Picking the perfect bottle of wine at the store or in a restaurant is often a confusing, complicated and potentially embarrassing task, but a slew of new smartphone apps are making it easier — and making drinking wine even more of a pleasure.
Here are our five favorites, just in time to grab the right grapes for your holiday table:
Delectable
Snap a smartphone photo of a wine label, and Delectable instantly IDs it and shows you how other users rate it. An image of Banfi Chianti Classico’s label recently produced 146 user reviews. There’s also an option to purchase the wine and have it shipped to you. (Free for iPhone or Android)
Hello Vino
Hello Vino features pro critics’ ratings and witty recommendations. For hockey watching, it suggests ice wine. You can also call Hello Vino’s wine concierge for advice. When asked about a pairing for Virginia ham, she not only suggested some wines, she also provided a recipe. (Free for iPhone and Android)
Wine Events
New York is full of wine-education events — from free tastings to pairing classes at top restaurants — but it’s not always easy to find the best one. This app does the work for you, showing upcoming events and ticket deals in your area. A “weekend juice” feature compiles 18 of the best events. (Free for iPhone and Droid)
Wine-Searcher
This app does only one thing, but does it very well. It allows you to search the inventory of more than 50,000 wine shops locally and globally to find and price the wine you want. Planning to pop the cork on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut NV Champagne this New Year’s Eve but want the best price? You’ve got 421 choices in New York priced from $38 to $70. (Regular version free for iPhone and Android; the pro version is $43 but worth it for serious winos.)
Vivino
With 7 million users and 4.5 million reviews, Vivino is the widest-reaching app of its kind, and it has an exciting new feature: a wine-list scanner. Snap a photo of a restaurant wine list and the app will highlight bottles it recognizes and link to reviews and notes to make choosing the right bottle easy. (Regular version free for iPhone, Android and Windows phones; ad-free version $1.99)