Personally, the added time and cost of the barcodes to me is minimal. Entering the information in CT takes longer - the bar code is just a printout and stick on. ~$60 for Dymo printer and $15 for 200 or so labels. So a bottle of nice wine + 10c/bottle (label waste) after, and maybe an extra 30 seconds per bottle to print and affix, which I probably get back in time savings by scanning vs. manually searching for the specific bottle and making sure I have the right one to “consume”.
I am a scrounger, myself, and lay my grubby fingers on as many wooden boxes as possible for much the same reason; shipping boxes simply take up too much space. And some of the paper used is more prone to loss of integrity in cellar humidity over a longer period. Still, non-bordeaux bottle shapes remain problematic for me. I simply do not see many - if any at all - wooden cases for them.
Still, I LIKE the idea of a larger shipping label sized barcode to identify boxes as bins. If nothing else, it would make it easier to pull up that location (though I do not think the app scanner would be much use there - would need to be the hand scanner. But I will give this some real thought prior to the next full inventory.
Thanks for the idea!
I use the barcodes and love them. Instead of trying to organize my cellar by winery/varietal or some other method, I just put bottles wherever there is an empty slot. It works great and I can always find what I’m looking for in the app.
This is a very useful and timely thread, thank you all. We are soon moving all wine onsite and discussing whether or not to take the extra time to barcode everything when we do - it’s already going to be a huge job. I want to, my husband does not. I’ve been having trouble coming up with a tight argument for why we should. He thinks I just want to do it because it’s cool. He’s not entirely wrong. 
If I had enough space to store everything at home, I would do it mostly for this reason. It’s cool.
You are biased. One of these days, I have to get A Round Tuit.
We had to build the whole house from scratch in order to make enough room for the wine!
It is the only foolproof way to fully reconcile your inventory.
Now you’ve gone and tempted the Universe to create a bigger fool!
I’ve already been the bigger fool. I once accidentally printed the same label twice, and put the same barcode on two different bottles.
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Way too many bottles to do them one at a time. I need something that can handle batches.
I have a Motorola CS3070 bluetooth laser scanner. When I got it, there was a firmware problem that gave me pairing issues in OS X, but it works great now.
I’m confused - I scan when I drink a bottle. Sure, sometimes that occurs in batches (champagne.gif) but not typically huge ones. If you’re migrating to barcodes, it’s the printing that could take some time, but printers are pretty quick. It’s just pulling the data from CT.
Just downloaded this app and all I can saw is wow and thanks!
Biggest worry, I showed it to my wife who said, “That looks so easy I think I could use it!”
As for the op, I did not barcode for a while, and it’s so much better once you do.
And use the dymo printer labels, so much easier and durable than the Avery computer printer sheets.
iPhone.[/quote]
Way too many bottles to do them one at a time. I need something that can handle batches.[/quote]
I’m confused - I scan when I drink a bottle. Sure, sometimes that occurs in batches (champagne.gif) but not typically huge ones. If you’re migrating to barcodes, it’s the printing that could take some time, but printers are pretty quick. It’s just pulling the data from CT.[/quote]
Andrew,
Based on your comment I may not need a scanner. If, for argument’s sake, I have 3000 bottles, will the entire thing go into the cue on the Dymo printer I purchased and create labels at it’s own speed?
Yes! If you already have the info entered in CT (which itself can take a lot of time), printing labels with barcodes is simple. (Getting the dymo set up can sometimes be a challenge, but Eric and his team have support articles and will troubleshoot for you – within limits of course).
You can print large numbers of labels - one roll has 500 labels. I wouldn’t recommend just hitting “print” and walking away though. I’d do it in batches of 15-20 at a time, and then start another batch. You should be able to order the printing by bin, or wine name, too - so you could also print batches of labels corresponding to everything in a certain bin or from a given winemaker.
You only need a scanner once you “check out” a wine. iPhone (and pretty sure Android phones) support the CT labels (which is relatively new) via the camera. Some people may have a computer in their cellar dedicated to scanning, but for me the phone is great.
absolutely and a very progressive move forward …
Salute !!!
The responses have been great / helpful, thank you!
Intentional thread drift (acceptable as the OP ??) - if you were going to create and fill a new cellar with a combination of wines already in CT and some not, what would your workflow look like?
- Enter manageable bunches of wines into CT → print barcode → rack → enter location into CT?
- Rack all wine and then by column / bin enter in CT → barcode → location update?
- Other?
I’m surprised there isn’t more talk about moving to RFID.
-mark
That would be an interesting functionality to have, but I don’t think it would be as practical as barcoding from a general usability perspective. And it would be much more expensive for the average person to implement. The tags would be in the 20 to 25 cent range in the lower volumes a general consumer would purchase. And that is without consideration of scanners.
RFID readers - in general - need much closer proximity to the chip than a barcode scanner. If you extended the RFID scanner field it would increase the likelihood of unintentional readings of nearby bottles. Unintentional scans are not much of a problem with barcodes.
Being the nerdy type I would love to tinker with using RFID. But I think it would only achieve extensive adoption and practicality threshold if the tags were part of the original winery label.