Wine Ready to Drink - aka the CT Drinkability Report

Is anyone using CellarTracker’s Drinkability report?

I realize one core flaw might be that it’s based on user’s ratings, which might not line up with your own, but I’ve been finding this a helpful way to quickly find something to drink. Now finding said bottle in my Eurocave, that’s harder than you think!

What other strengths or weaknesses do you perceive with this report?

I use it, though I find that it skews young and as such I often try to plug my own dates in. Its helpful though in any event to have a rough sense of where the cellar is at (though unfortunately for me reinforces the fact that I shouldn’t drink most anything I have for years!).

The core flaw that destroys the usefulness of the report. I do not use it and I do not input data for it because it would just make me part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

I use it and like it a lot. Usually the tool uses drinking windows from Vinous, which I find pretty reasonable. If I disagree with the drinking window for a particular wine, I use the bulk edit tool to overwrite them.

I use it extensively, and I always input my own start & end years.
I only use the community generated window for basic reference when consdering the dates I will use.
I don’t assume that I can discern the true window of enjoyment for a particular wine but I have a good idea of how long I might feel like keeping a bottle around.
One feature I like especially is setting a future date for the search to see what rises to the top next month, for instance.
If you don’t use the feature you’re leaving a valuable resource off the table.

I like it as well. I generally use community dates until I try a bottle, then I always put in my own start/end dates based on my own palate.

My wine collection is so young I have found CT’s report to be directionally correct. I like the idea of adjusting the suggested drinking windows based on your own experience. I’ve been doing that also. I always read through the actual tasting notes as well before pulling a bottle, but it’s nice to narrow down the list somewhat when I’m getting off work on a Friday and in a hurry to enjoy the weekend.

I use it, although not nearly as much as I will in the coming years, as our cellar matures. I enter my own windows for most wines.

+1 (sort of). . I don’t have much wine so I don’t worry about wines getting too old . I do update the begin date so I don’t open wines too early

+1
It is like a blunt tool that you can sharpen and refine with your oun input.

Link?

Ditto. I started actively buying in the 2014 vintage, so very few pop in as ready.

I use this feature quite a bit to keep track of wines that are going beyond their drinking window. However, since I like wines with some age I do not become overly concerned when wine appears to be past the drinking window. As I have said many times, I have had way more bottles that I drank too soon than bottles that were beyond their prime. I often enter my own drink by date for wines and they almost always extend the window.

All of that said, the primary way that I build my drink queue is by sorting by variety they reviewing my inventory three ways: First by drinking window end date, second by vintage date and third by score. I pick some bottles from each of these screens. Finally, I review tasting notes for wines I own and often queue a bottle based on tasting notes.

I had no idea this existed…

I agree with others, that it does help to start putting your own drinking windows in, especially if you lean towards very mature, or very youthful wines.

As for the report, yes I do find it useful, but never taken literally. It’s more of a useful tool to remind me what should already be mature/over-mature, so I leave the stuff that needs to sleep for longer.

I use this frequently to help decide which wines to pull up from my cellar (which is located under my house in my crawl space) and put in my small wine cooler located on the main level. That way I have 18 bottles easily accessible that are “ready to drink”.

Just a quick note : The windows on most wines of interest are not drawn from community averages. If there are pro reviews attached with drinking windows, it will preferentially take from there. Hover over the drinking window on a wine to see the source. Community average is last resort.

Overview of the ready to drink report : Ready to Drink Report - CellarTracker Support

Cascade of where it pulls :

My Drink Dates
Vinous
The WINEFRONT
Burghound
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Tanzer’s IWC
Purple Pages
Wine Enthusiast
John Gilman
Community Drink Dates

I remember reading how you guys setup this report and my analytical mind was quite fascinated with the logic. Thanks for posting!

Andrew - Are the dates highlighted in red on the Ready To Drink page, the source being used? It looks to me that Wine Advocate is being used prior to Vinous in my list.

What is the Wine Front? I’ve never heard of that publication before, yet it seems to be given a fairly high priority in this CT report?

Oh, and to answer the OP, I never use and almost never look at the Drinkability Report.