The Auswine Forum

I have seen this topic come up on quite a few wine forums but haven’t seen it on here...

So my names Tim... and I SUCK at cellartracker!!

It’s got to such a wild state that today I spent 6 long hours digging out every box in one of my off sites.. an 80% stock take and re filling all my wooden storage crates!

So about 80 bottles I hadn’t recorded as having drank, 150 bottles I didn’t know I had... including a few auction buys that just escaped my mind!!! Riesling magnums anyone!!!!!

Surely there are other stories!! Time for me to pack some up and send to Auction as I am jam packed!!!

Wait, 80 bottles gone and 150 bottles you didn't know you had? By my reckoning you are ahead by 70 bottles. That has got to be a bonus!

Mahmoud.

Trust me my credit card knew I had them!!!

I was just too slack entering them into cellartracker and then it got away from me!!!!!!!

maybe a thread title change to' I'm slack when it comes to cellar tracker'? I understand your dilemma but perhaps not to that level.
I do a stock take every couple of months. Same old issue, wines not being entered and wines not being drank/removed. I tend to find I always break even which is a good thing I suppose.

^^^ noted..

Title has been changed!

Hi Tim
You are not alone in this problem. I have all my bottles at home, but also have to do a cellar audit every 1-2 years. I reckon the %'s are less out, maybe 10% not listed that should be and a similar % not removed once drunk. In addition a handful can't be found but I'm sure are still there somewhere, and a similar handful are found having been presumed lost!

Tricks to getting better at keeping changes logged:
- Write tasting notes. This might sound a random comment, but making a habit of writing tasting notes when a bottle is drunk, is the perfect moment to remove the bottle from inventory
- I use invoices for purchases, to scribble on the location the bottle goes into, then key the data into CT when I have the time. This works pretty well, so it's only random bottle purchases that tend to get missed.
- Don't move bottles between locations. So easy to move a bottle up to the shelf above or below, just because it fits nicely, but next time you look for it you can't find it.
- For the cellar audit, I print the current listing out and scribble the changes on it. This is the only time I try to change shelves, but mostly the movement of bottles is bury recently bought 'cellaring' bottles to the bottom & to bring older bottles, now approaching maturity further up, so I can easily get to them. If I do this, then I can live for a while in letting new bottles just go into the top of the shelf. For offsite storage, it's different but the same sort of approach should work i.e. move bottles progressively into 'ready to drink' cases that can easily be picked up and taken home.
- Accept there will be discrepancies, but getting the % of errors down is worth pursuing. I often get caught out for instance when taking a wine out, but not drinking it, then putting it back on a different shelf. Taking bottles to friends might result in me forgetting to write a TN and removing it, gifting stuff at xmas can also get missed. Having a mostly accurate list would be invaluable in the event of a fire / theft at the storage, as loss adjusters are much more willing to trust people with good records.

It might be worth exploring the barcode scanner facilities in CT, plus working out whether doing the updates in real-time via a tablet or laptop works for you - though any wine storage worth its salt is cool, enough that you probably don't feel like spending any longer there than you need to, whilst the updating of CT can be done in a comfy chair, with a glass of something recently liberated.

Regards
Ian

At a guess my CT datbase is about 2% in error, exclusively caused by data entry errors - e.g. recording the wrong wine (e.g. producer A's Shriaz instead of their Pinot), the wrong location/bin, etc. I discovered a few months ago that I've currently got a box 2014 Hoddles Creek 1er Pinot with an incorrectly entered location/bin which will need a few hours of playing 3D tetris to locate. I was hoping I'd just find it in passing, but no luck so far. I know it's in there somewhere!

I buy all my wines online rather than in person retail, so as soon as the invoice is emailed to me, it's a copy/paste into CT as a "pending delivery". Once delivered to my off-site, I use the mobile app to specify the location/bin where I've stored it which is a quick and easy process. When I remove bottles I plan to drink, it's a similar process with the mobile app - I simply change the location of the bottle to 'Home', 'Offline' or 'Office', depending on where the bottle is going.

Where I can improve is in promptly recording when I actually drink a wine. This is often not done for a couple of weeks and I need to go though the list of wines I've removed and audit them. At least it's easy to fix as these lists are very short.

My other shortcoming has been knowing where I've got spare storage space in my boxes. Unfortunately CT has no concept of an empty bin, so I end up with spare space in boxes which reduces the total amount of bottles I can store. I used to run location reports every few months and look for boxes which have less than 6 bottles in them, indicating spare space. But then it's more tetris to get them filled. More recently, I've been trying another approach which seems to have made the process better. When I remove a bottle from a box, I immediately replace it with a bottle from another box that's at the top/front of the same shelf and mark the box with a sticky note so I know what to fill first next time there's a delivery.

I should probably do a full audit once a year, not just to correct any errors, but also to inspect the bottles for signs of weeping. However, the thought of spending an entire day moving 200 boxes and inspecting the wines therein does not appeal!

Yes I found a few cases of St Peters and without inspecting cases before cellaring, I'm expecting more errors in time. A Wendouree allocation doubled up on cab malbec one year- an accident from the winery.

I often find when a wine is disappointing I don't remove it. The experience being mentally discarded I guess. So that reminds me, a six pack of underwhelming Chalambar needs to be removed from the data base.

I also can only manage one location. So I only add wines in an Adelaide cellar. I keep a separate record of wines in four other locations - home, family and two bonded locations in the UK.

Have tried tracking my cellar a few times and have just given up. Much prefer just drinking the stuff and enjoying the thrill of discovering lost bottles.

Carl

I'm hopeless at it
Decided to start with the Pennies I have a few years ago
Added my one hill of Grace (since drunk) and one of my 10 or so Rockford's (probably drunk that one too)
Never got past that
Probably 350 odd other bottles in my cellar never logged
Nearly all of them probably better than the Pennies stuff shown on my cellar.
Not the best look!

It would be a very laborious task to create a CT database for an existing collection starting from nothing. If you have some sort of computerised register and can get your cellar inventory into Excel format, you can import it into CT without too much trouble.

I used to use an Access database but now Excel is my friend.

Whatever you use the key is to enter or update as soon as you add wines or take wines out.

Chuck, that process only works if you are not in wine groups with monthly themes.

Ozzie W wrote:It would be a very laborious task to create a CT database for an existing collection starting from nothing. If you have some sort of computerised register and can get your cellar inventory into Excel format, you can import it into CT without too much trouble.

Indeed, if you have an Access or Excel database with the key variables in it then CT will import it for you ... I was very impressed.

I do think if you make use of it you should then make the recommended donation to CT, but that seemed a fair price to pay for the convenience and functionality of their system.

I agree with the trick of writing a tasting note. I find the fact I have the CT app on my phone makes this easier. It also means if I am out at a dinner or at a friend's place I can quickly add and make a note on anything interesting that might have been served so I can recall it later. It also links to Vivino so to identify most wines you only have to take a picture of it with your phone.