Being a wine connoisseur requires knowledge of grapes, wines, and pairings. Want to learn about wines but aren’t sure where to start?
Have you ever been a guest at a work-holiday-party, or a dinner get-together, and felt like the wine enthusiast got all the attention? They often do, because knowing about wine is unusual and interesting. The wine-world is infinite and extremely intimidating, but you too can become that wine connoisseur you dream to be at every party.
Learn About What You’re Drinking
Before wooing the crowds with your knowledge of wines, you need to learn about the grapes and the process of making wine. One of the best ways of doing this is getting familiar with the different kinds of wine and their various tastes. Some wines are sweet while others are sour, and some are dry while others are not.
Of course, the ideal and most photograph-worthy way to enlighten yourself about wines would be to go to vineyards and visit wineries. But since we can’t all do that, we have to opt for other options. But there are great ones out there. There are advanced apps that can tell you everything you want to know, and more, about almost any kind of wine. Take the app, Plonk, for example, which works like a dictionary for grapes. It teaches you about different grapes and all of their different flavors and characteristics. It also has the pronunciation of each grape that you can listen to so you are sure you’re saying it correctly. Other apps like Delectable, have a label recognition feature, which lets you point your phone’s camera at a label on a bottle of wine, and instantly see reviews, ratings, and notes about the tastes and smells of the wine. You can also keep a log in the app of your favorite grapes and wines, as well as taste preferences. Another app that can teach you a ton about what you’re drinking, is Vivino. Just like Delectable, it has an advanced photo-recognition feature that lets you take a picture of a label and learn about that particular wine from a database of information. But even more, if the app can’t identify the label, the Vivino team will manually identity it for you and send you relevant information. You can also scan a restaurant’s wine menu, and learn about each wine.
If you’re looking to learn about wines and want to fully jump-in, you’ll love Wine Ratings+, which can act as your wine encyclopedia. This app is like your own personal wine connoisseur in your pocket. Find the answer to any of your wine-related questions, or read informative wine-related articles and news headlines, or watch videos.
What do you pair that wine with?
Most events you will be going to that involve wine will also have finger foods or other bites. If you’re a wine connoisseur, you have to know which wines go with which foods and flavors. To help you out, try the app, Hello Vino. It gives you wine pairing recommendations, so whether you’re at the wine store or you’re at a social event, you can recommend pairings to people. The app is super simple to use. Just put in the food you’re eating or your general taste preferences, and the app will recommend certain grapes and wines to go with what you input. You can also read about common wine and food pairings, or speak to an expert through the app for their recommendations.
You can also try the app Cellar Tracker or Drync for this same purpose. Cellar Tracker has a massive database of over 2 million wines. You can read about the different wines and what they taste good with, and read professional reviews as well. With Drync, you can discover new wines based on pairing needs and taste preferences. You can also find wines you may like based on friends' recommendations.
Find New Wines to Order
Once you start learning about wines and their pairings, you’ll be expected to have bottles of wine in your house. Aren’t sure which wine is your favorite? Don’t know if you like a reisling more than a chardonnay? We got you.
Wine Ring is an app available for iPhone and Android that uses a machine learning algorithm to predict wines you may like. The app asks you to rate wines you’ve tried in the past, and from those ratings, it can tell what you like, and what you don’t like. Wine Ring gives you tailored recommendations so you know you’ll be pleased with its recommendations everytime. You can also keep a log in the app of wines you’ve tried, and which you still want to try. Additionally, you can connect with friends that have the app too, and see which wines they like and recommend.
If you’ve found the perfect wine and you’re ready to buy, look it up using the app Wine-Searcher first. It has a huge pricing database so you can check what your wine of choice costs before actually buying it. This way you don’t just buy the wine blindly, but rather with knowledge of the cost. The app can also tell you the availability of the wine so you can see where to buy it. Whether there’s a store in your neighborhood, which the app can lead you to with its GPS-based store finder, or you need to order it online. Wine-Searcher makes it really easy to buy your wine and lets you know you’re getting a good deal. Another great app to buy wine on is Banquet. It has over 22,000 different wines available to choose from, and the wines ship from both small and large wine dealers throughout the US. Payment is really simple too, as it’s all done through the app using Apple Pay or Android Pay. You can have the wines shipped directly to your doorstep or you can pick them up in a store closest to you.
Say Cheers
The days of standing around at a party and wishing you were the wine connoisseur everyone always seems to gravitate to are over. With so many apps out there, learning about wines and their food pairings, discovering new wines, and even ordering bottles to your door is simple. So next time you need to decide between a sweet red and a dry white, whip out your phone, pull up an app, and say cheers!
