Turning The Casual Taster Into A Pro – Vivino Wine App Review

The most frustrating thing about wine, besides the occasional hangover, is tasting an exceptionally wonderful wine while you are out to dinner and then not being able to recall that particular wine a couple of weeks later when you are really in the mood for another glass. Vivino wine app to the rescue.

With over six million users, Vivino asserts itself as the number one wine app in the world. This app makes keeping track of your favorite wines as simple as a photo snap. But there’s much more. Vivino has information on almost five million wines around the world, and you can share your favorites with friends.

 

Scan All The Wines

There’s no need to type in wine brands. With Vivino, you simply use your smartphone to take a picture of the wine label, and the app runs the picture through its database to make a match. An astounding amount of information is retrieved.

Of course it pulls the normal information like name, year, and region, but I wasn’t expecting the rest. Along with the average rating, you get an average cost. I also discovered that I paid $2.00 more for my most recent wine purchase.

 

You have the option to rate the wine you just scanned using a five-star rating system and write a review or description on it, then scroll through reviews of other users.

For most, these features would be sufficient, but Vivino takes it even further by breaking down the wine’s rating within its winery, region, country, and globally. If you allow Vivino to access your location, it lists local restaurants and stores that carry the logged wine.

The winery’s description is included with the types of grapes used in the process and food pairings. Anything you could possibly want to know is displayed when you scan your wine.

 My Wines

Once you have scanned and rated a wine, it gets added to you’re My Wines tab. This page gives you a quick overview of the total number of wines you have rated or added to your wish list.

For the true veteran wine connoisseurs who have an extensive collection, there is a Pro option. Vivino Pro lets you keep track of what wines you have in your cellar or on your wine rack. If you want to get even more detailed, you can track when you buy and drink certain wines. For bottle of wines that can’t be found in the database, the Pro option includes a service that will search for that wine and enter it into your cellar list. While the Vivino app is free, the Pro option cost $4.99.

Profile And Sharing

When you sign up with Vivino, you create a profile with personal info and a short bio if you wish to include one. Similar to Twitter’s Me page, you are able to see who you are following and who is following you. View your feed to see wines you and your friends recently have rated.

An interesting addition is the Badges page. You can earn badges for scanning wine. So far I’ve earned my Newbie badge. But for those who want to feel a little more cultured, badges can be earned each time you scan a new wine from a different country.

Web Version

For considerable review write-ups, the web version site would be a better option than the mobile app. Their website also includes editorials on all things wine related and top lists, such as “The Sommelier’s Personal Picks,” “10 Great Portugal Reds Under $30,” and many more. Novice wine consumers can find an ample supply of tips to help build their knowledge.

Overall

The mobile app didn’t have any major issues from what I could see. The app interface is easy to navigate. They only thing that bothered me was when I visited my feed, a pop-up appeared asking me to add more friends. There was no way to close the pop-up. I had to hit okay and then find my way back to the feed screen. If that’s the only time it happens then no problem, but it will get annoying fast if it continues to happen.

The web version, on the other hand, was not as pleasurable to use. The site seemed buggy when I visited. Certain links, like the dashboard and My Wines, weren’t directing to the right page. The dashboard and profile page, which seemingly contain similar information, are accessed separately. To get to my profile page from the dashboard, I had to click the my account to get to a menu bar that included my profile. Why isn’t the profile on the dashboard?

On the plus side, the mobile app stands on its own. The amount of information available, its tacking system, and being able to receive recommendations make from my friends make this app superb.

All in all, Vivino is an essential app for wine drinkers, whether they are amateurs or old pros.