A new, free mobile application will change the way wine lovers find, buy, and enjoy wine this summer. The Natalie MacLean Wine Picks & Pairings app lets you use your smartphone camera to snap a picture of any bottle label bar code in the liquor store. With one click, you get tasting notes, scores, and food pairings.
“You’re in the liquor store wondering if you should buy the bottle with the castle on its label or the one with the fluffy squirrel,” says Natalie MacLean, editor of one of the largest wine web sites, www.nataliemaclean.com. She created the tool to make buying wine easier for consumers.
“Now you just point and click to find out if that Shiraz actually is a good wine to go with your pepper steak, or if the Sauvignon Blanc would work with your grilled veggies,” she says. “No more guess work based on castles and critters.”
No more shopping lists either since you can scan the wines right in front of you in the store. The app’s key features allow you to:
– Instantly access tasting notes, scores, prices, recipes and food pairings
– Search 150,000 wines at liquor stores across the country
– Track your purchases in your virtual cellar with just a few clicks
– Create a wine journal with your own wine notes and pictures in the app
– Share your wines and pairings on Twitter and Facebook
The new Wine Picks & Pairings app is the next generation of Natalie’s mobile app. It’s the only wine app featured on Apple’s iTunes store under App Essentials for both “Food & Wine” and “Date Night.”
Fans use the app to get more than 700,000 wine picks and food pairing suggestions a month, and the number of users has grown 230 percent over the past year. The app, designed by Fluid Trends, bundles a suite of 10 wine apps including reviews, cellar journals, recipes, food pairings, articles, blog posts, a wine glossary, a bi-weekly newsletter, a directory of wineries around the world, and excerpts from Natalie’s bestselling book, “Red, White and Drunk All Over.”
A certified sommelier and winner of the World’s Best Wine Writer award at the World Food Media Awards, Natalie wrote and vetted all the pairings and wine reviews in the app rather than relying on computer-generated algorithms and crowd-sourced material.
Natalie’s Top 10 Well-Done Wine and BBQ Pairings:
1. Juicy Steak and Shiraz
2. Grilled Salmon and Pinot Noir
3. Seared Tuna and Gamay
4. Flame-Broiled Hamburgers and Zinfandel
5. Grilled Portabello Mushroom and Rosé
6. Herbed Chicken and Syrah
7. Lobster in Butter and Sparkling Wine
8. Grilled Veggies and Sauvignon Blanc
9. BBQ Pork Chops and Chardonnay
10. Roasted Marshmallows and Tawny Port
Download the free Natalie MacLean Wine Picks & Pairings app for iPod Touch or iPhone.
For BlackBerry, visit App World:
For Droid, Nexus One, Nokia, Windows 7 and other smartphones.
