This is a list of the top value wines in the same category as the wine you’ve just scanned at about the same price. If you’ve just scanned a $12 chardonnay, then we’ll show you the best $12 chardonnays in Australia.

Most lists should show at least one popular alternative wine you can find in your store. However, we recognise that most people shop for their wine in several stores at different times and that retailers usually stock different wines. We also want to recommend the best value wines in Australia so if you’re frequently seeing a wine in our lists that’s not stocked by your local retailer, maybe ask them to get it in or try buying it online.

The rating is a score out of 100 given by one or more qualified and independent wine judges. Most ratings are given between 75-100. Wines that fall below that level are usually considered faulty and are not scored. It is very rare for a wine to ever achieve 100 points.

The price on the right-hand side is an average of known retail prices for that wine and, together with the rating, forms the value equation for that wine that’s then compared against all others in its category. This price is merely representative of its retail price and may not be the same as the price you’d pay at any given retailer.

This helps us identify the exact critical rating for that wine. Ratings are specific to particular vintages as wines can vary greatly from year to year. You’ll usually find this information on the front label. Tip: sparkling wines, including most champagnes, and some low-priced still wines blend grapes from several years’ harvests and are therefore “NV” or non-vintage.

If we don’t have a rating for a particular vintage, we use an average of the most recent ratings for that wine to provide an indication of its value.
If we have no ratings at all for any recent vintages of that wine, we still recommend other wines of the same variety at about the same price but for which we do have expert ratings.

Wines commissioned by retailers and sold exclusively by them are becoming increasingly common. Unlike groceries, which are usually sold under an obvious label, these wines often look very similar to branded wines sold by independent wine producers. These “buyers-own-brand” wines can sometimes be very good value and even receive respectable ratings at Australian wine shows. However, we don’t display their ratings or recommend them as doing so would compromise the limited space we have to recommend branded wines that can be found at a wider number of stores.

Sure. You can also search for wines by using the text search field at the bottom of the launch screen. Tip: use the fewest and most distinctive terms for the most effective search results eg: “oyster” for Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Because there are so many variables to a wine’s name, you might have to enter several strings or longer strings to find the exact wine you’re after, eg: “oyster bay sauv”.

Sometimes moving the phone in and out from the barcode helps activate your phone’s auto-focus faster.

The app compares a wine against all its closest alternatives. Unfortunately, this comparison becomes unreliable when a wine can only be assessed against very few alternatives which is sometimes the case for rare varieties or very expensive wines. While we recommend wines of a similar type and quality at lower prices, we recognise there are times when a buyer may have other reasons to purchase these “super-premium” wines such as for collections so we decline to provide a value assessment.

Download Vinloco for free from your smartphone app market. After installing, simply tap the magnifying glass (“Touch to scan barcode”) to activate the barcode scanner.