Cellartracker

So you’ve started a nice little collection of wine. Would you like to have a nice utility to keep track of those bottles? How does one with incredibly easy entry of information, web and mobile access, almost half a million tasting notes from other wine lovers, and automatic valuation (very, very handy for insurance purposes, not just for braggin’) sound? What if it was also mostly free? Well, that’s cellartracker.com. It’s the product of ex-Microsoft program manager and wine lover Eric LeVine.

Entry is easy because 40,000+ other users have already entered their wines into the database. I have some pretty obscure stuff in my cellar, and can only remember having to wholly add two wines to the system. The system is quick and efficient, and I entered the 400+ bottles I had at the time I started using the program in a couple of hours. That’s a tiny fraction of the time needed to enter the data in either of the two previous programs I used.

The web access may be the handiest feature for me. You can get to your cellar from any computer (or handheld device), so you’re not stuck wondering whether you’ve already purchased a particular vintage or wine, or whether that bottle you think would match great with dinner is still in the cellar. The fact that you also have access to notes from other users on your wines can also help guide those decisions regarding what to drink for dinner (if you hang out on the wine discussion boards long enough, you’ll also be able to identify the authors of a lot of the notes which adds useful perspective).

I’ve been a very happy user for almost a year now, and can’t think of a better, easier way to keep track of your wine cellar. No affiliation, never met Eric, etc.