Scanning and rating and buying, oh my!
Vivino
"Tons of functionality and information with more wine reviews submitted than any other app" - Dr. Vino Blog
Free download available for Apple and Android
Vivino, Delectable's primary competitor, boasts the largest number of users and reviews of any wine app out there. Not only is this app absolutely packed with information, but it's also built with a user-friendly interface that won't disappoint. At its core, Vivino is a wine label scanning app similar to Delectable that allows you to ID a wine, rate and review it, save it for later, see what your friends and critics are saying about it and order the wine through an out-of-app service. The app's label reading function works wonderfully, accurately identifying the wine I scanned more consistently than Delectable. But the really cool thing about Vivino's camera function is that is has ~not one, but three~ different ways to identify wines. The first is a standard label reader, the second allows you to take photos of multiple labels and compare them simultaneously - a function I found hugely useful while making purchasing decisions at wine shops - and the third scans text on wine lists and menus, lending you a most-appreciated hand making wine decisions at restaurants.
The social aspect of Vivino is available, but turned-down from what Delectable offers. You can follow friends and critics, but it seems like wine experts use Vivino less actively than Delectable. However, the wealth of reviews generated by Vivino users will provide you with the kind of robust recommendations to accurately guide your wine selection. Although I found that the app sometimes loaded slowly, I was always impressed by the shear amount of information every scan or search pulled up - ratings, price, buying options, varietal information, reviews, vintage comparisons... plenty to nerd-out about.
Find What You Like...
Wine Ring"A complex algorithm plus a gang of wine experts help predict wines you'll like based on your past choices." - Ray Isle
Free download available for Apple and Android
Perhaps the most coveted of digital services, providing accurate and reliable user-specific recommendations is the aim of Wine Ring. The whole purpose of the Wine Ring app is to make wine suggestions based on your personal preferences. The trick here is whether they get it right - and Wine Ring has a patented algorithm and a team of Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers at work making sure they do. The second trick is that you have to provide the app with data about your preferences - by scanning and rating wines - in order for it to generate useful suggestions. As with any suggestion service, you have to tell it what you like before it can predict what you like. In my case, this took 20-30 scans before Wine Ring started giving me wine suggestions I felt were on point. But, if you're willing to hold up your end of the bargain, Wine Ring can act as a pocket Wine Expert - cultivating recommendations for you or your group of friends and helping you answer the key "Will I like It" question at the store.
I also loved Wine Ring's unique, intuitive rating system. While many other apps work on a numeric rating system - out of 100, out of five stars, etc. - Wine Ring gives you four simple options: Love, like, so-so, and dislike. Especially for folks relatively new to making wine choices, this system provides an easy way for you to keep track of your experiences based on what really counts: did you like it? With this cleanly built and intuitive app, you get out what you put in, so start rating those wines!