Wine Journal

[andypandy]

I was wanting to start keeping notes on the wines I try. I was wondering the best way to do this--are there special journals for this, or how do y'all keep your notes? How do you organize your entries. etc., so that the notes can be a useful tool and reminder for the future? Thanks.

[robr]

I believe I saw one of these in my local book store. It was nice because it was already set up, like a planner, for notes in a very organized way. Maybe someone else has used one of these and will comment on it.

[hotwine]

The journal you're referring to is usually called a "cellar book". It provides spaces to record all of the details regarding a wine, from the date, place, cost of purchase to the date, place, occasion of consumption, food pairing, tasting note, all of that sort of thing. And also the location of storage, whether bin, shelf or slot in your cellar racking or whatever. The same thing is available in software, including "Celar" by CollectWare, "Cellar Savant", and many others.

[TheEngineer]

Personally, I'm on the cheap end, so I just created my own Excel sheets to track inventory, archived inventory (my favourite type) and tasting notes. I'm in the process of converting over to an Access based version as the sheets are getting too long. There is software available but I don't think I'll ever buy a scan gun to tag my inventory (needs many more bottles than I think I'll hold).

[hotwine]

Just visited the Barnes and Noble Website and searched books on tasting notes. Several journal-type books popped up.

FWIW I've used three cellar books and as many on-line databases over the last 20 years. Each has its advantages: hard-copy books are more pleasing to use and portable, easy to take on vacation or to a restaurant, but online dbs are much more easily searched when looking for your notes on a particular wine. Take your choice.

[Thraz]

I use www.bottlecount.com. I like it better than a software because you can access it from any computer that is on the internet. You can also enter your tasting notes or other notes, and run certain reports. The only downside: it's free. Yes it's a downside, because the site lives by the grace of its creator. If it were me, providing this service for free would get old fast. So there is always the chance that they might pull the plug on the site, but I'll enjoy it while it's available, and they've already proven to be more altruistic than me - it's been around for a while now.

[andypandy]

Thanks for the replies. Has anyone had any success with just taking a notebook and creating alphabetized entries or anything like that? I'm not all that web-savvy. I know how to use it and all, I just like the old fashioned hard copy better. So I think I'll either get a journal or just make my own (at least at this point. I don't have an extensive wine cellar nor can I, with my income and transient state...still deciding whether to go to grad school or where my life is headed at all...) Thanks again for the replies.

[winoweenie]

FWIW I've kept my cellar inventory and tasting notes in 4 loose leaf binders. I list the inventory under 3 catagories Cabernets & Bordeauxs, SWs & Stickies, and All other reds. The inventory pages are kept by Vintage and a seperate page on each wine, date of purchase, price, where purchased, and location in the cellar is kept alphabetically. I've found this to be the simplist and fastest method for my personal solution. Occassionally I take a bottle off inventory and then change my mind once in the cellar so I create some orphans. I've found this much quicker than firing up my conputer every time I want a bottle. WW

[wondersofwine]

I've used 3"x5"index cards for ages but this poses some problems--do you file alphabetically by producer's name or by variety of grape or region? I do mostly by producer within region (California, Germany, Burgundy, etc.) but it's not easily searchable. If I go to a home computer I will probably start using a software system such as Cellar Tracker.

[Kcwhippet]

I used MS Access to create a database. With it, I'm able to enter new bottles, when I got them, how much paid and where they are in the cellar (and anything else I want, such as where purchased, tasting notes, etc.). I have a printout I use, sorted by wine type then vintage (also winery, vineyard, bottle size, cellar location) and as I pull a bottle, I cross it off the list (and date it when I remember). Periodically, I can go back in and update the file moving the drunk bottles to an archive and putting in any new bottles. Of course that's the ideal, but I haven't been doing the archiving - just deleting drunk bottles from the database. It was easy to create, and it is useful, because I can sort it anyway I want - by wine type, vintage, winery, or whatever.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 01-09-2006).]

[dananne]

We just created an Excel spreadsheet to keep inventory, listed by winery within region within red/white/rose/sparkling/dessert categories. We keep records of vintage, location purchased and purchase price, and have a brief section for comments/short TN. For detailed TNs, if I need to look it up, I frequently come on here. I archive past sheets and only print current inventory, updating every few months or so. Probably not ideal, but it works for me. The problem is just taking the time to update it. Every few months turns into every six months, resulting in my trying to decipher scribbled handwritten notes on my old spreadsheets [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]