How do you Organize your Storage

[Steve_Pohlman]

Have two cellars. In both, most is just random. CT knows where everything is.

BUT in both places I have a section where the wines I have ID’d I wish to drink “next” … I organize by variety. So, if I feel like a syrah, I can go to that section and pull one. Tomorrow a Rhone and next day a pinot.

Periodically, I peruse the random section for drinkers and pull them up.

[alan_weinberg]

@Charlie Fu

i used to label them individually in the racking in CT. So row 7 column 1 etc. (7.1). Then I got lazy and now it’s a mishmash. Regret doing that. Now I can’t find stuff

+1. Now I use random chaos.

[Rick_Smith]

I just go over to Michel’s apartment and drink whatever he has open.

[Pau1_M3nk3s]

@Bruce Leiser_owitz

@M. Dildine

My process is to cram wine willy-nilly into any open pie hole that I can find.

FIFY.

Bruce

Har har har!

I have mixed racking with individual slots and boxes. The slots are mostly divided by Regions and the boxes are for overflow. There is also a magnum and a .375 area. While I use Cellartracker and appreciate that division by region is not necessary, it is very useful when figuring out the inevitable incorrect slot.

[M.Kaplan]

Offsite storage: Each bottle is in a numbered box, which are arranged numerically on pallets and seismic pallet racks. All uploaded by location into CellarTracker. I think 8 or 9 boxes, at most, have to be moved to access any bottle.

If I posted a picture of my home, self-mismanaged basement cellar, you would understand why I pay someone to manage the new stuff. I am not a competent cellar manager. After 25 years of self-mismanagement, I hired professionals.

[Greg_Pierce]

Organize? What is this thing you call “organize”?

[Rick.T]

I use to organize by region and then variety but it soon got to the point where I was maxed out and wines were stuck into every crevice possible. So, I got a off site locker. Now, it’s just a organized mess in dire need of a inventory and I need another locker.

[Greg_Smith]

The cellar was constantly in chaos so I went to an admittedly strange system where I box up by anticipated year of consumption. I might have a bottle that I think should be enjoyed in 2018-2024 and box it up for 2020. I have now opened all of the 2014 boxes. I will review all of those wines that I boxed up in the past and decide if they are still good for 2014 or if I should rebox them for a future year. I tend to have 50 to 75 bottles per year for about the next 8 to 10 years. 2014 and some of 2015 are put on the racks and ready for selection. Of course I also add some 2014’s during the year for current consumption. Strange but it works for me.

[john_stimson]

Some people do crossword puzzles to forestall dementia. I simply try to remember where I put my bottles.

[Rick.T]

@Greg Smith

The cellar was constantly in chaos so I went to an admittedly strange system where I box up by anticipated year of consumption. I might have a bottle that I think should be enjoyed in 2018-2024 and box it up for 2020. I have now opened all of the 2014 boxes. I will review all of those wines that I boxed up in the past and decide if they are still good for 2014 or if I should rebox them for a future year. I tend to have 50 to 75 bottles per year for about the next 8 to 10 years. 2014 and some of 2015 are put on the racks and ready for selection. Of course I also add some 2014’s during the year for current consumption. Strange but it works for me.

Sounds like the most sensible method I’ve read yet and easily accomplished with resorting data from CT. I’m game. Everything other than ready to drink will go to off site lockers.

[David_Glasser]

In a manner that satisfies my need to have control over at least one tiny part of my life.

Hmm… Maybe that explains the size of my cellar.

[timmy_roos]

I have an area of not so special wines that my wife knows she can grab from at random. That takes away the “oh my friend dropped by and we opened up the 2010 Rhys pinot” BS

[M_Linzbach]

Autobiographical like in High Fidelity

High Fidelity - autobiographical record collection

Actually short term go in fridge on main floor. Fair game for the wife to grab anything. Basement has longer term storage generally organized by region.

[Nick_Gangas]

At my offsite I have each vintage from 2005 on in a separate locker. Also one each for current whites and one for non burgundy. At home again I have a rack for white and one for non burg. The rest will be divided by vintage. Eventually.

[Tran_Bronstein]

By type of wine. I’m surprised nobody here has mentioned that up to this point in the thread. The icewines go together. The Vintage Ports go together. The Tawny Ports and Colheitas go together. The German Spatleses and Ausleses get their own case as do the Hungarian Tokajis as do the TBAs and the Sherries.

Since you guys are mostly dry wine drinkers, wouldn’t you put your Barolos together and your Burgundies together, as an example, in their own sections?

[Scott_Butler]

I am purely alphabetical, i don’t like any other option…and i use CT to find by region, etc. .

[Arif_F]

@Tran Bronstein

Since you guys are mostly dry wine drinkers, wouldn’t you put your Barolos together and your Burgundies together, as an example, in their own sections?

I do this plus what Greg states above. Organize by appellation/region and when to drink. Those that are sleeping get the premium real estate (temp and humidity controlled) and those that are this and next year drink get the passive cellar space.

[GregT]

Chris - mine is roughly by region. In some cases subregions too, as in Ribera del Duero - Valladolid, Burgos, etc., but that fades pretty fast so right now the Rhone section is roughly north on top, south on bottom but that’s not too formal either.

But you recognize the capsules so it’s not all that big a deal.

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

We just built a cellar this summer. They key is advance planning, lots of it. Once you figure out a system that will tell you immediately with a location designation from the database where each bottle is, it doesn’t matter where you put each bottle. Thus, for example, on the right wall of our cellar, we have 948 bottles in 24 columns of double deep racking. Due to a duct running through the corner of that side, not all columns have the same number of slots. So we decided to number each slot with a column, followed by number of rows from the top, followed by F or B for front or back slot. Thus, if I want to get a bottle of 2007 Saxum James Berry Vineyard to serve to some of my AFWE friends, it takes me [timing now with stop watch] 43 seconds from a dead stop to open a new tab in IE, log on to Cellartracker, wait for CT to load since Eric needs to speed up the server, and locate the wine in 21-21-F, which means that the wine is in the 21st column (which happens to be an all Saxum column but that doesn’t really matter) the 21st row from the top, and the front slot. It took a long time to accurately log in all the wine and do two data integrity checks to make sure it was correct. But it was worth it. Now if I can only find the time to do the other 500+ bottles on the left side of the cellar, it will be fine.

If you can’t remember what you own and you want to browse all the Barolo and pick one, you just do that on CT instead of in your cellar. It’s easier than standing in the cellar pulling bottles and looking at them.

[GregT]

will tell you immediately with a location designation from the database where each bottle is

Holy crap Jay! Location in the database?

I wouldn’t have the patience! I’m impressed. Out of say 2500 bottles, I pretty much know where they are.