Posted on Oct 31, 2016 in
FEATURES
VineSleuth | By Amy Gross –
Looking for a great bottle of wine amid a massive wall of wine at the grocery store or big box wine retailer?
I’m sure you know there are treasures there for every tastebud, but finding the perfect bottle for yourself or a friend can be a challenge. Some stores have great wine stewards but most don’t. And most wine stewards can’t keep total recall of every wine on the shelf and remember what you like too.
So, what do you do? Just turn to your phone. Depending on what you are looking for, I bet there is an app for you. Here are a few:
Wine4.Me
Available for iPhone, Wine4.Me enables any wine lover to find wines he might like, regardless of wine knowledge. A user simply taps a wine he knows, loves or dumps it, and begins building a personal taste profile and a ranked listing of wines to try from that data. The more wines that are loved or dumped, the better the user profile becomes, very much like the music app Pandora. To make this work, all of the wines in the app’s database are characterized objectively based on a set list of attributes by a team of wine professionals using sensory science, not opinion. Wine4.Me can also help with everyday food pairing, listing dishes such as chicken enchiladas, grilled catfish and barbecue.
Vivino
Available for iPhone and Android, Vivino rose to fame as one of the first apps to have a great scanning feature and has since grown to include the largest crowd-sourced collection of wine reviews. Every wine is given a star-rating based on the reviews entered. Any user anywhere can add their personal review of a wine, so it’s a great place to look for opinions on wines or to share reviews with others. Curious about different vintages? Vivino makes it easy to check reviews of different years back to back.
Delectable
Available for iPhone and Android, Delectable is another wine app with an excellent scanning feature. Scan a label to get crowd-sourced reviews of a wine, or snap a shot and leave a review for others to enjoy. I like to think of Delectable as an Instagram of wine. There are so many beautiful bottle shots of wines being enjoyed! Delectable is a great place to follow a favorite sommelier or wine maker and see what she is drinking. To look for wines that fit their palates, users can follow someone who has similar tastes and see what wines they share.
Tipple
Want to get better at writing your own tasting notes? Available for iPhone and Android, Tipple guides users through doing exactly that, with easy to follow instructions and a clearly defined process. Snap a picture of any wine label or pull up a wine from your camera roll to get started. Tipple will ask questions about the wine’s color, aroma, flavor and more, enabling users to get as specific as they like or stay general. Once users finish entering information, Tipple saves their thoughts to their profile for easy reference later.
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