How to scan a wine label with your phone?
Quick answer
Download an app like Vivino (the most popular), CellarTracker, or Delectable. Open it, point your camera at the front label, and the app identifies the wine using image recognition. Within seconds you get the community rating, average price, and food pairing suggestions.
Detailed answer
Wine label scanning uses computer vision technology. The app captures the label image, matches it against a database of millions of referenced labels, and identifies the wine in seconds.
Vivino leads with over 15 million labels in its database. Recognition accuracy is about 95% for wines released in the past 5 years, dropping to around 70% for older or small-production wines. CellarTracker offers similar scanning with more detailed tasting notes.
Tips for a successful scan: make sure you have good lighting (avoid glare on the bottle), frame just the front label, hold your phone about 15-20cm away, and keep it straight — no extreme angles. If the scan fails, you can usually type the wine name manually.
Beyond identification, these apps let you build a virtual cellar (tracking purchases), rate wines you've tried, compare prices across merchants, and get personalised recommendations based on your taste profile.
For serious shoppers, Wine-Searcher not only identifies wines but compares real-time prices across hundreds of merchants worldwide. It's the best tool to check whether the shelf price you're looking at is actually competitive.
| App | Label Scan | Database | Key Feature | Free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vivino | Yes (15M+ labels) | 65M users | Community score + avg price | Yes (paid premium) |
| CellarTracker | Yes | 10M notes | Detailed enthusiast reviews | Yes |
| Delectable | Yes | 2M users | Wine social network | Yes |
| Wine-Searcher | Yes | 18M+ wines | Global price comparison | Yes (paid Pro) |
| Hello Vino | No (manual entry) | 500K+ wines | Occasion-based recs | Yes |