I would note that if any one read my first post on this thread, I had about 1200 botles and now close to 1500. It isn't that I can't count, but that "crazy sale in Texas" did increase the cellar count by about 20+ cases. I did enter those on CT as they came in the house and before they were stored in the cellar.
I added many bottles of port , a few cases of 98 Bourdeaux such as Dicru and Cos @$30/bottle.97 Rieussec for $30, Vesuvio 00 for $40.
You might also want to try WineFetch (http://www.winefetch.com). I find it cleaner than cellartracker and slightly more user friendly. I was able to upload my excel spreadsheet without any issues. The other great part is they have tools, like wine alerts , cheese pairings, and a search engine, that cellartracker doesn't.
COMMERCIAL BIAS: I am the founder/creator of CellarTracker, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
JamminZin wrote:
and a search engine, that cellartracker doesn't.
Not correct. For every wine in CellarTracker, it is 1 click away to search for retail availability on Wine-Searcher. Rather than try to compete with the best, I simple partner with them instead. WineFetch is trying to be in both the inventory management business AND the retail inventory business.
WineFetch is a very nice, slick site albeit with a very different focus from CellarTracker. Much more about selling wine than about tracking inventory with precision or having a community of wine lovers sharing reviews.
Hey Eric - good point about CT linking to wine-searcher. I'd almost recommend you link to winefetch since you can see all the bottles for free, unlike searcher which only shows non-paying customers the first 50 or so :)
I think that's pretty bold of you to say that winefetch isn't committed to their cellar management program. Have you spoken to them about it? Other than the "community" aspect, I like winefetch's cellar management more - cleaner - easier to use - and integrated into other features. In fact, I like the reports on winefetch SO MUCH MORE on winefetch, that alone would make me switch.
If you notice, in winefetch's search, they have a Community rating so I'm sure its only a matter of time till those guys create a full blown community.
Also, cellartracker nor wine-searcher can create wine alerts for wines in my cellar. I buy almost all my wine online and that feature is huge for me b/c I know I'm getting the price I want for the bottle I want.
These are just my opinions. I think both softwares are good, but for the one stop shop of it all, I choose winefetch.
Now don't put words in my mouth. I have no idea how serious the WineFetch people are. All I said was that, when visiting their site, I can't tell whether they are trying to get me to buy wine or to get me to manage my cellar. In many respects these are rather different things.
As a consumer, I am a big fan of Wine-Searcher and think that the $30/year for the pro subscription is made back in one purchase. Also, when threads and polls have come up on other boards about which retail trakcing software people use, the responses have typically been in the 90% or more range for Wine-Searcher. So I see no reason to reinvent the wheel and think they are doing an excellent job. By the way, paying Wine-Searcher subscribers have availability alerts as a standard feature. They also now seem to track whenever you have clicked through to a retailer site and build up an easy list for you.
So there you go. There are lots of alternatives for inventory management out there. However, with CellarTracker I am trying to do something unique around the community. In fact, with more than 107,000 tasting notes, there is no larger collection of free wine reviews in the world. (Only the Wine Spectator is larger with 158K reviews, but of course you have to pay for those.)
I will look at winefetch but FYI, I susbscribed to Winesearcher, Tanzer, and The eRobert Parker and Mark Squires BB , all valuable services, long before I went to Cellartracker.
CT is working fine for my needs and I like the notes.
Last edited by Richard Henderson on Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Welcome to the FTLOP community. Nice to have you join us, even if you haven't even mentioned the word "Port" yet. Please go back to your profile and include your location city/state/country. Thanks!
I agree with Eric, the http://www.winesearcher.com is a fantastic resource (as is CellarTracker!) and I have used winesearcher since its inception when it was about $14.95 at the time. For the current $29.95, I did not have to think twice to re-subscribe last week, for yet another year. It is a no-brainer and I save hundreds of dollars a year using it.
