Comparison Chart: California wine travel iPhone apps

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Video: See our Winery Filter, Profiles, and Trip Log in action!

Start your wine adventure on WineQuesters.com right now!

Maps, suggested wineries, region info, tailor your trip to your interests with the map filters and search engine, winery info and more!

Winery Quest Pro:

Frequent Questions

  • How fresh is your winery data?

    Well, not as fresh as we would like but much better than any other source. We are updating our database with information from our travels and from wineries and travelers. We don't build the data into our iPhone app like other wine travel apps. Data downloads to your device every time you select a region unless you cache it in advance. That means fresh current data every time you need it. And one more thing - Wineries can update their own data in real time and some of them do. No other wine travel app has that feature. You have to wait for them to update their apps before you have their latest data.
  • How much information is available for each winery?

    Most of the winery profile information on WineQuesters.com is available in the app.
  • How do we find the best wines?

    This is probably the number one question that wine travelers have about visiting a region. There are no best wines. That is a silly concept created by wine media. All of the wineries make great wine for someone or they would be gone fast. See this blog post for more info.
  • How do we plan our wine tasting trip?

    It is simple. You could spend endless hours reading blogs, including ours on WineQuesters.com, or you could use our filter to select the wineries that may interest you. The next step is go to their tasting rooms and see if you enjoy the wines and experience. The two are closely linked.
  • Will extensive planning and research result in a better trip?

    Yes, but only a little. Many of us experienced wine travelers don't bother because the tasting room experience and wines change frequently and whoever wrote the article isn't you. Every winery has good experiences most of the time and every winery has good wines for someone all of the time. Our advice: Go explore on your own and find your own treats. You will discover the same quality of experiences and wines as if you spent lots of hours researching.
  • Are all California wineries included?

    Nope. We only include wineries in major regions that have tasting rooms regularly open to the public. It would be way too expensive for us to include more and we have other things to do in life. You think the maps are cluttered now! We'll probably add Lake County, San Benito County, and the Northern Sierra Foothills regions in 2011 or 2012.
  • Is Winery Quest Pro like WineQuesters.com?

    No. There is more data on the Website. We have to watch the device bandwidth and technical limits when developing for mobile devices. Bandwidth can be slow in rural areas. Of course you can cache the data before going tasting.
  • Does the app have 3D navigation?

    No, and it won't. Apple wants developers to do one thing well and that is all with apps. There are some great 3D nav apps available. We haven't found a way to integrate our map markers with them yet.
  • What are the markers with stars for?

    Wineries can post their tasting room specials in their profiles in real time for you. That will put a star on the marker. You can Shop the Maps™ for discounts. We'll promote that more with the wineries soon. No other wine travel app has this feature.
  • Your maps are cluttered. How do we use them?

    A few years ago they weren't that cluttered. Now there are a LOT more tasting rooms and even in the past recession some regions grew by 25%. Use the Winery Filter to narrow your selection and then add the ones you want to visit to the Trip Log. The Trip Log has a map of your selected wineries and navigation is easy. Notice that we added winery name labels to our maps. Most Web maps are only markers. More clutter but when you zoom in you don't have to keep tapping markers to see which winery is which.
  • We won't have cell reception when traveling. Can we still use Winery Quest?

    No problem with Winery Quest Pro. It is easy to cache (store) the data for 4 regions when you have WiFi or cell available and then use the data on the road. Just be sure to download the map tiles you need by moving around the map until all the tiles are cached also. Google won't let us cache them for you. It is possible to cache data for 1 region with Winery Quest Lite but awkward and unreliable.
  • Do you recommend wineries?

    Yep. See this page on WineQuesters.com but that information is available from Winery Quest Pro by browser. We don't download it into the app because bandwidth in some areas sucks and you would not be happy with us. It is best to use this Website to plan your trip and Winery Quest Pro on the road.
  • How accurate are your maps?

    Completely accurate as long as the tasting room hasn't been moved. We drive to each one and map it with GPS on a satellite map.
  • Really, you have almost live trip support?

    Pretty much. You can use the forums on the site or in the app, same forums, and Jim Preston will often respond in a few minutes from his office because he is usually working in his office even on the weekends. When on the road he checks his email frequently for forum post notifications. For short questions you can email Jim directly from inside the app but you have to add your email address if you want a response. Please use our wine travel forums so everyone can benefit from your question.
  • Winery Quest Pro has some bad App Store reviews. What happened?

    There are a variety of problems. One is that tasters try to figure it out when drunk. We've seen their frustration. A few have emailed us for support and we eventually get them on the right track and they seem to be happy. There have been reports of competitors giving bad reviews so their apps look better. Some have their development staff do this. Same problem on Yelp. One reviewer recently wanted more narrative analysis and didn't understand the value of our searchable information. OK, fair enough, but with all the valuable features in Winery Quest Pro that you can't get elsewhere is it really worth only 1 star? App developers wish Apple would let us respond to reviews but they won't. All of us have this problem.