I downloaded a wine app onto my android phone and used it to identify three wines. All three were favourite wines of mine, two French and one Spanish. The Spanish wine is internationally famous. The wine app failed to identify all three.
Of course you are at liberty to enter the wine details into the the apps wine database. You are then providing the wine app developers with information for free.
You can easily buy a wine hand book which you can carry around in your pocket or handbag. Hugh Johnson produces a great one. You don't have to buy it every year. It gives you valuable information on all of the world's wine regions and their wines. It also has vintage charts and a wine and food matching section: it is a veritable encyclopedia. Other wine writers do something similar. I find that the wine descriptions and quality assessments are very good.
I have no objection to using the internet to educating yourself about wine. However, a good wine handbook combined with a short course in wine and wine tasting will stand you in much better stead than a wine app gimmick. You can even write down your own tasting notes and there is nothing to stop you from sharing your observations and opinions on the web; very quickly you will be able to trust your own judgement rather than those of an automaton.
