Wine Navigator: How do you use yours?

Anyone of a certain age in the UK will be aware of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs and their unique advertising campaign, “How do you eat yours?”.

The advert touched on the notion that – at the risk of intellectualising it too much – everyone enjoys the aforementioned confectionery in their own way: some may unwrap the whole thing, some may just nibble the top tentatively, others bite off the tip and lick the insides. I’ll stop there before everything gets gooey.

The ad campaign was good and I mention it here because, like all good advertising, it can be applied to anything. In this case, it’s how you might use Wine Navigator.

Personally, I use the app almost daily. A case of ‘eating my own dog food’ and as such, I’ve used it in almost every way and setting possible (apart from in the bath – nothing much pairs with rubber duck).

So, in the spirit of Creme Eggs, without the inappropriate sexual connotations, here’s how I use mine:

• In a supermarket (or shopping online if you’re so inclined)

I’m a complete sucker for good wine labels so, if there’s something that looks good, I feel I have to reward it with a purchase. This isn’t a great way of buying wine – it’s a great way of disappointing myself as, ironically, the best wines tend to have awful labels. But, occasionally, with great label comes great wine. (If you buy solely based on the label then you’re narrowing your choice down to New World wines as everything from France and Italy tends to look like its been designed in Microsoft Word with a font choice limited to just Times New Roman).

So – my point? Find your favourite labelled wine, get out the app and find out what food goes well with it. Done!

Once you get more comfortable with this, try the same method with one of those French bottles with the nasty labels (and look out for the ones that have awards – at least you’ll know at least one person likes it).

Now that's a label.

While I’m talking about labels, the best one I’ve seen recently comes courtesy of Saint Clair Pioneer Block Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. If I designed wine labels, they’d look like this. I’d buy a case of these not even knowing how it tastes. (Luckily it’s a stunning wine).

Along the same lines, try shopping for wine online from somewhere such as Majestic (other online wine retailers are available). Pick some wines you’ve not had before from the comfort of your computer screen – or pick wines that’ll go well with food you have planned for the week. It’s fun! Not cheap though.

• At the restaurant, dressed to impress

Restaurant wine lists can be very intimidating (especially the ones where there are pages of similar sounding wines – are there any actual houses in Bordeaux or just vineyards?!). Wine Navigator can, once again, come to the rescue.

One of the recent reviews on the UK App Store was great: “On a date and Dad’s a wine bore so needed to know my stuff. Good app”

Based on the reviewer’s name – Tabbygirl1 – I’ll assume she’s on a date with a guy. Firstly, I love the fact that she’s choosing the wine. “You go girl!”

Secondly, to look on the App Store for a suitable app, download it, look for wine on it and then review it, I’d hope her date wasn’t sat, bored, across the table while she did all this research. Or maybe he was in the toilet for an extended period of time, regretting the oysters while she was finishing his Chablis and looking on the app for something that went well with dessert.

We’ll never know what happened, but it shows how useful an app like this can be in that situation. Not every restaurant has a sommelier but with Wine Navigator at least you can always have one in your pocket, albeit small and iPhone-shaped.

• At home, cooking up a feast

There’s nothing sadder to me than an empty wine rack or chiller; its holes really need to be filled for it to be truly happy. Anthropomorphism aside, I think it’s always good to have a wide range of bottles ready for action as it’s enormous fun to choose a wine you want to drink and then cook something suitable.

Wine Navigator is great for picking the wine and then choosing the food to have with it. I do it all the time – it not only increases my knowledge of wine but also forces me to try new foods as well and my culinary skills have improved enormously from those times years ago when ‘cooking’ a Pot Noodle was a struggle (that powder left at the bottom… blergh).

So, there’s a small selection of ways the app can be used. The more you use Wine Navigator, the better it gets, and tell your friends if you find a great new wine – after all, there’s more to life than just Pinot Grigio.

Oh, and how do I eat Creme Eggs? I don’t – they’re repulsive.

• Wine Navigator is available on iTunes now (for less than the cost of a glass of wine).