How many food & wine apps do you know of that focus solely on gourmet food & wine pairings? How about budget-conscious pairings? What about food & wine education? If you answered none, you’re about to learn all about food & wine apps like these (and a few others) by reading the following top 5 food & wine apps for iPad.

IntoWine Food & Wine Pairing App for iPad1. IntoWine.com Food & Wine Pairing App

IntoWine.com Food & Wine Pairing app doesn’t just offer a wine type to pair with your cuisine. It takes the food & wine pairing process a step further by offering specific bottle recommendations. Instead of just saying try Riesling with your olive oil poached salmon with horseradish, this app might suggest bottles such as Weingut Bründlmayer (Austria) or Domaines Schlumberger Les Princes Abbés (France).

IntoWine.com offers wine pairings for more than 100 dishes ranging brunch and ethnic dishes to traditional holiday dishes and gourmet cuisine. Keep poking around and you might even find recommendations for unusual holidays such as Halloween. IntoWine.com also offers a number of wine recommendation articles organized by food types, wine region, varietal, and holidays. Anyone can use this app, so it doesn’t matter if you are seasoned or just starting out. All you have to do is download the app from iTunes to get started. Easy breezy.

Cost: $1.99 Download it now

2. Food & Wine Wine App

Food & Wine Magazine has a number of apps for the iPhone and Android, but the popular magazine recently debuted its first iPad app to positive reviews. The reason Food & Wine’s app made the list is because it has an endless number of opportunities to read and learn about food & wine. The app offers many of the same benefits of subscribing to the magazine, without having to carry it around and flip through the pages when needed. The app features pairing lessons, how-to’s, video demos, and a wine buying & pairing guide that lists the 100 essential bottles to drink now. These essentials are sorted by variety and price.

You can download the app through the Food & Wine website or download directly from iTunes.

Cost: Free!

3. Vino for Dinner

Just because you’re short on cash, doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to enjoy a good bottle of wine. Vino for Dinner makes finding affordable (but delicious) wine easy by offering bottle suggestions priced at $30 or less. This is one of the few apps on the market that focuses on budget-friendly selections that pair well with dishes of all kinds from meat and seafood to poultry and pasta. Desserts and cheeses are on the menu as well. If you happen to come into some extra cash, and you want to splurge on an expensive wine, try the next app on our list—Pair It.

Cost: $2.99

4. Pair It

Internationally renowned chef and wine expert Bruce Riezenman can help users select the best wines to accompany gourmet foods. This app features over 20,000 matches, including 1,000 food items and 180 varietals. Users have several options for pairing suggestions with this app. Scroll through “Chef Bruce’s picks” to find the best wine for your cuisine or you can let the slot machine make a match for you. You can get the party started by selecting match by wine or match by food. Whatever you choose you will have plenty of premium selections to choose from.

Cost: $4.99

5. AG Wine

Education is the most important aspect of this app, thanks to AG Wine’s dedication to educating the world about wine. Users can read all about wine regions of the world, appellations, grape varieties, and vintages. Learning about producers and reading reviews can be useful as well, but AG prefers to focus on the areas listed above first and foremost.

In addition to educating users about wine, AG offers expert recommendations based on wines from its main focus areas including Australia, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Spain, France (South of France, Chablis, Rhone Valley), and the USA (Napa and Sonoma). Users will receive an update when AG adds France's Bordeaux and Burgundy, Willamette Valley (USA), New Zealand, and South Africa to the list. 

Cost: $3.99