The Ultimate Guide to The Digital Wine Universe
Top Apps: Winery Passport
Interactive maps allow you to search for wineries near your location; your "passport” is a personal log of every winery you've visited.
Good for: Travel tips
Relevant stat: 5,000+ wineries to visit
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Top Apps: Delectable
This triple-purpose app combines community photo sharing of bottles, personal wine ratings and ways to buy the rated wines.
Good for: Social networking
Relevant stat: 40,000 wines for purchase
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Top Apps: Local Wine Events
This app offers constantly updated listings of wine events in every major American city (and many smaller ones).
Good for: Event listings
Relevant stat: 4,500 events per month
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Top Apps: Cellar Tracker
A cellar-tracking app that's also a massive and often extremely helpful user-generated collection of wine reviews.
Good for: Community reviews
Relevant stat: 5,455,900 wine reviews
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Top Apps: Approach Guides for Wine
A substantial collection of regional grape varieties, it's searchable by suggested pairings and wine styles.
Good for: Wine Lessons
Relevant stat: 500+ regions profiled
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Top Apps: Wine Ring
A complex algorithm plus a gang of wine experts help predict wines you'll like based on your past choices.
Good for: Wine suggestions
Relevant stat: 5 masters of wine and 5 master sommeliers
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Top Apps: Wine-Searcher
The granddaddy of wine-searching apps (and still the best); enter a wine and a zip code, and it locates nearby stores that sell that bottle.
Good for: wine buying
Relevant stat: 54,800 wine stores
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Best Ways To Shop: Online Buying
Amazon.com
Amid all the books, shoes, digital music and flea collars, Amazon sells wine—a lot of it. Nearly 9,000 different bottles are on the site, shipped to 30 states plus the District of Columbia.
Wine.com
The largest online wine seller in the country shipped nearly 3 million bottles in the US in 2014. As of last year, it also ships for pickup at local FedEx offices, which helps prevent missed deliveries (as, for example, when no one over 21 is present to sign for the package).
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Best Ways To Shop: On-Demand Delivery
Drizly
One of the most comprehensive apps in the rapidly expanding alcohol-delivery world, Drizly coordinates with local stores in 18 cities, bringing wine (or beer and liquor) to your home in less than an hour.
Thirstie
Similar to Drizly, and currently operating in almost the same number of cities, this app also recently added The Craft, a platform offering wine-pairing advice, news, cocktail recipes and more.
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Podcast: "I'll Drink To That"
Levi Dalton talks to winemakers, sommeliers and other wine-world denizens. He's currently on episode 298. illdrinktothatpod.com
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Up-and-Coming Blogs: Not Drinking Poison
"A time capsule wine bar and restaurant like Le Bougainville perfectly embodies the simultaneous joys and frustrations of living in present-day Paris."
—Aaron Ayscough, notdrinkingpoison.blogspot.com
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Up-and-Coming Blogs: Wine Folly
"Rosé isn't made with a special grape; rosé is more like a state of mind." —Madeline Puckette, winefolly.com
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Up-and-Coming Blogs: Wine All The Time
"Boutari Assyrtiko: tart but elegant. It's like that one time Courtney Love went to the Oscars." —Marissa A. Ross, wine-allthetime.com
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Global Blogs: California, U.S.A.
Elaine Chukan Brown's in-depth interviews with top California winemakers (and occasionally others from around the world) are intelligent, incisive and detailed. wakawakawinereviews.com
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Global Blogs: Washington, U.S.A.
For his Washington Wine Report, Sean P. Sullivan lets readers participate in virtual tastings, rounds up news about Northwest wine from media outlets everywhere and posts photographer Richard Duval's gorgeous shots of Washington state vineyards. wawinereport.com
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Global Blogs: Loire, France
Jim Budd's frequent estate profiles bring the Loire Valley to life. He's also a sharp commentator on the region's wine politics. jimsloire.blogspot.com
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Global Blogs: Burgundy, France
Bill Nanson's free blog and regional guide (with a paid e-newsletter) explain Burgundy basics and profile both villages and producers. He writes frequently and intelligently about one of the world's most complex wine regions. burgundy-report.com
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Global Blogs: Italy
Alfonso Cevola's deep knowledge of Italian wine history informs every post he writes. acevola.blogspot.com
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Global Blogs: Spain and Portugal
Ryan and Gabriella Opaz focus on Iberian wines plus notable people and places. catavino.net
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Wine Reviews Worth the Annual Fees
Vinous, $120
Antonio Galloni, formerly of the Wine Advocate, oversees a team of six respected regional critics. vinous.com
Jancis Robinson, $107
Reviews, regional reports and op-eds from the premier English wine writer and her team. jancisrobinson.com
Alice Fiering, $68
For natural-wine fans, Feiring's newsletter is a must-read both for its articulate advocacy and fiery polemics. alicefeiring.com
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Best Instagram Feeds: @joseppituroca
The tasting life of the wine director of Spain's famed El Celler de Can Roca.
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Best Instagram Feeds: @clarecarver
Great photos from the co-owner of Oregon's Big Table Farm.
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Best Instagram Feeds: @freshcutgardenhose
Clever cartoons illustrate sommeliers' comments on wines they've tasted.
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Best Instagram Feeds: @ShibaSommelier
Pictures of wine bottles with a (very cute) Shiba named Suki alongside.