Niche Wine Blog

Drink Matcher: iPhone & Blackberry Mobile Application

There is a fantastic new mobile phone application that offers up to 380,000 food and drink pairing possibilities. It's the new Drinks Matcher iPhone and Blackberry mobile application created by Natalie Maclean in collaboration with bitHeads web developers. She also offers top ten barbecue food and drink matchings for the summer.  Here's the press release provided for by Natalie Maclean.

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New York, June 19, 2009 - Which pairs best with barbecued steak and chicken: red or white wine? Does barbecue sauce, relish or ketchup change the match? Which grilled grub will please those who prefer beer or gin-and-tonic to wine?

Whether you kick back at the cottage, the campsite or your own backyard this summer, you can find delicious pairings in this comprehensive food and drink mobile application. The new Drinks Matcher from Nat Decants is available now for your smartphone. It's like having a personal sommelier and a bartender at your side.

Natalie MacLean, creator of Nat Decants, the wine web site at www.nataliemaclean.com, has teamed up with the software developer bitHeads to create an application that works on your iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve.

"We all want to enjoy great food and drink, but in the summer we don't want to be tied to our office computer looking for information," MacLean explains. "We want to do a quick search while we browse in the liquor store, grill beside the pool or order drinks on a patio."

You just choose a match on your mobile device and then you can find the top drink picks either in your local liquor store or on the restaurant menu. Unlike MacLean's popular pairing widget on her web site, this new tool doesn't require a connection to the Internet and so can be used in remote locations.

"There are two trends that are exploding in popularity now: interest in food and wine, and the convenience of mobile apps," says MacLean. "That makes the Nat Decants Drinks Matcher a natural fit-like steak and shiraz. As a wine-loving geek, I love finding ways for new technology to help us savour all of life's pleasures, wherever we are."

Nat Decants Drinks Matcher Features:

       Start with either a drink or a dish
       Choose Bubbly, White, Red, Rosé, Dessert
       Pair beer, spirits, cocktails, liquor, coffee, tea
       Select from 292 grapes, wines and blends
       219 cheeses and cheese dishes
       61 pasta dishes, 118 vegetarian & salads
       57 chicken, 59 beef, 41 pork, 112 seafood
       27 types of pizza plus other take-out favorites
       48 herbs, spices and sauces
       94 Asian, Indian and Chinese dishes
       123 types of chocolate and desserts
       More than 380,000 pairings, with new ones added daily

The Nat Decants Drinks Matcher is only $2.99 and you can download it in two minutes from the online stores for iPhone or BlackBerry.

For Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch App Store, visit:
www.nataliemaclean.com/iphone

For the BlackBerry App World, visit:
www.nataliemaclean.com/blackberry

Note: The BlackBerry link takes you directly to the matcher app only if you click on it while using your BlackBerry device.

For a quick video demo on how the app works, visit:
www.nataliemaclean.com/mobilematch

Top 10 Barbecue Food & Drink Matches from the Nat Decants Drinks Matcher:

1.      Planked salmon with Oregonian Pinot Noir
2.      Grilled portebello mushrooms with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
3.      Shish-kabob lamb with Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon
4.      Skewered chicken with Provençal Rosé
5.      Marinated pork chops with Italian Chianti
6.      Barbecued spare ribs with Australian Shiraz
7.      Grilled pepper steak with Rhône Valley Syrah
8.      Herb-rubbed chicken with Argentine Malbec
9.      Grilled hamburgers with Californian Zinfandel
10.     Roasted marshmallows with German Late Harvest Riesling

For more food-and-drink matching tips, visit the Nat Decants web site at www.nataliemaclean.com:

- Free e-newsletter, recipes, blog, wine glossary, podcasts, articles, wine links, events, Twitter updates and RSS feeds

- Daily matching tips: Twitter.com/NatalieMacLean and Facebook.com/NatalieMacLean

- More than 50,000 wine reviews that you can search by price, score, maturity date, food matches, recipes and the liquor store closest to you:

http://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks
http://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks/wine.aspx?wid=4667

About Natalie:

Natalie MacLean is an independent journalist and author of the bestseller Red, White and Drunk All Over. For Google searches on popular terms like "food and wine pairing," "food and wine matching" and "wine newsletter," Natalie's site is often on the first page of the results as it has become a go-to resource for food and wine lovers. Natalie has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. At the World Food Media Awards in Australia, she was named the World's Best Drinks Writer.

About bitHeads:

bitHeads is the software product-building partner that has helped RIM, HP, InfoLogix, Vaultus Mobile and many others get award-winning iPhone, BlackBerry and other mobile applications to market faster. bitHeads' unique approach provides teams of mobile experts, a proven methodology for quickly building applications that users love, and a partnership model based on a commitment to successful delivery. Millions of people around the globe use mobile applications and other software products that have been built by bitHeads. For more information, visit www.bitheads.com or contact Scott Simpson at scotts@bitheads.com.

Vinquire - New Wine Search Engine

FIND THE BEST WINE DEALS ONLINE

Vinquire.com Launches Free Comprehensive Wine Search Engine

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November. 6, 2007 -- Vinquire.com, a San Francisco based wine portal, today unveils a free wine search engine enabling users to search for wines at over 3,300 U.S. wineries and retailers.  Vinquire inventories over 500,000 wines and offers users the ability to find virtually any wine at competitive prices.

Unlike other wine search engines, Vinquire displays all wine search results available every time, regardless of site sponsorships. In addition, the search engine is constantly updated with fresh wine inventory data via Vinquire's proprietary web crawling technology. And, much like Google™ search, users can employ advanced requests to fine tune results.

Vinquire also offers social networking features enabling users to submit wine reviews, participate in forum discussions, and receive wine recommendations that are based entirely on other users' reviews. Additionally, the site is able to deliver customizable wine recommendations which can be optionally limited to wines available at chain stores such as BevMo, Albertsons, and Trader Joe's.

Vinquire is the first wine site that merges both a powerful wine pricing search engine with community-centric features. This enables Vinquire to not only deliver recommendations based on user-reviewed wines, but also help users find those bottles at the best prices. Based in San Francisco, CA, John Kleven and Andy Hund founded Vinquire in late 2005 and the site officially launched in 2007.

The search is available now at www.vinquire.com.

About Vinquire.com:

Vinquire.com is a free wine search engine that enables users to find the best prices on wine.  Based in San Francisco, CA, Vinquire maintains information on over 500,000 wines and allows users to search for, discuss, and review wines.  For more information, visit www.vinquire.com.

Winerybound...Your All American Guide to Wineries

Have you ever wondered what wine from Arizona, Idaho, or even Hawaii tastes like?  It may be wonderful, it may be terrible, but you never know until you try it.  As a wedding gift, my husband (still not quite used to saying this yet) and I received a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot from Sonoita Vineyards in Elgin, AZ.  While I haven't tried it yet, I was so excited to receive it because it's an unknown, something different from the all too common California wine monopoly.  Don't get me wrong, I love California wines, not as much as Old World, but I like them in a different light.  However, I am always looking to try something unique, mysterious, and that's exactly what wine from places such as Arizona bring about...an inquisitiveness, making me want to learn more about it.  I guess that's what wine in general does to me though.  If you're looking for a different kind of wine, but don't know where to look, I think I've found your answer...

If your not familiar with it yet, Winerybound is a neat website dedicated to helping you plan your next winery getaway.  Mapping the way to local winery, lodging, and restaurants all across the country, it's a great tool for learning about those lesser known, non-Californian, U.S. wine regions.  Winerybound provides maps of all wine regions in all 50 states.  It allows you to select the destinations you're interested in and you can add them to "My Getaway," a cool feature that allows you to plan your trip, stop by stop.  In building your getaway, you can search for certain features, such as Art Galleries, Carriage Tours, Local Shops, and other Extracurricular activities - for when you get sick of wine (not that that's possible). 

What I also like about the Winerybound website is it highlights different categories, such as:

Feature Destinations
Research Wines
View Regional Maps
Feature Stories

This website is still a baby in my mind, but I think it's going to flower into much more as it grows and develops.  I think it will provide an abundance of information, in due time, with regard to U.S. wine regions so keep tabs on it!

 

AlaWine

In case you don't already know, I'd like to tell you about a great informational website that speaks about great wine and wine blogs.  What I like is it brings notice to the many wine blogs out there, even the lesser known ones, and the types of information they offer.  It also provides some great information on wine tasting notes people have written up and quality wines to make note of.  Some popular topics are:

• Wine Blog Tasting Room - tasting notes from various wine blogs
• Random Wine Blogs, list
• 100 Great wines
• Top 10% wines
• Wine Blog Rankings
• Top 100 Wine Blogs (Vine Uncorked, #84)
• Wine Blog Search Engine

When you have time, check out AlaWine.