Whether you already consider yourself a wine expert or you want to learn how to make accurate tasting notes, there’s a bewildering array of wine apps available. We’ve narrowed it down to present the 10 best apps for wine lovers.
1. Vivino
This one-stop shop of an app packs in a wide array of features that may prove bewildering at first. With the ability to connect to Facebook, Twitter, and email contacts, it has a strong social aspect.
It boasts over 75 million user reviews and ratings for over 10 million wines. By adding your own wine ratings, it will build up a picture of what you like and make Netflix-style recommendations.
Just take a photo of a wine label to find it in the database. Or take a series of snaps to make comparisons between wines—handy for when you're out shopping. Alternatively, you can purchase many wines directly from online retailers in the app.
Another use of the camera is for scanning a restaurant wine list to see all the ratings. It's almost like having a sommelier in your pocket.
Then there are the wine "adventures," which tell you all about different types of wines. You can also complete challenges by scanning or rating wines and doing quizzes.
Download: Vivino for Android | iOS (Free)
2. Delectable
Delectable offers a broad range of features for wine lovers and also works for beers and spirits. After signing in, you're asked to pick a few wine styles you like, to help you discover new favorites.
While you can connect with Twitter and email contacts, there’s a focus on following wine experts. Their posts will then appear in your news feed—or you can see trending posts and featured topics. You can also view posts based on your favorite wine styles, filtered by price range.
As with Vivino, you can take a photo of a wine label to find it in the database to see user reviews and ratings for it. If it can't be identified from the photo, one of Delectable’s experts will attempt to do so for you.
Download: Delectable for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
3. CellarTracker
For wine connoisseurs with a lot of bottles, whether stored in a cellar or elsewhere, CellarTracker is ideal for keeping track of your collection and its value.
While not the most aesthetically pleasing app, CellarTracker makes it easy to create your own wine database. You can capture photos of wine labels to identify them in listings of over 3 million wines. There’s also a barcode scanning feature, which is even quicker.
Bottles can be added to a specific storage bin, accompanied by notes and details on when and where they were bought.
In addition, the app includes more than 8.5 million tasting notes from both professional reviewers and its community of over 600,000 users.
Download: CellarTracker for Android | iOS (Free)
4. Wine Events
If you like to go out and meet fellow wine connoisseurs, this app is for you. It enables you to find upcoming wine and food events in your locality. Or you may be interested in going on a themed wine and food vacation.
If you don’t want to travel, there are details of virtual tastings that you can take part in from the comfort of your own home.
Want to learn more about wine or food? You could join one of the online classes listed. In addition, there are listings of wine podcasts and web series.
While the app is essentially a portal to various sections of the Local Wine Events website, it’s a handy hub for wine lovers.
Download: Wine Events for Android | iOS (Free)
5. Wine-Searcher
As you’d expect from its name, Wine-Searcher is focused on enabling you to search for wines, as well as spirits. This can be done with a text search or by taking a photo of a label.
In addition, new wines or spirits can be discovered by setting a style and price range.
Once a bottle is identified and selected, the app shows you details and retail offers for it, along with professional critic and user reviews.
An interesting addition lets you compare prices for different vintages of a particular wine and even view a graph showing its average retail price for the past year (or five years for Pro members).
Download: Wine-Searcher for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
6. Wine Ring
Can machine learning algorithms help you to find new wines you’ll love? That’s the aim of Wine Ring, which eschews professional critic and user reviews in favor of AI.
Over time, it learns your individual preferences from the ratings of wines you submit: you just need to choose Love, Like, or So-So when trying one. After all, taste is subjective.
When you’re in a store, you can then take a photo of a wine label and learn whether you’re likely to like it. It works with both inexpensive and fine wines.
The app offers recommendations of bottles it thinks you’ll like, with the ability to filter these by wine style, price, and food pairing. There’s also a wine-tracking facility for your cellar.
Download: Wine Ring for Android | iOS (Free)
7. My Wine Society
Connect with fellow wine lovers and wineries with this social app. As well as finding old friends and making new ones, you can create your own private chat rooms to talk about your hobby.
Your news feed will show posts from all users or just your friends. Naturally, you can add your own posts and photos or videos of your wine adventures and tastings as well.
The app also includes tabs for media (with various themed channels), groups, and events near you.
Download: My Wine Society for Android | iOS (Free)
8. Search Vegan Wine/Beer
If you’re wondering why all wines and beers aren't vegan-friendly, it’s due to how most of them are clarified. Known as "fining," this process normally involves using animal- or dairy-derived agents such as isinglass, gelatin, and casein.
Fortunately for vegans (and vegetarians), this app enables you to search for vegan wine, beer, liquor, and cider. The listed items are labeled with icons for BeVeg vegan-certified, friendly (once claimed to be vegan but not proven), not vegan, and unknown.
In addition, you are able to rate wines and add them to your favorites list.
Download: Search Vegan Wine/Beer for Android | iOS (Free)
9. Corkage Fee
If you’re one of those people who prefers to bring your own bottle to a restaurant, this app is for you. Use the map or search function to see which eateries in your locality permit this practice and, if so, how much the corkage fee is.
The data is based on user info. Select a verified restaurant and you’ll see any conditions, such as not bringing a bottle on its wine list. There are also user ratings for service, wine list, fee, and experience.
You can follow other users and add restaurants to your favorites list.
Download: Corkage Fee for iOS (Free)
10. Tipple
Do you want to learn to taste wine like a pro? Tipple aims to help you improve your palate.
Start by taking a photo of your wine. The app will then guide you through the process of describing the wine’s main characteristics, accompanied by lots of useful tips.
First, you choose the appearance, selecting from a range of shades for each main wine style.
Next, you select the aromas from a color-coded wheel divided into categories, such as fruity, and individual aromas such as peach and blackberry.
You then get to explore the palate characteristics: acidity, tannin, body, alcohol, and finish (the length of time the flavor lingers).
You can also add details such as the producer, grapes, and region, along with the setting, time, and mood for the tasting.
Download: Tipple for iOS (Free)
Make Wine Even Easier to Enjoy
This selection of the best wine apps will help you to make informed purchasing decisions, keep track of the bottles in your cellar, find local wine and food events, and improve your tasting technique.
