iPhone Apps: Hello Vino (left) and Drync Wine Pro (right).
Top Wine Apps
DISCOVER - January 6, 2010
Be ready when this text hits your cell: "we're grilling salmon tonight, get wine." A blizzard of new smart phone apps brings information to your fingertips, but which ones? We met with Paul Mabray, digital-guru at Napa based consultants VinTank, to understand his firm's recent analysis of more than 50 wine apps for the iPhone.
Try starting with three of his top six picks; two for food and wine pairings and one for recording tasting experiences.
The UI for Hello Vino (FREE) is clean and intuitive. Find wine for your food or food for your wine, effortlessly. Each detailed food entry brings up the best variety to pair along with a few representative wines. Extra features include wines for special occasions such as housewarming gifts and wines that meet taste profiles like earthy or spicy. This app also includes a web version for other handheld devices.
Enter "pizza with mushrooms and figs" and Wine Steward ($0.99) will return a dozen or so varieties ranked from "excellent pairs" (100% for Pinot Noir, in our case) to those that are "for the adventurous" such as (Pinot Gris 13%). Its algorithm works off a detailed questionnaire that elicits your own preferences.
Drync Wine Pro (FREE - with ads/otherwise $4.99) accesses a monster database of wines, prices and ratings. For us the key was the convenience of recording tasting experiences on the spot. No more taping torn labels onto paper journals. With Drync it's easy to photograph labels into your personal iPhone journal, record your notes, rank the wine, and search for similar varietals.
We'll be back in a few months with an update and apps for other mobile phones.
Want all the details and a look at the other apps? Download the 10-page report.
HelloVino
www.HelloVino.com
Wine Steward
www.SmartyWine.com
Drync Wine Pro
www.Drync.com
VinTank
www.VinTank.com
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