Yvonne Lorkin: Smart way to be an instant sommelier

The wine scanner will soon sort out the details for you.

You can impress your friends and avoid embarrassment.

Many will know that feeling when you're handed a wine list at a restaurant and everyone is looking at you, trusting that you'll make the right choice for the table - and you don't recognise a single bottle on there.

Or maybe there's something you really like the sound of, but it costs serious coin and you're not sure you want to risk disappointment. Lord, can you not just send me a sign tell me what the wines taste like and how other people rate them.

Well, fret not, because an app on your smartphone can sort that out. Vivino, the world's most popular wine app, has launched a restaurant wine list scanner which lets you take a photo of the wine list and it immediately comes back with reviews and user-generated ratings for those wines. More than 330,000 wine lists have been scanned in the past month, covering 1.5 million reds and 400,000 whites.

Yes, there are New Zealand lists in there, but it's crowd-sourced, so it's up to you to keep it growing. Each time you go to a restaurant, scan that wine list and then let the internet do it's crazy pagan magic.

More than nine million people have downloaded the Vivino wine app since it launched in April 2012. It's a simple Android, Apple and Windows-friendly platform where you simply take a photo of the label of a bottle of wine, write your own notes, give it a rating, share your reviews with your friends and create a library of all the wines you've tasted.

You'll never again have that feeling of: "Um, I tried this great wine the other day, can't remember what it was called, it had a green label, um ..."

Now you can look it up on the app. You can search for any wine by punching in its name and instantly see what people around the world have made of it. Plus, over the next few weeks the Vivino blog features New Zealand wines and culture.

Sips of the week

Sacred Hill Orange Label Merlot Cabernet 2014, $19
Bright, fruity, blackberry and boysenberry flavours combine with dried herbs, dark chocolate and a seam of smoke to create an incredibly approachable, seriously tasty wine.

There's a rich, caramelised flicker of toast and tannin on the finish which is both succulent and saucy. Widely available.

Akarua Alchemy Ice 2013 375ml, $50
Okay, once you're over the prospect of paying 50 bucks for half a bottle of wine, think of it this way: you'll be able to give yourself and nine of your closest cobbers a splash of this each, and your lives will be richer for it. Why not ask them all to pay $5 and if they refuse then don't share it. Enjoy the swoon-inducing aromas of rockmelon, apricot Danish, pear and yellow roses followed by grilled nectarine, candied citrus, toffee and nutmeg notes.

The acidity is incredibly fresh and twangy for a wine that weighs in at 207g/l residual sugar. So good it's criminal. akarua.co.nz

Selaks Founders Central Otago Pinot Noir 2013, $39
Very pretty carmine colour, this wine is sexy, exotic and deeply fruity on the nose and boasts extra layers of vanilla, spice and chocolate on the palate. It's smooth, velvety and luscious to drink. I'd love to taste this wine again in a year's time because it's maturing nicely. For a list of stockists email info@selaks.co.nz

Three Mountains Lucky Leaf Irish Stout 750ml, $15
Lovers of dark, liquorice-laden stout styles will enjoy the espresso and cocoa flavours edged with a hint of nutty, sourness on the finish of this beer. Toasty, light and fresh, it's one of my favourite local stouts.

Designed to age in the bottle, it was brewed last spring by Mike Jenkins at a tiny, farmhouse brewery west of Whangarei, which, at 140lt, is one of the smallest legal breweries in the country. Ask your liquor outlet to order it for you from threemountainsbrewery.com