When Vintage Matters, Wine Spectator Has an App

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The app provides ratings, recommended drink windows and descriptions of the wines' character.

More Info on VintageChart+
See a demo video and get the free download at http://apps.winespectator.com.

Magazine launches new VintageChart+ free for the iPhone; app covers quality analysis for 54 regions and varieties

Posted: August 11, 2010

Wine lovers know that a year can make a world of difference. The Napa Valley Cabernets of 2004 achieved classic quality, for example, while those from 2003 fell far short. Now you can have authoritative information on vintage quality in the palm of your hand with Wine Spectator's new, free iPhone application called VintageChart+.

VintageChart+ gives consumers a simple, effective way to compare the relative quality of wines from different regions and years, so that they can make smarter decisions when faced with unfamiliar bottles. Each year, Wine Spectator editors analyze vintage quality for 54 different regions and varietals around the world, providing ratings, recommendations on when to drink the wines and descriptions of the growing season’s impact on the wines’ character. Each time our editors revise a chart, this information is automatically updated in the app.

The + is a host of additional features, including in-depth harvest reports for recent vintages, Google Maps of wine regions and a selection of editorial content. Most notably, VintageChart+ introduces WS360, a live news feed for wine lovers that will be universal to all future Wine Spectator apps. VintageChart+ is the first of an entire suite of cross-platform Wine Spectator wine apps in development.

“Mobile represents an unparalleled opportunity to solidify and grow Wine Spectator’s status as the premier source for wine information,” said Marvin R. Shanken, chairman of M. Shanken Communications, publisher of Wine Spectator. “By porting Wine Spectator’s best in-class content into a mobile context, we can better help wine consumers, whether they’re in a wine store, at a restaurant, or in their home cellars.”

More information about VintageChart+, as well as a video demonstration and a link to the free download, is available at http://apps.winespectator.com.

The app lets you browse by country name, then subregion or variety …		or zoom in on a regional chart using the map feature.

Member comments 20 comment(s)

Paul Marotta — Cherry Hill/NJ — August 11, 2010 4:57pm ET

This looks great but for those of us subscribers who now have Droids...will there be another version for us?!?!?

:)

Dana Nigro — New York, NY — August 11, 2010 6:41pm ET

We're fans of the Android platform and have some exciting plans for it. Stay tuned!

-- Dana Nigro, managing editor, WineSpectator.com

Bruce Abbott — Fairbanks, Alaska — August 12, 2010 12:08pm ET

I love the slick interface and in-depth information about certain vintages. While the map feature is pretty, information wise there isn't much there. It would be nice to see actual AVA and appellation borders in it, as well as some more detailed information such as sub-AVAs, communes and the like.

In all though I can see myself using the app on a regular basis, thanks for putting it out!

Do you have any plans on integrating your Wine Ratings Search from mobile.winespectator.com? I'd love to see those tools in a format as user friendly as the new Vintage Chart App.

Dana Nigro — New York, NY — August 12, 2010 12:14pm ET

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the feedback!

We're planning a whole suite of apps. We'll keep you posted when we have more details on when we'll be releasing the different tools.

-- Dana Nigro, managing editor, WineSpectator.com

Kenneth A Galloway — Paris, France — August 12, 2010 12:32pm ET

Great app ! I'm the Commercial-Export Assistant for Domaine du Closel Château des Vaults in Savennières ... quick question ... regarding the vintage report for Loire chenin blanc and Cabernet Franc, where is the actual sub-regional or appellation focus ? I'm just trying to figure out how relevant your vintage reports should be when considering our Savennieres and Anjou-Villages ....

Cheers !

Domaine du Closel
http://www.savennieres-closel.com/

Dana Nigro — New York, NY — August 12, 2010 1:04pm ET

The Cabernet Franc charts covers the key appellations of Chinon, Bourgeuil and Saumur. We don't receive many submissions of Anjou-Villages-labeled reds imported into the U.S. so they aren't a major factor in our overall vintage evaluation.

Chenin Blanc covers Vouvray, Anjou, Savennieres and other small appellations where the grape excels.

-- Dana Nigro, managing editor, WineSpectator.com

Robert N Leach — Atlanta, GA — August 12, 2010 10:15pm ET

I wish Wine Spectator the best in developing apps for us to use. I am not sure this would be my first one. I would prefer something that makes the extensive database of wine reviews much more quickly accessible when one is not seated in front of a computer.

Invariably, I am in a store or restaurant and want to check out a rating on a specific wine quickly, but even with the mobile web site version of WineSpectator.com, it is quite the process to do it.

What is needed is a quick search that incorporates not only the winery or wine name, but also the vintage and varietal, all in one step.

As to this latest app: Personally, I would never buy (or not buy) a particular wine just because the vintage from its region was good (or average or bad); one of the major reasons for subscribing to Wine Spectator (both in print and online) is to know the specific rating of a specific wine.

Dana Nigro — New York, NY — August 13, 2010 6:02pm ET

Hi Robert,

Wine reviews will certainly be included in our coming suite of apps. It takes time to do it well.

As for mobile.winespectator.com, you can search for winery, wine name, region, varietal (if the wine is varietally labeled) and vintage all in that one text field. If you know exactly what you're looking for, it should only take one step. (Granted it can take a while to type some long wine names on mobile devices, but you should see autofill to help cue you on recently searched terms. We can look at improvements there.)

If you're having any difficulties, you can contact customer service here to get tips and other assistance: http://www.winespectator.com/user/contactus

Thanks for the feedback!

Dana Nigro, managing editor, WineSpectator.com

Alan Snitow — NJ/NYC — August 14, 2010 2:33pm ET

Bberry apps will be greatly welcomed as well

Michael Obrien — Oakland, CA, USA — August 15, 2010 11:25pm ET

Kind of boring application. Give me something that makes it easy to search for wines. Not too impressed with this one.

Dana Nigro — New York, NY — August 16, 2010 10:55am ET

Alan,

Blackberry is definitely on our radar for the future. Thanks for letting us know your interest. In the meantime, have you tried mobile.winespectator.com's vintage charts? That works for Blackberry, iPhone and other smartphones.

Michael,
Wine reviews will come down the line. That's more complex and takes more time to do well. In the meantime, have you tried the mobile.winespectator.com version of our Wine Ratings Search?

Thanks for the feedback,
Dana Nigro, managing editor, WineSpectator.com

Ostap Mojsiak — Toronto, Ontario — August 17, 2010 10:06am ET

Nice App but would be great to look up specific wines as well. Currently, I have the WS Home Page bookmarked on my iPhone home page and use that through Safari to look up wines.

But ... for some strange reason, Wine Spectator continues to ignore Canada as a wine region? Any particular reason? It's next door to the US. It has extraordinary wines in BC, Ontario And Quebec, with other areas on the move? Being so close, it would also offer Americans and others another tourist option to visit wineries, many of which are in spectacular locations and architecturally interesting.

Looking forward to WS starting to include Canadian wineries into your reviews, apps and into both your on-line and printed media.

Thanx ... From a Canadian Subscriber!

Dana Nigro — New York, NY — August 17, 2010 10:39am ET

Dear Ostap,

We'd love to see more Canadian wines imported into the U.S. and coming to us for review. Sadly they are scarce here, making it difficult for us to provide extensive coverage, but we do encourage the producers whose wines are distributed here to submit them to us.

--Dana Nigro, managing editor, WineSpectator.com

David Bedard — Quebec, Quebec, Canada — August 17, 2010 10:43am ET

I agree with previous comment :

Looking forward to WS starting to include Canadian wineries into your reviews, apps and into both your on-line and printed media.

William L Allen Iii — Chapel Hill, NC USA — August 17, 2010 6:13pm ET

Please make an App for the Palm. We have so few...this would be nice!

Drew Larson — Chicago Illinois — September 2, 2010 12:02pm ET

I, personally, am very excited for an android version. I know several more who are too.

Michael Hight — Tustin, CA, USA — December 29, 2010 11:19am ET

Hi, I have an idea for a new application twist for your next suite of apps to hit the market. I believe it would be very easy to manage as the software is already available. Many iPhone apps use UPC codes to compare prices, availability, etc of many commercially available products. Using this, or something very similar, WineSpectator should be able to link a specific wine's UPC barcode to information very similar to the wine ratings search available on WineSpectator.com. It should include region, winery, wine name, vintage, varietal/blend, rating score, value (as opposed to cost/price), and drinking timelines (for example, stating the wine will drink now, or now through 2020, etc). Adding tasting notes would be a nice addition too, but that maybe too much and impede on the brevity you wish to attain.

-Michael

Paul Casi — Louisville, — January 31, 2011 12:23pm ET

How's the app for Droids coming along?

James — Nebraska, US — May 20, 2011 10:59am ET

Hi,

I tried to get the blackberry app and had issues getting the page to load. I'm looking forward to getting my wine "on the go" and wondered if there were others out there with problems....

thanks,
JP

Ben Odonnell — New York, NY — May 23, 2011 10:19am ET

James and others with technical problems: You can email apps@winespectator.com for troubleshooting help.

-Ben, Assistant Editor, WineSpectator.com

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