In anticipation of fall deliveries, organized the home cellar again today. We went by region (mostly). How do you organize yours? 
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No organization. Just random with number tags.
Then entered in CT with a location name (east wall rack) and a bin number (tag number). A bin number can be a box number too. I mark a number on the outside of the box. This is usually overflow that canât fit in the coolers or racks
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I get that. We also number our at-home boxes that havenât a yet made it to our off-site cellar.
No set organisation, but where bottles are stacked, whenever I do an inventory, the ones that need much more time are buried at the bottom, whilst those that should be mature / over-mature are placed on top.
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We are organized, at least in the racks - region, producer, wine, vintage. Yes, it requires quite a bit of maintenance, but for us itâs worth it. Physically standing there browsing the champagne section, knowing where everything is, itâs a beautiful thing.
Long term case storage and bins are less organized, though there is a rough regional and producer logic.
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I started by organizing by region but quickly found it was a waste of time as new stuff came in faster than existing bottles got drunk. Now I just tag in CT where stuff is by column and row.
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More or less organized by region; otherwise, organization is a theoretical concept and an aspiration.
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Mine is very roughly organised by drink date. Early drinkers on the top, open in the next 2-3 years at the bottom.
P.S. I drank a bottle of that 2023 Thiboud Boudignon a few months ago and it was absolutely singing! Bought a bottle of the 2019 a few weeks later and it was sadly less exciting.
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I organized mine roughly by variety but after a few years itâs tough to keep it that way. Itâs becoming more random by the day. All 1,500 slots are categorized in Cellartracker. The other 900 bottles are in stacked cases until they get dispersed one at a time as other bottles are consumed.
âYears agoâ I organized by Variety/Grape > Region > Producer > Bottling > Vintage.
Then I switched to Region > Variety > Producer > Bottling > Vintage.
Then after a recent move, I use a hybrid. All my Sparklers (including Champagne, sparkling, cava, prosecco, etc) are together. All my pinots are together (CA, OR, burgundy, NZ, etc). But the others are by region, mostlyâŚ
And there are exceptions- I enjoy a couple of wineries that must have 20+ different bottles utilizing a wide array of grapes; I canât do anything with these other than segregate by producer then by color.
After reading this I think I might be proving the laws of entropy in my cellar.
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Just starting on my home cellar and it is already chaotic.
I have nicer bottles organized by region, and otherwise have the rest of the cellar bunched up by âwhite,â âlight red,â and âfull redâ for easy access, stacked by drinkability.
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Yay. Super excited for it.
Whoa. Sounds like you have quite the collection! CellarTracker helps so much, only problem is sometimes we forget to do the data entry.
I feel this. We have ours currently segregated by Pinot and Chardonnay (because we have so many of both), and then by âfancy winesâ and then by region and finally by sparkling.
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Region â Producer. Bottles from a particular vintage are usually in the same bin, but the bins are not ordered neatly. Producers are not ordered, but labeled and scannable. I try to put âdrink soonerâ bottles in each bin at the top. Try. I try to keep a handful of bins empty in each section to allow for reasonably quick resorting.
It works. I like standing in the cellar scanning labels. Certainly could be (a lot!) better but Iâm content, and canât find the enthusiasm to re-sort into perfect vintage ordering.
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Similar to Sarah with a couple of twists - by grapeXcountryXvintage plus everyday wines (aka Monday thru Thursday) are held in a nearby separate space.
I work off of Region > Variety > Producer > Bottling > Vintage. 2-3 times a year need I to do some shuffling for purchase that exceeded the drinking of the wines in that allotted space. Kills a Saturday afternoon, while I pull a cork on something and listen to classic rock on XM. and my wife says it feels like she has the day to herself even though iâm 20 ft away. She hates the cold and would never come in to check on my progressâŚ
I have sections:
white/sparkling
reds to drink soon
reds to not drink soon
âotherâ â this oneâs pretty chaotic, but I roughly know whatâs in there
For the past couple of years, Iâve been labeling boxes whenever I reorganize a section. That has helped a lot, except in the long-term reds section, where I canât see most of the boxes without moving everything.
This is all in a locker, so itâs a bit tight. Everything is in boxes.
Sounds meditative
âAutobiographical.â
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