Jul 15, 2018

WineGame lets you scan bottles and test friends’ and family’s knowledge of grape, region and vintage – but beware the seriously competitive ‘It appeals to my horribly competitive nature’ ... Felicity Cloake gets stuck in.Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The Guardian Fancy yourself as a wine buff? Maybe you will drink anything. Either way, WineGame , an app that turns a phone into a wine-testing quiz, could spice up a dinner party. Get someone to scan the labels of a few bottles using their camera, then the app will spit out questions about the grape, the country, the vintage and the region of each for the tasters. My parents and some friends are coming round for dinner, so I ask them each to bring a bottle. Let’s go! 1 Domaine Michel Girard et Fils sancerre 2017, £15.50 Frustratingly, the app refuses to recognise all but the most mass-market of the wines – you can enter missing wines manually, but my dad is no digital native, so we do a trial run, so as not to deprive him of the pleasure of seeing his youngest child fall flat on her face. Sensing a trap, I judge correctly that this pallid pink hails from the Loire, rather than the more obvious Provence, which makes me look clever – until I take 10 minutes to identify it as a rare pinot noir. “We thought that would be tricky,” he crows delightedly. 2 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference verdicchio, 2017, £8.25 The app has one great advantage: it is multiple choice, whereas my dad just expects me to guess. I get Italy, but then stall. Finally, I am allowed a hint; the name comes from the wine’s greenish colour. “VERMENTINO!” I scream excitedly. It is a verdicchio. 3 Georg Muller Rheingau riesling, 2017, £15.90 A friend finds the app easier to navigate, but then mixes up the two whites and I am puzzled to be told that the white rioja I am tasting is a Mosel riesling. Once the mistake is realised, however, I manage to select the right label from the lineup it presents, mostly through remembering the German for “dry”. 4 Bodegas Ontañón ‘Akemi’ rioja blanco, 2014, £14.50 Given that this turns out to be a wine I bought myself months ago (thanks to another mixup), I should really have been able to identify it as a white rioja first time round. Not sure I deserve much credit for then correctly guessing it was from the Rioja region of Spain. 5 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference primitivo, 2016, £8.25 With my penchant for primitivo and pizza, I should have done better on the grape, but having been put out of my misery by the app, I have no problem with the country and region: it is almost exclusively grown in southern Italy. 6 McGuigan Reserve cabernet sauvignon, £7.50 I almost ace this whacking great cabernet sauvignon, but I fall at the final hurdle by guessing the wrong South Australian megaproducer . This is a mistake I can live with, frankly. But having scented victory in the form of blackcurrant jam and oak chips, I want more. Although the app is a bit tricky to get to grips with, it appeals to my horribly competitive nature. I can see myself playing WineGame again. And next time, Dad, I am in charge. Topics