VinSavant Replaces Its Wine Scores With Attributed Ratings From Critics

Stockholm-based wine app VinSavant said on Tuesday, November 3, that it is changing how it presents information about bottles by showing attributed ratings and distinctions from named critics and publications instead of assigning its own overall score.

In a statement, the company said the free app now displays evaluations from sources that can include the Michelin Guide’s wine selection, Wine Spectator, James Suckling, Robert Parker, La Revue du vin de France and Vivino. VinSavant said each entry is shown with the source, the vintage and the score or distinction attached to that wine when the information can be verified.

The company said the change is meant to address a common complaint among wine buyers who see a number attached to a bottle without knowing who issued it or what vintage it applies to. VinSavant said that when it cannot find reliable information for a wine, the app tells users that no verified rating is available rather than generating a number.

“Wine drinkers deserve to know who is behind a score,” Urban Petersson, the founder of VinSavant, said in the statement. He said the app is designed to show “exactly who said what” about a wine.

The update centers on the way the app handles several of its core features. VinSavant said a user can photograph a bottle label and receive details including grape varieties, critics’ ratings, a suggested drinking window and an estimated price. In restaurants, the company said, the app can scan a wine list and a food menu at the same time, then suggest pairings between dishes and wines using the same attributed reviews and distinctions. Users can remove dishes they are not considering so the recommendations are narrowed to the meal they are actually planning to order.

VinSavant also said collectors can use the service to manage a personal cellar. According to the company, users can import cellar files, including CSV exports from CellarTracker, and see which bottles may be ready to drink along with stored ratings and estimated values.

The company described the app as a browser-based service that can be added to the home screen of an iPhone, Android device or computer. It said scanning features do not require an account, while saving wines does. VinSavant said the service is available in 19 languages, including English, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

The announcement is the latest attempt by a wine technology company to make recommendation tools more transparent at a time when many consumers use their phones in stores and restaurants to compare bottles before buying them. VinSavant’s approach, as described by the company, is to act more like an aggregator of published opinions than a scoring authority of its own. That places the emphasis on attribution and on the original reviewer, rather than on a single composite number created inside the app.

The company did not announce pricing changes because, according to the statement, the service remains free. It said the product is available now at https://vinsavant.ai.

VinSavant said it operates independently from the publications and platforms whose ratings appear in the app. The company said it is not affiliated with Michelin, Wine Spectator, James Suckling, Robert Parker, La Revue du vin de France or Vivino.