UNCORKED

Clueless to genius with use of an app

— There has never been a more opportune time for wine enthusiasts. In this digital age, with the hundreds of applications for smart phones and tablets available, it’s as if we all can have a team of experts with us at the touch of our screen. Following are a few of my favorites.

Looking for the perfect wine and food match? The Pair It! app ($4.99) is a fun and comprehensive food and wine pairing guide featuring more than 20,000 pairings. It offers practical guidelines and suggestions to match more than 180 varietals with 1,000 food items. You can either take advantage of expert suggestions by chef Bruce Riezenman, the brains behind its creation, or use the “swirl and shake” slot machine-style feature as your guide. The app includes a searchable database and allows users to save their favorite pairings.

For those looking for information on more than 1,000,000 bottles of wine Cor.kz’s “Cellar Tracker” feature is the app for you ($2.99). Wines can be searched by varietal or region, or the bar code scanner on the app. When you find a wine you like, it allows you to add and organize by regions, ratings, best rated, drink sooner rather than later and those you have consumed. The app also features a tab with wine choices you can build on from your comparison. Cor.kz is helpful for those starting out and exploring wine as well as experts seeking detailed information on rare and exotic bottles.

Snooth Wine Pro ($4.99) represents the next generation of app technology, using image recognition. Take a photo of a wine label and match it to a vintner in the wine database. Even if you don’t know what wine you are looking for it has a browsing feature that helps you not only find wines by price, taste preference and regions but a geographic search feature of wine stores near you. Another facet is a “virtual cellar” wine inventory management system that allows you to keep track of wines you have reviewed and bought.

The Wine Enthusiast Guide ($3.99) app is updated each month with expert reviews. With a few taps you can access up-to-date details, reviews, ratings and retail prices for more than 64,000 wines worldwide. It also offers a vintage chart, glossary and wine appreciation course giving you an extra edge in your wine knowledge.

The AG Wine Guide ($1.99) app is great for wine drinkers who don’t know the specifics about wines they are looking to drink but have a sense of what they enjoy. It is a rich resource for learning about appellations, varietals, food pairings and wine styles. It gives you choices related to your preferences. For example, when searching for red wines, “Bold and full bodied,” “smooth and medium-bodied” or “light and subtle” with detailed descriptions of each.

Arkansas-born Lorri Hambuchen is a member of London’s Institute of Wines and Spirits. Send questions or comments to her at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail:

[email protected]

Food, Pages 33 on 09/26/2012

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