Beginners
The best wine apps for beginners
Most wine apps assume you already know what you like. Two of them try to fix that.
Published 24 August 2026
The short answer
SomeWine is the best wine app for a beginner, because it is one of only two here built around teaching rather than cataloguing: a 32-lesson course with quizzes, and a guided tasting on every bottle you scan that walks you through colour, fruit, oak, tannin and finish.
That is our own app, so here is the case against it and the honest alternative: SomeWine has no App Store ratings yet. If you would rather start somewhere proven, Vivino is the beginner default for good reason — scan anything, see instantly whether people liked it, and learn by exposure rather than instruction.
What a beginner does not need is a cellar manager. CellarTracker, InVintory and Oeni are excellent and will be wasted on you until you own enough bottles to lose track of them. Start with a scanner that explains itself, and come back to inventory later.
How this was judged
Judged on how much the app explains rather than assumes, how quickly it is useful with an empty account, and whether the first week teaches you anything you keep.
The ranking
SomeWine
No ratings yet · last shipped August 2026Best for learning from scratch
A structured 32-lesson course free on the first day, quizzes to check what stuck, and a guided tasting on every scanned bottle. Ratings are yours, not a crowd average, so the app is building your palate rather than describing everyone else’s. Zero ratings history so far.
Vivino
135,222 ratings · 4.8★ · last shipped August 2026Best proven starting point
Scan anything, see what people thought, and pick up the vocabulary by exposure. Enormous database, 135,000+ ratings, and no learning curve at all. It will not teach you why a wine tastes as it does.
Sommo
48 ratings · 4.9★ · last shipped August 2026Best middle ground
A wine school section alongside the scanner and the 3D cellar. Newer and much smaller than Vivino, but it takes learning seriously.
Delectable
25,910 ratings · 4.7★ · last shipped September 2021Best for learning by eavesdropping
Follow sommeliers and winemakers and read what they write about bottles you can afford. Not maintained since 2021, so treat it as reading material.
Oeni
774 ratings · 4.7★ · last shipped July 2026Come back to this one later
A clean cellar manager that a beginner has no use for yet. Bookmark it for when you own more bottles than you can name.
| Feature | SomeWineNo ratings yet | Vivino135,222 ratings · 4.8★ | Sommo48 ratings · 4.9★ | Delectable25,910 ratings · 4.7★ | Oeni774 ratings · 4.7★ | CellarTracker12,603 ratings · 4.9★ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scan a restaurant wine list | Yes — every bottle ranked for your taste and your dish | Yes — ranked by community average, not your palate | Scans a tasting flight card, not a restaurant list | No | No | No |
| Ranked to your own palate | Yes — Taste DNA built from what you rate | Recommendations from a crowd score | AI picks from what you already own | Notes from sommeliers you follow | No | Community ratings and critic scores |
| Structured course and quizzes | Yes — 32 lessons with quizzes, free | No | Yes — a wine school section | No | No | No |
| Cellar with drink windows | Yes — Hold, Drink Soon, Ready, Past Peak | Cellar tracking, no drink-window states | Yes — a 3D wine wall with drinking windows | A journal, not a cellar | Yes — the whole point of the app | Yes — drinking windows and valuation |
| Label scanning | Yes — 5 free a month, unlimited on Pro | Yes — the largest label database there is | Yes | Yes — unlimited and free | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes, with Vivino Premium | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, with paid tiers |
| Sells wine to you | No — nothing here is influenced by a merchant | Yes — a wine marketplace | No | Yes | No | No |
| Last shipped an update | Aug 2026 | Aug 2026 | Aug 2026 | Sept 2021 | Jul 2026 | Aug 2026 |
Questions people ask
What is the best wine app for a beginner?
SomeWine, if you want to be taught: it ships a free 32-lesson course with quizzes and turns every scanned bottle into a guided tasting. Vivino, if you would rather learn by exposure and want the most proven app in the category.
How do I learn about wine using an app?
Two routes work. Structured: a course that covers grapes, regions, winemaking and pairing, with quizzes — SomeWine and Sommo both ship one. Unstructured: scan everything you drink, write your own note before reading anyone else’s, and revisit after a month. The second works in any app on this page.
Do I need to know wine vocabulary first?
No, and the vocabulary is easier learned in front of a glass than in advance. A guided tasting that asks specific questions — is there oak, how much tannin — teaches the words faster than a glossary does.
Should a beginner pay for a wine app?
Not at first. Every app here has a free tier that covers scanning and notes. Pay when you hit a real limit: usually unlimited scanning, or a cellar you can no longer keep in your head.
Try it on the next bottle you open.
Free to start. No account needed to browse the course.
SomeWine publishes this guide and SomeWine appears in it — said plainly rather than buried. Every other app named is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SomeWine. Ratings and release dates are read from the iTunes Lookup API; feature descriptions come from each app’s own App Store listing as of 24 August 2026.