isee your iphone

Since it's a little too early to be writing about wine (I don't want to seem like one of "those" people!), I decided to write a little snippet about the iPhone wine apps that I like. Be sure to look for a wine entry this afternoon, by the way.
I don't know how many of you out there have iPhones (or a comparable smart phone), but for those of you who do, I would definitely recommend checking out the options for a good wine app. Wine apps are like the little notepad of the future - instead of scribbling little notes onto a napkin or a piece of paper, only to lose it later, you can store every wine you ever taste FOR ALL ETERNITY. There are also countless searches and databases which not only show you excellent wines, but can also separate them based on country, cost, varietal ... anything you want, they can do.

Here are the ones I use:
1. Wine Snob ($3.99) - I freaking LOVE THIS APP. I bought it last week and have used it at least once a day ever since. It's the perfect note-taking app, in my opinion. I know a lot of people swear by Drync Wines (free or $4.99), but I gave that one a try and while it was informative, honestly, the style and structure of the app was a little droll for me. I really enjoy Wine Snob because it's fun, sleek and very inviting. You fill in a small entry about what wine you're tasting and, unless it's the occasional oddball or vintage, it will fill in the blanks for you to create the entire database for the wine, including cost, varietal(s), etc. There's a notes section where you can write everything you enjoy (or don't) about the wine. Another thing I love about it is the rating system, which instead of the boring 1-10 by-the-numbers rule, it goes from Undrinkable (1) to Orgasmic (7). Definitely a lot more fun to rate wines when you're going by their Orgasmic principle rather than their closest proximity to a 10, whatever the hell that means (boring).
2. Hello Vino (free) - What I love about this app, despite the fact that it's FREE, is the highly comprehensive format that it takes to help you find a way. You can search for a perfect wine based on about any main option you can think of: food, occasion, taste/style or country/origin. Granted, you can't search based on cost, which is unfortunate, but hopefully that's something they'll be repairing soon. As a 24-year-old bartender, I don't have a lot of funds, and searching based on cost is a very very good thing. Anyway, I've used this app many times to find wines based on my specific needs. Another more expensive option is the Wine Enthusiast Guide ($4.99), but I haven't heard that many great things about it. It's basically chock full of "expert" reviews on the wines in their rather huge database - but, as a wine writer, it gets tricky when someone else's review becomes involved with the wine you want to try out. They might put ideas (or, heaven forbid, taste suggestions) into my head! Oh, the horror! The tragedy! Yes, I can be a bit dramatic.

So those are my two favorites. I wouldn't recommend putting too many into your iPhone because having too many apps can kill the memory. And we all need that extra bit of room to add the FMyLife app or the Family Guy Uncensored game, right? Well, at least I do.