Wine is tricky business. It’s easy to overspend on a bottle, assuming that a high price equals high quality, but as anyone who has ever disappointed a dinner party with a sub-par bottle can attest, price and quality are not always related.
Realizing that, finding bottles you like using my favorite middle school math method, guess and check, can be quite costly, and having a friend who is “into wines” usually means sitting through a lot of haughty conversation. The Daily Grape app might, however, save some friendships, thanks to its great search feature and excitable video host Gary Vaynerchuk.
Vaynerchuk is the host of the video “episodes” that comprise the majority of Daily Grape’s content. Each episode clocks in around the 10-minute mark and shows off a variety of wines organized around a theme. Some themes are related to food pairings, like a recent episode about shellfish and wine pairings, while others are more price-oriented. In either case, Vaynerchuk speaks not as a wine aficionado, but simply as an affable guy who loves talking about wine while bringing a bit of knowledge to the party.
To be fair, Vaynerchuk is probably not for everyone. He is, as mentioned, quite energetic for a guy who is just discussing wines. While his attitude and very specific vernacular might rub some people the wrong way, it seems safe to say you’ll probably find some interesting wine options from the man.
If you don’t feel like watching a bunch of 10-minute videos to get ideas on wine and you just want to know the names of some highly rated cheap bottles, the search feature on the app could prove to be a lifesaver. You can search by any combination of Gary’s ratings, price, country of origin and varietal.
While all of the features I have described thus far are immediately accessible the first time you boot up Daily Grape, there is an additional feature that allows you to save wines you want to try to a wish list that is only available if you register with Daily Grape. Sign-up is free and done within the app, but it’s still a bit off-putting to have something get in the way of enjoying an otherwise very informative app.
If you love wine, but don’t enjoy the generally stuffy attitude that can come along with learning about it, Daily Grape might just be the app you’re looking for. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still packs in some great information that could have you looking like a wine expert among your friends in no time.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
