A Cellar Reorganization

Wow, I have suffered a ruined bottle before but never so many at once and at my own hand too. A recent reshuffling of the 60-or-so cases of vino at home in the cold closet forced me to accept a new harsh reality: I have so much wine that I have lost track of what is actually here. Literally. I have found an pair of untouched six-packs 1984 Caymus Special Select CS. I thought that these had been safely buried in my very cold, damp locker at The Wine Box many years ago.

Groan. Argh. Ack. Woof.

So, I open one bottle from each case. I am saddened by the bottle condition: much browning, matchstick nose, faint fruit, hot finish. Yes, I expected a twenty-three year old wine, just not one so feeble. I admittedly should have been drinking through these for many years, but I have no one to blame but myself. Several friends suggest I sell the remaining 10 bottles on consignment with local stores, but I am not that guy.

Of course the price tag is another type of shock too: $39.95.

Dang, I was much happier (blindly) before I reorganized this collection.

Just.Ouch.

This, Jeff, is why I started using CellarTracker.com and why I don't mind send in a little voluntary $$ for their free service. I input almost every wine purchase and print out wine lists about once a month or so, so I always know what's available and when it might be best to drink. Nothing gets lost anymore.

[David M. Bueker]

Another CellarTracker user here. I also keep hand notes that give me a really good idea where everything is in my cellar (I would use CellarTracker's features for that too except I move things around too much).

Gotta admit that I have "lost' a bottle or two in the cellar which is a bit larger than 600 btls, but have never lost track of 2 six paks...you really do need to pay attention!!
I suspect it is a bit like not being able to do basic math after using a calculator.

Jeff - I was going to suggest Cellar Tracker, but I see others beat me to it. No forgotten bottles or cases, but sometimes it shows a bottle that I can't locate, which would be human error - like I never took it out of inventory. I also keep a notebook nearby with the bottle location.

I appreciate the common theme in your insights but I feel differently - that software usage is not the key here. I am a applications analyst and I created a very functional cellar management tool myself - fifteen years ago. It is not a matter of having tools, for me it is simply one of caring enough about the benefit to use a tool to both manage inventory and drive your drinking profile. Ironically, I stopped using my own tool nine years ago. I didn't find it helpful. While I certainly care a bit more now, it is only a bit more.

Today's complete physical inventory of the home storage confirms that these two boxes are the only ones misplaced at home for drinking in the next few years. It's nice to have a day off like this. My entire collection is over 200 cases, 60 of which I keep at home, completely safe for even really long term storage; I just don't keep my long term stuff at home in practice. The box locations for the rogue CSS in my database were incorrect and were simply never entered into the database correctly at all. I never sought to try one of the bottles, having lost basically all interest in Cali cabs not named Montelena, Dunn or Laurel Glen. Unless one does periodic physical inventory, this error is not even detectable except by physical inventory, luck by accidental discovery by case displacement - or actually bottle seeking for current drinking.

So, yes the bottles were lost but that did not lead to extended age nor poor storage. I didn't want to drink them for a long time yet even now. It makes me feel better as well that my brother reminds me that I acquired these cases with him, while we vacationed in San Francisco, with our wives in the unusually hot mid-May of 1989. I'm now betting that these were cooked in the store to begin with. I've forgotten the store name, but it was a discounter just a few blocks from Ghiardelli. The long concrete walkway/ramp which ran lalong the building front leading to the front door was unusual and I remember also them having with no air conditioning.

So the delight of seeing an enormous end stack of the CSS six packs proved unforgettable, irresistible, and ultimately - a good memory of a wonderful time. And there are still ten more bottles for stews.

So the delight of seeing an enormous end stack of the CSS six packs proved unforgettable, irresistible, and ultimately - a good memory of a wonderful time. And there are still ten more bottles for stews.

....cooked wine for cooking? Won't it impart the off taste in the stew?

To me, the bright side is more storage space for wines you prefer.

One of the great features of CT, which you cannot duplicate with your own database and which you might consider, is having your cellar linked to the 000,000's of tasting notes, drinking window estimates and costs provided by other members. Every day when I sign in to my cellar I get to read the notes of anybody who has just drunk a wine I have in inventory, sometimes it is truly inspiring!

Every day when I sign in to my cellar I get to read the notes of anybody who has just drunk a wine I have in inventory, sometimes it is truly inspiring!

I understand the enthusiasm for this feature, but isn't it only useful in the context of whether you have calibrated your palate with the other taster(s)? I would think it would be an impossible task to calibrate with 1000s of users. I'm not a CT user, but have tried using the notes of others and found many/most of the notes completely different, possibly useless, from my take of the wine.
Just curious.
Redwinger

My sense is this, and of course YMMV,

admittedly, a wine with nothing but a bunch of low ratings will probably yield not much additional helpful information, however I have found that with wines rated highly enough to inspire several reviewers to put some effort into their tasting notes, reading those notes will either inspire me to want to taste such a wine...or not; that is to say, I know my own tastes well enough to often calibrate usefully from the notes of a random selection of tasters -- provided they are sufficiently verbose!

Linking records in my inventory to reviews, notes, etc. hold little appeal for me except to the extent that I might use the information to sell wine. I buy only things of my own interest (at least at the time purchase !). I open a bottle exactly whenever it suits me. Making work of this passion (e.g., evaluating ill-timed articles, questionable sources, unknown palates) is not interesting to me.

Is anyone here actually using this linked "review information" to guide them to (for example) select a particular wine for earlier enjoyment rather than later ? How is that working out for you ?

[David M. Bueker]

Is anyone here actually using this linked "review information" to guide them to (for example) select a particular wine for earlier enjoyment rather than later ? How is that working out for you ?

About the only use for it is if I am worried that a wine might be shut down. If there's recent notes saying it's open then I have one data point. Of course I find that my cold cellar means that most wines require additional age, but it's a start.

Beyond that I have several friends in CellarTracker & their notes are useful to me, as I know their preferences.

I suspect that experience is the distinction between those who find interest in the notes of others, and those who do not. That is, if I had a cellar full of wines with which I had great familiarity, then perhaps those notes would be mostly just noise to me. However, because I have a cellar full of wines which are almost all new to my experience, I find it helpful to have at least some subjective descriptions to hint at their treasure.

These are all good points and show good thinking on this. My collection is very familiar to me, however I do like the idea of seeing recent notes from folks for wines which may be still showing as "underground" contrary to typical expectation.

Thanks !