Whether it be in the restaurant or in the bottle store, picking a wine for the night can be a daunting exercise. In the local bottle shop you’ll be surround by hundreds of different wine labels and in a restaurant the wine list looks like a bunch of words in a different language. How do you decide?
We’ve recently come across an app for iPhone and Android devices called Vivino. Vivino is not a new app, it allows you to rate wine out of five, add commentary and remember the wines you’ve enjoyed. Over seven million people actively use the app so they’ve built up a good database of wines and their ratings.
The new addition to the app however is the scanning of labels and wine lists. Yep, the app will see you label and then inform you what people rated it. And yes, it will scan the wine list and use augmented reality to overlay the scores with links to their full reviews. What this means is the ability to see the wines, the ratings and the prices to help you make the right decision.
This is somewhat of a big deal. When buying wine by the glass you might see five or six choices under Red Wines. They might range from $8 to $12 by the glass. Scanning them and seeing their scores could change the way you were thinking, generally the assumption would be that more expensive means better wine but this scan will show you real world scores to help you decide.
If you’re picking a bottle for the table then the pressure is even higher and as a result the scores are even more important, furthermore the tasting notes will help you explain the wine to friends and even sound smarter or more attractive.
The app is free, you can get started now and never drink bad wine again.
Web: Vivino
