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I'm getting some cellar-time, putting away recent purchases bought in Porto and a few boxes of wine which arrived while I was away. I'm now in the habit of labelling every bottle with a tag and updating the spreadsheet in Google Drive as I lay each bottle down (the spreadsheet shows me where every bottle is). I find that I've stopped keeping Cellartracker up to date - too much bother since I have to do it all one bottle at a time (I think; I haven't mastered the more technical features).

Does everyone else follow this laborious (but secretly, perversely enjoyable) duplicate or triplicate ritual? I'm covered in brick dust and cobwebs. But it seems so safe down here...

djewesbury wrote:I'm covered in brick dust and cobwebs.

Many of us have noticed, but were too polite to mention.

DRT wrote:

djewesbury wrote:I'm covered in brick dust and cobwebs.

Many of us have noticed, but were too polite to mention.

It's the academic look Derek. If you swish my fusty garb to one side I have half bottles of VP concealed within.

Ah, a bit like Davy Jones hiding his keys in Pirates of the Caribbean - I get it now.

I don't label anything in my home cellar, which consists of two wine fridges and a "for current drinking" wine rack in the coolest part of the house.

I like your Google-tastic approach. If you ever lose a bottle you can ask those nice men at the C.I.A. to find it for you.

Cellartracker has mass update features. So no more one bottle at a time. The new format is very easy to deal with multiple bottles.


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djewesbury wrote:I'm getting some cellar-time.

When you say cellar, do you mean an actual under the house thing, or are you referring to where you keep your wine as a cellar?

I do not have an actual cellar, I have various wine merchants, several carefully selected areas in my mother's old stone house and a well insulated cupboard under the stairs chez moi. I write down what I have on various lists. These are not very accurate or comprehensive.

For port bottles I buy luggage labels which I tie to the bottle with what it is, where I got it and how much for written on it. These are mainly in a big stack about five deep under a church pew so it is handy to be able to see what I've got without getting it out. The cooking port is next to a particularly cool toilet, well covered and seems to do well there.

I have other arrangements for my other wines which tend to be in racks and so more easily got to.

Once or twice a year when the weather is suitable I do a bit of a stocktake. It is a pleasure of an almost ecstatic kind.

I understand the ecstasy of the stocktake. All that glorious stuff that you'd forgotten you had.

My cellar is under the house. It isn't full height by any means but it goes under the whole house and some of it is reasonably accessible.

I also use luggage labels.

I like the sound of your cool toilet.

I will look at Cellartracker once more.

djewesbury wrote:I understand the ecstasy of the stocktake.

Yes, likewise, except that I typically discover that stuff has been stolen.

jdaw1 wrote:

djewesbury wrote:I understand the ecstasy of the stocktake.

Yes, likewise, except that I typically discover that stuff has been stolen.

As do I. I have no recollection of ever discovering something wonderful that I did not know was there, only discovering that what was once there is gone forever.

Who are these thieves who torture us so?

jdaw1 wrote:

djewesbury wrote:I understand the ecstasy of the stocktake.

Yes, likewise, except that I typically discover that stuff has been stolen.

Stolen? Egads, what kind of low cutpurses do you share cellarage with? Or is it 'stolen' in the same way that mine 'evaporates'?

djewesbury wrote:I will look at Cellartracker once more.

Why? Ignore it, luggage labels rule.

LGTrotter wrote:Stolen? Egads, what kind of low cutpurses do you share cellarage with? Or is it 'stolen' in the same way that mine 'evaporates'?

Lost, stolen, evaporated - it's all the same. It's a conspiracy.

DRT wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:Stolen? Egads, what kind of low cutpurses do you share cellarage with? Or is it 'stolen' in the same way that mine 'evaporates'?

Lost, stolen, evaporated - it's all the same. It's a conspiracy.

One of the joys of not keeping a proper records is that not only do many bottles get lost, stolen or evaporate but there are also those ones forgotten or miscounted. I once found I had 10 more Graham 85 than my record showed . They have all since evaporated however.

LGTrotter wrote:

DRT wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:Stolen? Egads, what kind of low cutpurses do you share cellarage with? Or is it 'stolen' in the same way that mine 'evaporates'?

Lost, stolen, evaporated - it's all the same. It's a conspiracy.

One of the joys of not keeping a proper records is that not only do many bottles get lost, stolen or evaporate but there are also those ones forgotten or miscounted. I once found I had 10 more Graham 85 than my record showed . They have all since evaporated however.

The last time I checked I had 10 Graham's 1985 fewer than I thought I had. A pattern is emerging.

DRT wrote:The last time I checked I had 10 Graham's 1985 fewer than I thought I had. A pattern is emerging.

I was just on my way to the police station to hand them in.

LGTrotter wrote:

DRT wrote:The last time I checked I had 10 Graham's 1985 fewer than I thought I had. A pattern is emerging.

I was just on my way to the police station to hand them in.

Yeah, sure - when they were "stolen" I presume?

DRT wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:

DRT wrote:The last time I checked I had 10 Graham's 1985 fewer than I thought I had. A pattern is emerging.

I was just on my way to the police station to hand them in.

Yeah, sure - when they were "stolen" I presume?

Most likely the evaporated on the way there, that blistering Somerset sun...

PopulusTremula wrote:Most likely the evaporated on the way there, that blistering Somerset sun...

Actually it's been very nice recently, with only a few hundred homes needing a rebuild after the floods, which have nearly all gone. I even drove through Muchelney the other day.

In re of labelling; do those of you who use computer based things have a cellar book too? I mean something physical, an actual book.

LGTrotter wrote:In re of labelling; do those of you who use computer based things have a cellar book too? I mean something physical, an actual book.

No. Get with it, Owen, we're not in the 1950s any more.

DRT wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:In re of labelling; do those of you who use computer based things have a cellar book too? I mean something physical, an actual book.

No. Get with it, Owen, we're not in the 1950s any more.

I suppose you are still keeping records with clay tablets in cuneiform?

LGTrotter wrote:

DRT wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:In re of labelling; do those of you who use computer based things have a cellar book too? I mean something physical, an actual book.

No. Get with it, Owen, we're not in the 1950s any more.

I suppose you are still keeping records with clay tablets in cuneiform?

No. Just on my iPad Mini, using Siri as the human-machine interface.

I can see you shouting at your iPad now.
"Siri, where the hell did these 48 bottles of Berry Bros Pauillac 2010 come from? And where am I going to store them?"

My cellar is a Miele 162 bottle wine storage unit that sits in the hallway of my 13th floor flat. it has never been anywhere near full and I find opening the door and having a look is enough to keep track of what Ihave. Am sure I have issues with theft and evaporation but not having any records cannot prove this.

mpij wrote:My cellar is a Miele 162 bottle wine storage unit that sits in the hallway of my 13th floor flat. it has never been anywhere near full and I find opening the door and having a look is enough to keep track of what Ihave. Am sure I have issues with theft and evaporation but not having any records cannot prove this.

Are there any port collections higher than the 13th Floor on this forum? Extreme port collecting could be a new high adrenaline sport.

I keep my records on an exel spreadsheet which generates copious quantities of pointless statistics. One such statistic is that I am at the maximum number of columns on the main worksheet.

Every bottle which passes through my hands is allocated a serial number. That serial number is recorded on the spreadsheet along with details such as where the bottle came from, when, how much it cost, from where and at what cost it could be replaced, where it is and has been stored while under my ownership and other details. When a bottle is consumed, I can cross reference the allocated number against the details and start to identify whether a particular batch of bottles shows well or poorly.

Occasionally I'll add a neck tag, but normally I will put small labels on the top of the capsule and the base of the bottle saying what they are - D27, for example. This makes it much easier to find the right bottle quickly when searching the wine fridge.

Once a year I'll carry out a stocktake of the wine fridge and despite my careful recording of all the deposits and withdrawals at the Port Bank, I am always surprised at how inaccurate my spreadsheet is.

I also use excel.

Every stash gets a three figure case number (even if it's a lone bottle) and each bottle in the case is assigned a letter, so the most recent bottle I've opened has the number 482D

Every bottle gets a neck tag which is a 48mm wide luggage tag guillotined down to a height of 28mm (so they don't snag on the racks)

When I open or sell a bottle the tag is preserved until I've recorded the stock adjustment.

I keep basic details on a formatted main spreadsheet which references a hidden unformatted database file, so I can summon up the details of a case without the problems of an excessively large file or endless scrolling.

For each bottle I now record the vendor, purchase cost, bottler, capsule type, level, label condition, weight and last inspection date, together with it's storage location. This might seem a bit OTT, but really doesn't take very long.