Gadgetwise: App Smart Extra: Keeping Track of Great Wines

Browse all the mobile app coverage that has appeared in The New York Times by category, and see what Times writers have on their phones and tablets.null

I’ve probably collected more than 50 corks from bottles of wine that I tasted at restaurants and wanted to remember later. The corks were invariably chewed up by my dog or tossed in the garbage.

Two free iPhone apps offer a better approach.

If you find a bottle you like, Memorable Wines will let you snap a photo, add notes (audio or text) and use pulldown menus to log basic data like region, vintage and varietal. You can e-mail the page or send it to Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr — or just save it in the app, where wines are organized by type.

Simple stuff.

Slightly more complicated — or far more useful, depending on your needs — is the newly-updated Natalie MacLean Wine Picks & Pairings. The app recently added a barcode scanner, so you can record memorable wines with less work. It includes a trove of wine pairings and reviews from Ms. MacLean, a food and wine writer.

Neither app is available for Android, but Android users who want a free app to help record a wine should use Google Shopper or The Find. Both offer good barcode scanners, and both store your searches and help you find retailers that sell that wine — which is more than you can say for either Memorable Wines or Wine Picks & Pairings.