The 3 Best Apps for Wine Enthusiasts

For those who enjoy a glass of wine occasionally, or frequently, and would love to know more but either don’t want to ask or frequently buy in a hurry, these are my three favourite apps for wine information, whether it’s about the wine in your wine rack (or cellar), the wine you had at a friend’s house or that expensive wine you had in a restaurant.

There are a multitude of apps that will tell you about wine, so many that it can be confusing.  Here are my favourites.
Vivino is a free app which almost certainly has the best label scanner, which is very good at analysing any label you offer it (take a photo within the app and you’re done).  I recently tried numerous bottles including a difficult to read gold labelled Margaux and it succeeded with every one.  Wait for the ‘voila’, click on ‘use’ and then you’ll find out the average retail price of your wine and then you can click through to buy it from an online merchant if you want to.

You’ll also find a summary of basic information, including region, grape and food pairing.  Click on ‘winery’ for example, to learn about alternative wines and how to contact the wine maker direct.

Alternatively if there’s a wine you want to know more about, where you don’t have the bottle to hand, just use the search facility for information including the price and reviews.  These are user ratings rather than official ratings but you can see who has provided the rating and how many wines they have rated on Vivino.

You can also work out how much the mark-up is if you’re in a restaurant, which can be annoying if you’ve shelled out a large amount for a wine that doesn’t cost that much.  My advice?  Restaurant mark-ups are in many cases over the top but don’t let it spoil your dinner, nor your wine.  Look it up later……

Desktop, Android and iOs versions.  Create an account and you can see everything on any device by logging in.

Wine-Searcher is an invaluable tool.  it’s a wine search engine and price comparison website with an incredibly easy search facility.  Put pretty much anything into the search engine from the winery to the name of the wine, and then narrow it down by vintage and country.  Once you locate your wine you’ll see where you can (or can’t) buy it and find out immediately the average price, the region, the producer, the grape variety, and what to pair it with.

Then click through to Reviews to see how critics have reviewed it, and Profile to find out more about the wine.  There’s a wealth of information here.

The free version doesn’t include all stockists.  If you want to see everyone on their database you need to sign up to (and pay for) the Pro Version so if you’re always looking for that wine you tried recently and you're a serious wine collector you should sign up although see below, as there are so many wine subscription sites.




Cellar Tracker is another excellent wine information and cellar management website and app.  It has a very quick search facility.  Find the wine you’re searching for, then, if it’s one that you own you can add it into your virtual cellar.  You can also see how it was rated.  Cellar Tracker has one of the largest databases of community wine tasting notes.

Cellar Tracker is about what you have in your wine cellar.  So forget about listing wines in a book and use this instead.  Cellar Tracker was originally created in 2003 by Eric LeVine as a way to keep track of his own cellar.  At the time he was working at Microsoft.  This is most probably the best ‘cellar tracker ‘available.  And it’s free, although if you want more facilities such as some pro scores, and automatic cellar valuation, you need to donate.

Also consider:



Wine.com is a US wine store but, and it’s a big but here, if they have the wine you’re want to know more about, and they have an enormous - they call it the world’s largest - selection of wines, search for it and you can see all the pro critic ratings which can save you a lot of subscription money.

I searched for New Zealand Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and could immediately see that Robert Parker Wine Advocate gave the 2017 vintage 90 points, James Suckling and Wine Spectator both gave the 2016 vintage 90 points.

There are many wine critic subscription based websites so if you find your wine here on Wine.com the free ratings are a bonus. 

Which wine critic should you subscribe to/listen to?  There are so many.  Another post to come....

The wine lover’s gift guide 2017

Who doesn’t love wine, or knows someone who loves wine, or is sitting right now next to someone who loves wine? 

There are, of course, different types of wine lover.  There’s the ‘I love what I like’ wine lover - like me - who doesn’t know a huge amount but recognises something good when it appears.
There’s the ‘I know what I like’ wine lover, who knows quite a lot and frequently manages to lay their hands on something superb which cost less than you’d think, and a few bottles of something really special.

And finally there’s the ‘I know exactly what I like and I’m going to tell you all about it’, wine lover, otherwise known as the wine bore.  I wouldn’t try gift buying for this one - you are totally bound to get it wrong.

Buying gifts for wine lovers is the same as every other type of person, find something clever, decorative and useful that they’re going to want to use immediately.  On the whole don’t spend a fortune, you may be trying to be too clever, but who can have too many - good - corkscrews?  Who doesn’t need a copy of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book each year? Who doesn’t love a beautiful decanter - be slightly careful here, you can spend a fortune.

I know many wine lover - and drinkers - as you almost certainly do too.  One thing I wouldn’t buy them is wine.  They usually know what they like, read all the experts such as Victoria Moore and Jancis Robinson each week and buy by specially picked wines. 

If you bring a wine lover a bottle of wine, unless it’s very very special, they’ll put it aside and probably forget about it.  I have seen this happen so many times. 
If you do bring a bottle that is very special make sure they know what it is and who it’s from.  Don’t go giving a bottle of your Chateau Latour to anyone who won’t know what they’ve been given.  Preferably someone who’ll share it with you. 

Scratch that - only someone who’ll share it with you…..

Great Gifts for Wine Lovers

Most people I know enjoy a glass of wine.  Some like a glass now and then, some share a bottle every night, some know what they're talking about, some think they do and others are so sure they do they'll bore you to tears.

It doesn't change the fact that finding gifts for wine lovers is easy; finding gifts they'll actually enjoy and use is not so.  So you need to know who you're dealing with - from the afficionado to the simple wine enjoyer.

This is a selection of gifts - from Le Creuset's simple to use and beautifully made waiter's friend to Coravin's super sophisticated wine system that allows you to open the bottle without really opening it.

You really can't go wrong with the Le Creuset waiter's friend.  It looks nice and does the job it's intended for perfectly.  If you know someone who would prefer something that requires much less effort, consider giving them the Joseph Joseph winding handle corkscrew which is incredibly easy to use.

Finally there's Vinology's Deluxe Electric Corkscrew which comes with a built in foil cutter and is charged and ready to open the first 50 bottles.  Perfect for a party?  I would think so.

Of course there are thousands of corkscrews on the market, however these are three from classic to innovative, not over priced and all of which will open your bottles with ease.
 Most wine lovers have at least one decanter, probably several, so you need to be a bit careful when you add to their collection.  My favourite, although it's quite tricky to clean is Riedel's Amadeo Decanter - a talking point at any table and beautiful when you're using it and when you're not.

Then there's the simple Riedel decanter which is excellent for ''entry level' wine decanter collectors and drinkers.  Just a perfect every day option.  Closely followed by the attractive contemporary wide base wine decanter which comes with an oak stopper.

 When it comes to wine gadgets again there are plenty, but here are three you might like to consider.

Coravin's unique needle system lets you leave the cork in place and allows your bottle of wine to remain 'intact' for a long time.  So for those who want to have a special glass from the cellar - Petrus anyone? - without needing to drink the whole bottle this would be a very good, if pricey, gift.

Then there's the wine aerator, which I know for a fact works very well.  Le Creuset's wine aerator, pourer and stopper helps to open up the flavours in your bottle of wine as you pour.  Every wine lover should have at least one of these.

Finally a gift that I was given a couple of days ago and seriously like - there are many wine bottle foil cutters out there, but this one is well made, weighty and makes the task of removing the foil on the top of your wine bottle the work of a second.  Brilliant.

Last but not least there's Hugh Johnson's pocket wine book - indispensable to all wine lovers - an excellent stocking filler and a book that I buy every year.  Then there's the World Atlas of Wine - updated edition, written by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson and which every wine lover should own - just make sure they don't already before you splash out.

For any wine lover a subscription to Decanter makes a great gift.  Again make sure whoever you're thinking of giving it to isn't already signed up.  You have the option of giving the magazine or the digital edition or both and you can now sign up for six months or a year.  For anyone who likes reading up to date articles on wine and accessing Decanter's wine scores, this is an excellent choice.

For all my wine suggestions and travel notes come and follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/glamoursleuth/

Where to Buy Wine in Paris - 5 of the Best Wine Stores for Everything from Mouton Rothschild to Rioja

When I started writing this post on the best wines stores in Paris I realised of course that my collection of favourites contains far more than five stores, so this is the first in a series of posts about Paris.  These are not in any particular order, but they are definitely five of the best and every time I visit Paris I return for another look, possibly but not probably coming away with a trophy bottle......

La Grand Epicerie de Paris at 24 Rue de Sèvres is a superb wine store - it's impossible to take everything in with a single visit.  This store is part of the Le Bon Marche department store (opened in 1852 and considered to be one of the oldest department stores in the world). Offering cheese, vegetables, groceries, meats, and beautiful chocolates (plus more) take the escalator down from this modern and cavernous food hall to find the beautifully designed Caves de Vins which offers over 3000 varieties of wines and spirits with everything from reasonably priced wines to the finest bottles in the rare wine room. . . . .

This is another of those food and wine stores you really need to visit several times, as there's so much to choose from, if you can get past the wonderful chocolates on the first floor (yes I did) take the lifts down to the wine hall and check out the Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Gevrey-Chambertin and Puligny-Montrachet and on to the Euros3000 bottle of Yamazaki Japanese single malt whisky.

Don't you just love a wine store that not only has a great selection but also so much atmosphere you can almost feel it. Here I was revisiting one of my favouite wine stores in Paris Legrand Filles et Fils which is almost certainly the oldest wine shop in Paris, situated at 1 Rue du Banque and originally started as a spice store in 1880.  Legrand isn't just about wine but everything that goes with it, from groceries, a small but beautiful wine bar, wine tastings and plenty of advice to go with.

With a small restaurant/wine bar (lunch only except Friday) and a marvellous selection of wines, this is a beautiful, traditional place to shop for your next case or bottle.....There's no question also that the staff couldn't be more charming, helpful, and knowledgeable and I will definitely be back next visit.

The Financial Times (2014) “The granddaddy of all Parisian wine retailers, Legrand Filles et Fils, near the Banque de France, opened a chic wine bar back in 2002 and this is still a great place to drink fine wine from all over the world by the glass with the cheese and charcuterie that have become de rigueur.”

La Cave du Chateau is not just another wine shop in Paris. At 31 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt you stroll into the beautifully restored Parisian home of Domaine Clarence Dillon, a family-run business who also own three famous Bordeaux wine houses: Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion and Château Quintus.

On the ground floor and in the basement cellar there's a carefully curated selection of gorgeous French wines - not just Haut Brion, plus a 2 Michelin star restaurant with Chef Christophe Pelé - The Clarence.

Walking through the elegant Parisian mansion-like facade you won't be expecting a typical wine shop, but I can't fault the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff - I have yet to try out the restaurant.... I'm working on that one 😊

If you're a wine lover no visit to Paris is complete without a visit to one of my absolute favourite wine stores in Paris, within Lafayette Maison - part of Galleries Lafayette but on the opposite side of the road from the main store - on the Boulevard Haussmann - Duclot la Cave covers a huge area on the top floor and there's little you can't find here.  Every time I go to Paris I go back and check out what’s new - their staff couldn't be more helpful and although it's huge it's beautifully designed and a treat to walk around. This is a view of the Chateau d'Yquem and fine wine room.  

They offer free delivery in Paris if you spend over 50 Euros which frankly it's hard not to do in this treasure trove of wines.

Duclot is a Bordeaux wine merchant with a stock of several million bottles, 2500 of which are offered here,1200 being Bordeaux.  Incidentally their holding company also owns Chateau Petrus - the most famous Pomerol of them all.

La Cave des Climats, at 35 rue de Verneuil Paris 7th which I unexpectedly stumbled on while walking in Paris a short while ago. This is an excellent French wine store, wine bar and place for wine tastings, and has the same ownership as Les Climats Michelin Star restaurant close by, where I had an excellent dinner a couple of years ago. If you're looking for great Burgundy and friendly and informative help - plus a snack or two - La Clave des Climats should definitely be on your list.

'In 2013, passionate about Burgundy wines, Carole and Denis launched the restaurant Les Climats at 41 rue de Lille Paris 7th, one of the only places in the world 100% dedicated to Burgundy wines. When in 2016, Denis stumbles upon a beautiful space that is free 100 m from the restaurant, he sees the opportunity to gather in an informal and relaxed atmosphere all the wines of Burgundy and elsewhere they like. Carole had always dreamed of a "very simple" place where one could drink good wines with friends accompanied by excellent sausages.The CAVE is exactly that!' https://www.lacavedesclimats.fr/

Do you really need a different glass or decanter for red wine? Sniff, Sip and Slurp with the Best of them

The conundrum here, of course, is that most people have wine glasses and many have decanters.  Many use one shape - different sizes, possibly - for both red and white, but if you’re drinking a red and you want to get the best of it you really need a bowl shaped glass and a decanter designed to help wine open out.

So this is my choice of red wine glasses and decanters.  Incidentally you can, if you want to, buy varietal specific red wine glasses such as shiraz, burgundy, merlot but bearing in mind most people use one or two glasses for everything these would be a good choice - a wine buff will tell you that these are typically pinot or burgundy glasses but they are great for most red wines and most people don’t own them.



Coloured glass doesn’t work if you’re a wine buff or serious wine lover because they want to be able to see the colour of the wine they’re drinking - funny that - and I personally don’t particularly like having my red wine in a tumbler.  Give me a modern red wine glass with a bowl shape so that I can sniff, sip and taste the wines as they’re meant to be.  The eight above are perfect for just that.



Many don’t have these quite specialised glasses which is why they make such great gifts, as do modern decanters.  The problem is how many glasses do you give if you want them as a gift - remember you can always add to them over the years.....