As if we don’t spend enough time faffing around on social media already, along come a couple of wine apps to lure us into recording and sharing every wine we taste. San Francisco-based Delectable and Vivino are designed instantly to identify a label and tell you what fellow wine geeks think about it – a sort of TripAdvisor for wine.
Both apps are pretty quick (they take seconds rather than minutes), but the problem is they often come up with the wrong answer. I tried them out at a recent Rhône tasting, and Delectable misidentified two red châteauneufs as whites, while Vivino got the colour and vintage of a 2012 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage wrong, despite the latter being shown on the label. The apps don’t necessarily give you the best price, either – or not unless you pay a premium. Vivino, for example, which is more attuned to the UK market, gave a £25 guide price for a classy Graillot that Roberson has for £20.95 and Yapp for £21.50. Delectable has a better scoring system than Vivino, with a 40-point range, from a “not for me” 6.1 to a “love it” 10, though in practice most seem to score in the 9s.
But, despite these shortcomings, I can see how such apps could be addictive, putting you in touch with fellow wine lovers in much the same way as Instagram does with those who like to take pictures of their breakfast. Delectable, in particular, attracts a fair number of sommeliers and wine critics, who obviously like to show off what they’ve been drinking (no Lidl wines trending here). Vivino has the bigger audience, with more than eight million subscribers, although the comments tend not to be quite as knowledgable or illuminating. The apps can also remind you what wine you drank and enjoyed without having to scrabble around looking for scrappy bits of paper.
Be that as it may, here are three well-priced wines I’ve come across recently, transmitted through the good old-fashioned medium of a newspaper wine column. First, a couple of charming wines from the Wine Society that remind you what terrific value bordeaux can be: a crisp, zippy, mainly semillon-based Château Martinon Entre-Deux-Mers 2014 (£7.95; 12.5% abv) that makes a great aperitif, and a fresh, fruity, merlot-based claret, Château Lary Bordeaux 2012 (13.5% abv), for just £6.75 – I’d have that with lamb chops. Tesco, meanwhile, has Château de Fauzan’s lovely, supple Minervois 2013 (14.5% abv), which is £8.99 in selected stores but about to go on promotion at £6.99. (According to Vivino, that one’s a Château Rouvière 2012. Oh dear.)
• This article was edited on 21 April 2015. In an earlier version, we were supplied with an image of a bottle with the wrong vintage. This has been replaced.
