Android wine app Wine Dictionary by GreenLife Apps
83 out of 100

Published Thursday, August 11, 2011

Overview

Put simply this app is a basic dictionary of wine terms. There are hundreds of terms including common and not so common regions, appellations, grape varieties, aromas and production methods. Descriptions are brief, almost too brief, but importantly for me, many of the grapes and regions have a phonetic spelling to help with pronunciation.

The app is free but is supported by 2 add banners, one at the top and one at the bottom of the index page. Both are placed so as you are likely to accidently bump them and jump to the link, by mistake at sometime. Most annoying, and the Wine Dictionary should offered as an ad-free, paid-for version.

The user interface is very basic, a list of words on an index that you can scroll through. Selecting the word brings up a page with a brief description. Several reviews claim there is no search. This is not correct, it’s just not obvious. Pressing the menu button brings up a standard Google search text box which works ok. It will do partial searches but does not make any guesses if you make a spelling mistake.
Unlike some dictionary apps I use, it stores the information on the phone. Only needing to use your internet to get adds. So in flight mode it works well, even better perhaps without the annoying adds.
The list of words, while not exhaustive, is thorough and with some phonetic spelling it is going to be a useful app. Its bad points are the searching is not great, and the ads are irksome. But if you are only checking out a term, then the price is right and all can be forgiven.

This is a handy Wine Dictionary app for those like me often would like a wine dictionary but don’t want to take the much more thorough but also weighty Oxford Companion out with them.
I rate this App 83 out of 100