I entered all my wines into CellarTracker in 2014. So, that was the last time I did a full inventory. I think I am pretty good at recording purchases and consumptions, but like most of us I could be a bit off - probably less than 10 bottles either way. For example, on occasion, I enter incorrect information into CellarTracker - wrong vintage, wrong vineyard, wrong # of bottles, etc.
I do not enter bin numbers or wine slots or anything like that to locate the bottles in CellarTracker. Last winter, I reorganized my Burgundies to put them together by producer. I did this for all of my wines when I had a new cellar built for me in 2016. But, with consumption and new purchases it had become disorganized. I need to do this for German wines. Want to do so soon, but may wait until spring shipping is over and I have gotten a lot of 2019s, etc., I have ordered.
I have this same problem. Now I snap a quick photo every time I grab bottles to be consumed outside my home so I can be sure to remember exactly what I pulled out of the cellar.
Iām in the same situation as Sarah - inventoried once when we moved 3 years ago and never plan to do it again, since weāre pretty good about tracking incoming and outgoing. Based on our system the only possible discrepancy would be on outgoing, and if we miss a few bottles, not a big deal, weāll catch them eventually. I do make a point of physically checking the wine before I post it for wine group dinners (back in the good old days!), so that limits the potential issue of not bringing what I said I would bring.
At the end of 2019 we moved into a new (to us) house, renovated and built a cellar. Moving from the old cellar to the new one was a natural spot for a reconciliation. Otherwise I inventory every 2 yrs.
I like my speadsheets, so I keep those up more accurately than CT.
Probably 2-3 years ago for full inventory. I keep it close enough . . . biggest challenge is daily drinkers that donāt get logged out. But relatively easy to see those because if Iām out of one of our standard DDs but it says ā3 remaining in CTā I just check them off.
As for bins, etc., Iāve done some partial ones when I can see I have too many bottles for the bin to hold. Usually itās just that Iāve moved the wine to another bin without recording the move - I try to keep a rough organization of bins for specific types of wine.
I do it annually. This past time was the first that I found more than I was missing. Iām pretty rigorous though so Iām usually off by less than 10 bottles each time.
I try to keep CellarTracker honest, but I inventory once per year every Christmas week and find about 6 bottles that are missing/presumed drunk. I find that if I take a pic of the label when I take it out, Iām better at removing it from inventory later.
I was kinda between things, so I didnāt participate in the poll. I did a full inventory when I built my cellar last year, but have been pretty disciplined since then.
The system that works for me is I leave the empties at my wine station or dining room table until I log them in. Then itās either the recycling bin or put the bottle on the wall of fame shelf. Itās worked so far. Of course if you plot my consumption history it looks like I drink a lot on Mondays.
We organize the racks similarly - by country, region, (alpha by) producer, wine, and finally vintage. We left space at the end of each region for expansion. Full case/OWCs are just stacked generally with like producer and wine. Itās a pain in the rear to maintain the racks, but Jonathan was adamant about organizing this way and promised to be the one to move things around when necessary, which he has done. Itās rare we add a new wine, let alone a new producer, so mostly itās only for new vintages that we have to move stuff, unless weāre leaving the cases in tact, and that isnāt so hard.
I did a large backshifting of my two off site lockers back in November. Since then everything is updated except for the location of current deliveries that havenāt been boxed for long term storage yet. With all of the winter deliveries, I expect to be in my offsite quite a bit in March to get those boxed and then do a much smaller backshift. I have my locker setup to where any box of wine in the first couple of rows can be grabbed and brought home to my cellar for drinking. The stuff in the back I want to age long term. Its only when I get too many new long term agers that I need to cycle those boxes all the way to the back or grab something in the back that could be entering its drinking window.
I also may be one of the few here who is not using CT. I have been using VinoCell for the last 6+ years.
I read reviews stating that Vinocell didnt sync accurately between devices and there was a 30 sec load time each time you opened the app. Did you experience these issues?
I did have a sync issue and I contacted their support and got it figured out. I believe it was because if you AUTO sync it would update based on that device and could shift bottles from where they were stored in your racks. When I turned auto sync off and manually sync, it updates correctly and I have had zero issues since. There is zero lag time for loading the app with the auto sync off. There may be some loading time when I am adding pictures of bottles or doing some movement of bottles but that is all about your phone data or wifi speed.
I used the early part of the quarantine to finally do a full cellar inventory, which I probably hadnāt done for a decade prior. I did a thread about it, mostly about opening potentially late-maturity or over the hill bottles I culled out in the inventory.
Itās hard work, but it was a good feeling to have done it, because for years before that I kept having this sense of dread that the growing inaccuracy of my CT inventory was causing me to miss out on a bunch of bottles that should be drunk.
I was an early Cellartracker but havenāt updated anything since then, years and years. Moved a year ago and built new cellar so found lots of surprises.
I started this thread in the hope that the rest of you would be worse than I am, and thus make me feel like I am not the worst offender. You are doing an excellent job of it.
Itās something I tend to be pretty on top of. Log pending deliveries typically within 24 hours of purchase. Helps me keep from spending when I see that number get too big.
My son actually loves helping me with loading the bottles into racks and CT. He is a budding foodie and I know will be my wine lover.
I only tend to fall behind when a second (or third) bottle is opened on a given night.
I did my last inventory several years ago, and it was such a pain to inventory over 2000 bottles that I swore I would keep accurate records and never, never have to go through that again!
I keep a piece of paper in the cellar, and I never ever place a bottle in my racks without writing it down. If the bottle is standing up on the floor or on the counter, it has not yet been added, and once added it is placed into the racks right away.
No bottle leaves my cellar without my having listed it on that paper.
When the list gets a bit long, perhaps once a month, I sit down at my computer and update my inventory on my excel spreadsheet, which takes barely any time at all.
The only exception is a selection of āhouse winesā, bourgogne blancs and bourgogne rouges and house pinots, that I keep in separate racks. I do not track them as part of my inventory, and my wife and I can weave and wobble in there and grab those without keeping an inventory list.