There’s an App for that!

Well if you are looking for an app to help you pair food and wine, help you decipher wine terms, or store photos and notes of your favourite wines, there is indeed an app, or more accurately, many apps for that.  Here is a sampling of some of them.

1. Wine Terms
   1. A dictionary of wine terms from A – C.  If you want the rest of the alphabet, you’ll need to buy the upgrade for $1.99.  Of the sixteen items under “A” are such terms as: Adega, AOC, Amontillado, Aperitif and Auslese.
2. Wine Making Terms
   1. Just like the above, but focusing on wine making.  The upgrade is only $0.99.  Here there are twenty-two “A” listings including Acetaldehyde, Aldehyde, Amino Acids, Amphora and Autolysis.
3. Wine Notes
   1. This one allows you to take photos of wines you taste, make notes about them, rate them, etc.  It includes a visual glossary of wine descriptors from anise to yeast.  It also allows you to post to Facebook and Twitter.
4. Natalie MacLean Wine Picks and Pairings
   1. This app allows you to sort and pair via wine, food or occasion.  Includes wine reviews (current and archived), recipes (23 categories from appetizers to vegetables and salads with about a dozen recipes in each section), wine articles, Natalie’s blog, a chapter from her book, wine quotes, a wine glossary and more.  I highly recommend this app for any wine lover.
5. NY Wine and Grape
   1. This app gives descriptions of an interesting selection of grape varietals, both red and white.  Matches wine flavours to grape varietals and pairs wines with foods.  It is worth a look, but because it is a New York app, you will find information about grapes grown there, such as Merlot, Pinot Noir, Catawba and Concord, etc., but not Syrah or Zinfandel.

1. Snooth
   1. Many of you probably already subscribe to Snooth’s email newsletter.  Their app allows you to search for nearby stores (if you live in the US), offers suggestions for wines based on colour and price range (US dollars), scan wine labels to add to your favourites (with the Pro upgrade) and offers mobile access to articles on the Snooth web site as well access to your own Snooth wine reviews.

 

1. Wine Access
   1. An app that focuses on the Canadian wine industry.  You can search by name, varietal or winery.  You can also search wineries by province, make your own notes about wines you’ve tried and make a list of wines you’d like to try.  For each of the wineries listed (quite extensive) the address, telephone number and email address is included as well as a map. A great app to have for the BC wine industry.  Top wines in the Canadian Wine Awards and the International Wine Awards are also listed.  I recommend this app.
2. Wine Guru
   1. Comes with a handy little video tutorial.  Designed to help you select a good wine to have with your meal.  You start by choosing from several types of cuisine.  Then you specify ingredients.  The more ingredients you include, the narrower your search becomes.  Offers three choices:  Classic, New World and Off the Wall pairings.  You can add to favourites or find other similar wines.  You can also search by wine to find suitable food matches.  I like this one.
3. Wine Spectator’s Vintage Chart
   1. WS Vintage Chart gives recommendations for the drinkability of wines from most wine producing countries of the world.  Also included is information about Wine Spectator and several wine articles.  A good app to have.
4. WineStein
   1. This one is advertised as a pocket sommelier.   Begins with three choices: Wine with Dish, Dish with Wine and Restaurant. Selecting “Compose a Dish” as the first option brings up an extensive list of ingredients from A-Z.   In “Preferences”, you can select between metric or imperial units for temperature and distance.  You can also select from four languages. This is a worthwhile app.
5. WineKick
   1. Helps you choose a wine in four different ways:  by Taste Preference, Pair with Food, Gift or Romance, or Bring to a Party.  Each of these choices then breaks down into four further choices and then another four and another four. And each of these offers two options.  For each choice, it provides a description about its origins, how it tastes and a comment as to its body.  Sounds confusing, but I like this one.
6. Wine Log
   1. Compatible with Facebook and Twitter.  It allows you to take photos of favourite wines and find wine reviews for that wine.  Under “Top Wine” find others’ recommendations and reviews.  Under “Vinpass” there are suggestions for getting to know each wine region by tasting wines from each sub-region.  A nice feature, though it has a bias towards California and France.
7. Hello Vino
   1. An app which helps you choose a wine in six ways; by Matching with Food, by Occasion, by Taste Preference, by Type/Variety, by Popularity or by Season.  For each method, the app recommends wines in a range of prices.
8. iPairings
   1. Pair by wine, food or cheese.  Includes a basic list of wines, but you can upgrade (for $0.99) for a more complete list which includes 125 wine varietals, 1,000 food pairings and over 400 cheese pairings.
9. Pocket Wine
   1. Make a selection based on “Style”, “Grapes”, “Food “or “My Taste”.  “Style” gives you three choices of white or red wines.  “Grapes” provides an extensive list of any grape varietal you have ever heard of as well as many obscure ones.  “My Taste” includes good information on why you prefer the wines you do. For an additional $3.99 you can upgrade to get information on wine regions of the world, a wine glossary and email support.  Follow on Facebook and Twitter.
10. Triscuit Recipes
    1. This all allows you to select canapé recipes to match with a range of red or white wines.  It includes descriptions of each varietal, its origins and types of pairings.  Quite a good app despite the self-promotion.
11. Winery Locator
    1. Good if you are traveling in California. That’s about it.
12. Delectable
    1. An app that allows you to take photos of the wines you drink, rate them and share them with others.  Also offers wine suggestions.

Do you need all of these apps?  No, definitely not.  There is a lot of overlap.  I suggest, looking at them all and choosing those that you find the most appealing.  You might want to pick two or three.  Some of the free ones are quite good while others are simply samples of the paid versions.