Hello Vino 2.0 lets you snap photos of wine bottles for smart recommendations

Wine and technology are two of the most awesome things in the world, but they don’t often intersect. Yesterday, we wrote about a new wine app called WineDemon, which is described as a “TripAdvisor for wine”. Since it’s Friday, and I’ve got wine on the brain (and in likely still drizzling through my brain from last night), I stumbled upon yet another wine app, and this one is really awesome.

Hello Vino bills itself as a wine recommendation app that offers thousands of wine recommendations, pairings, and gift choices with tasting notes and ratings. You can also enable push notifications for access to coupons and nearby discounts. Today, Hello Vino 2.0 hit the shelves, what the company is calling “the most amazing app update ever.”

In the past, I’ve seen companies try and convince hundreds of vineyards to slap QR codes on bottles so that users can store what wines they’ve had at restaurants in an app to order later. (It hasn’t worked.) Hello Vino has appropriately leapfrogged QR codes, and barcodes, as they say “are so yesterday.” The app’s label image recognition software is simply brilliant. Just snap a pic of a wine label and the app presents you with all the tasting notes, ratings, and food pairings for that bottle.

In comparison to other wine apps, Hello Vino says it provides recommendations to every day wine shoppers instead of catering to wine geeks managing their cellars. But for those who like to shop for wine, the app is really useful to store wine you may have had at a restaurant and wish to buy later. Simple take a picture of that bottle of Sancerre you had at dinner the night before and save it to your favorites, add a quick note or mark a 5-star rating and keep it on your “wish list” for your next shopping trip. Feeling lazy? You can also have wine reviews read out loud to you.

The app is free but in order to use its fancy image recognition feature, you have to purchase credits. 20 pictures start at $.99, and unlimited is $4.99. That’s still a pretty good deal considering good image recognition software engineers earn approximately $150-$200K a year.

➤ Download the app here for both iPhone and Android.

Tonight, I’ll be attending this SideTour experience, where I’ll learn all the secrets to buying wine worth your money. Armed with this new app in hand, I’m hoping to impress the teacher!