Cellar Rat

Sometimes choosing a good wine can be difficult, especially when traveling  You might not know the wines of the region and it all feels a little like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey when trying to pick something off the wine list.  However, in the ever expanding world of technology, we are thankful for phone apps.   Available for iphone, blackberry or android is the amazing app Cellar Rat.

Cellar Rat uses emoticon to rate wines.  It has over 60 regions from around the world and will tell you which years were good and which ones were bad.  I can't tell you how useful it was when we were in Italy.  It has been a fantastic tool when dining out here in NYC as well.  Once you have picked a price range you want to stay in, look at the list and select a couple of wines that are interesting to you.  Look up the region and it will give you a different smile or frown depending on how good the year was.  You can of course always ask your server to help you narrow your choice down further, but at least you will know that you are not picking a lemon to begin with.