To create a list of wines I clicked a button labelled “Table” and then ticked off some checkboxes beside a list of fields. After I defined my fields, I dragged them into a data-entry form and was ready to enter records. I might once have done this with the now-defunct AppleWorks, but I found an alternative in Bento, a $50 product from Apple’s subsidiary FileMaker.īottling My Own - Bento provides a point-and-click dialog box that enabled me rapidly to define the kinds of information I want to keep track of – the columns in the spreadsheet or, in database jargon, the fields. I get no joy from filling in a complicated form reflecting the way somebody else thinks about things, so I decided not to use a specialized application but to set up a simpler form using a general-purpose product. Unfortunately, their forms provide space for many details that I do not care about and they always lack a field or two that I want. This is what specialized wine-cellar applications do. For this reason, the Mac would usefully provide data-entry forms as well. However, that list must include a lot of text, and text in a spreadsheet is awkward to enter and awkward to read. If my Mac cannot generate a list of bottles, it can certainly serve as a sheet of ruled paper holding a list: a spreadsheet. Paul Scandariato of IntelliScanner explained, “Although our database includes 67,000 wines, that’s just a fraction of the number of wines available in the world.” Alas, Wine Collector filled in some information for only two wines and foundĮither no information or incorrect information for the rest. I scanned 10 bottles from an assortment of countries. This sounded wonderful to me, so I wrote for one and tried it the minute that it came.
A hand-held scanner reads the bar code that is imprinted on nearly every bottle nowadays, then an application reaches out over the Internet to look up the wine in a database.
A $199 combination of hardware and software is designed to do exactly this: IntelliScanner Wine Collector 250. Since organization is not my forte, I hoped to find some software that would help me.Ĭommercial Varietals - To be really helpful, a computer would do more than just keep a list of our bottles, it would generate the list of bottles itself. This summer we decided that the time had come to sort out the mess – or rather, as such things tend to happen, my wife decided that the time had come for me to sort out the mess. We don’t even know how many bottles are in the cellar. However, we have no clue what wines we own. This lets us drink nicer wines than our budget would normally allow. A number of years later, we happen upon them. We buy cases of modestly priced wines that have been aged in oak, and set them behind other cases, so that we forget that they are there. Over the years my wife and I have built a cellar using this strategy. Combined with the grape juice, the products of that oxidation can become complex and enjoyable. Over the years those tannins will gradually oxidize. The foul taste comes from tannins that have leached from the wood. This adds a bit to the cost and when you finally bottle it, the wine will taste foul. Alternatively, instead of bottling the wine immediately, you can store it for a year or two in small oak barrels. This wine is cheap to produce but nothing about it will improve with age. If you ferment good grape juice and know what you are doing, then you can make a quaffable wine. However, they do need to be the right sort of inexpensive wine. After 5 or 10 years I bump into them again and find that they have become something nice.
I cannot figure out anything to do about my French, but 20 years ago I did learn how to make my want of memory compensate partially for my want of money: I buy inexpensive wines and forget where I put them. I might easily become a wine snob but for three impediments: I have too little money, too poor a memory for names and tastes, and – well, it’s difficult to hold my nose in the air while a sommelier is giggling at my French.
#1609: Apple Q2 2022 results, Apple's Self Service Repair program launches, escaping the cloud with a Synology NAS.#1610: Avoid hacked email scams, disable a known AirTag's alerts, battery technology tricks, industry support for passwordless login.#1611: OS updates, RIP iPod touch, iCloud Drive shared folder data loss risk, KDEConnect links iPhone to Linux.#1612: OS suggestions, new accessibility features, higher cellular prices, Chrome OS Flex for old Macs, Memorial Day hiatus.