, and the app will automatically rate the offer, providing specific info for each wine.
Wine Searcher
For anyone who wants to build a wine collection or find a specific vintage, Wine Searcher is the app for you. Whether you’re just starting out or already have a temperature regulated cellar housing your extensive collection, Wine Searcher makes the perfect companion app. As its name suggests, this app is focused primarily on finding wines. Its search function is not only full of location, price, and proximity features, but also features comparison options for those deciding between different bottles. You can even compare by types if you’re filling a specific hole in your collection, and find the stores or distributors that have it at the best price.
Wine Searcher is also available as a web version. This site not only gives you access to Wine Searcher’s complete search engine but also to the latest news about wine, the world’s most famous wine regions, expert sourcing tips and much more.
CellarTracker
CellarTracker is designed with wine collectors in mind. The app is designed to help organize your collection, and is most useful to those who already have an extensive collection going. You can enter bottles automatically thanks to its barcode scanner – its database includes over 2 million wines and 6 million notes written by both experts and an extensive user community. Plus, it’s a great way to learn more about the wines in your cellar, find reviews, and share knowledge with other wine lovers.
For the true cognoscenti, it’s a great way to not only organize your collection but also join a community of fellow wine evangelizers, the most ardent of whom religiously update their opinions and experiences with detailed notes and reviews. If you truly love, you’ll feel at home with CellarTracker.
If you already have your own wine resources, CellarTracker also allows you to integrate external resources like The Pinot Report or Richard Jennings on Wine. That way, you can keep all you guides and resources in one place.
Delectable Wine
For those with a more adventurous pallet, Delectable Wine is the app for you. Its key feature is a discovery tool, which lets you follow newsfeeds from professional sommeliers, winegrowers and other experts in the field. For up and coming craft distilleries to small batch producers, the app is perfect for those on the constant lookout for the latest and greatest in wine innovation. But be careful: getting a peak at all these new wines is highly addictive. You can also explore lists compiled with the best of each harvest, so you get a heads up on what’s good for every year.
Delectable also includes a scan function that works surprisingly well given that it’s not a primary function of the app. It identifies wines very quickly (usually in a matter of seconds), and includes information including name, grape variety, region and price. It’s not as precise and meticulous as Vivino but still useful to have on hand.
If you have a favorite wine app make sure to leave a comment below about why it’s good so the rest of us will know it too. Cheers!
