I’m a wine drinker with a bad memory.

I can’t count the amount of times that I’ve walked down the wine aisle and couldn’t remember the wine I bought last week. Has that ever happened to you? Your standing in the wine aisle trying to remember that awful wine you bought last week on a whim, so you don’t buy it again. Did the label have a picture? What country was it from? What year? So many details to remember in the vast sea of wines.

For a while, I played with the idea of taking photos of the wine labels with my phone, but after further consideration I found several flaws with this plan. One problem is that it doesn’t allow for any detailed cataloguing. Another problem was no ability to make notes. More importantly, my camera doesn’t provide additional information about wine. So, instead I decided to try an app (because of course, there is an app for everything). In fact, there are more than a dozen wine apps, but they are not all the same.

After reviewing the available apps in the Android store, I choose Delectable and Vivino. Next, I spent several months building a library on each. My review will include an explanation of the similarities between the two apps, the differences, and who I believe would benefit from each.

Vivino and Delectable

Vivino and Delectable share six important features that I believe any wine app should incorporate:

• The ability to connect social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
• Free suggested wine lists for summer, birthday’s, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, or by region.
• Purchase with-in! Of course, this still falls under the prevue of your local authorities, but for places where it is legal to receive alcohol by mail or delivery service this is a great addition.
• The ability to upload wine labels using your camera or the gallery.
• It should be free to download and make your wine catalog.
• The ability to find friends through email, Facebook, and Google+.

I believe that these six features should be the foundation of any wine cataloguing app. So then what makes them stand apart? Their differences lie in the ideal customer and the additional features.

Delectable

Initially, the idea of a wine app was overwhelming. So I drifted to the simpler app interface of Delectable, with limited tabs on the front page and straight forward posts on wine. Uploading wine labels to the catalogue is a two click process. Once posted the app lists wine by type, style, and the score you rated it. The most frequent wine types uploaded are on the main screen. The app doesn’t push information about buying or learning more about the industry, which is why this is a great app for someone mainly interested in cataloguing wine and only interested in a bit of wine knowledge.

Vivino

Vivino is the app for serious wine drinkers. My favorite features of this app are that the wine catalogue is the second tab on the main screen and that the camera has an outline to help take photos. The home screen is similar to Facebook’s newsfeed, except it is full of wine articles on the industry, history, and wine lists to try for any occasions. In addition, there are food pairing lists and additional information from wineries. If you are looking for a wine, Vivino has the ability to find nearby wine sellers and their wine list. Also, it does a taste profile broken down by regional styles. There is a premium option available that offers features such as personal buying guiding and quicker search time for adding new wines to your catalogue.

Overall, I highly recommend Delectable and Vivino for creating your online wine catalogue. It is their similarities in basic features and their difference in additional features that make them stand out apps. The biggest downside to both apps is that they are not accessible offline. If you are looking to start your own catalogue check them out.

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