New Wine App for Cell Phones

In this day of free cell phone apps, one must be aware of the old and very true adage that “there is no such a thing as a free lunch.” Somebody has to pay for the food in a free lunch and it is usually the consumer although in most cases, unbeknownst to him or her.

Free apps usually have a “back door” where the developer has provided a way to extract information about your habits when using the app and that information is then sold; that’s why the app is free. The data extracted, called mining, is usually about that specific app and rarely the personal or private information stored on your phone, but that is not always the case. Getting your app from a reputable app source is the best way to insure that your personal information is safe and not being mined without your knowledge for nefarious purposes.

So why this long winded dissertation about apps in a wine column? There is a fabulous new app available for your iPhone or Android cell phone called the Thumbs Up Wine Finder that is all about wine, and just about wine and there is no private information mining.

The Thumbs Up Wine Finder is the latest of several wine apps on the market that has both a good free version and a more advanced paid for version that concentrate on giving the consumer a heads up view of the wine he or she may being buying directly on their cell phone. This app makes the buying of wine no longer a guess-as-you-go or let’s ask the clerk affair. All that has to be done is to open the app, input the wine you are curious about and up pops a review of the wine, its attributes and its price. Thumbs Up has also helped to achieve one of our lifelong goals; to find a $5 wine that drinks like a $50 wine by putting up the wines approximate value in dollars based on the opinions of wine gurus. Using this feature helps the consumers get the best value for their wine buying dollar by pointing out if the wine in question is or is not worth its sale price. We have done many comparisons of this feature by comparing the sale price of wines we were familiar with and our opinion of the indicated value. In every case, we completely agreed with the indicated value and found it to be a great aid in making a selection.

The Thumbs Wine Finder Up also offers a search by variety, producer, price range and even what wine goes with what food. There is a section that lets the user choose the store they are in or where the wine in question is available in your area, thus saving a lot of frustration, gasoline and shoe leather. There is even a place to make notes.

We can laud this app all we want but as the old adage goes, the proof is in the tasting or in this case, the trying. The producers think so much of the Thumbs Up Wine Finder that the app can be downloaded free for the iPhone at the iTunes store or for Android phones at the Google Play Store or Amazon.com. The advanced app, with many more useful features, is also available for a whopping $4.99 and if you are wine lover, it can be the best five bucks you have ever spent. With this app you become the equal to the top wine reviewers without even pulling a cork and are in a position to get the best values on the market, every time you buy a wine.

We are not afraid that this app will make us superfluous. We are wine educators rather than wine critics, although we do often give our opinions of the wines we write about. It is our duty to call the attention of our readers to what is new and interesting in the marketplace.