Cellar book: paper, spreadsheet, or app?

The cellar book is an old tradition. Before becoming a management tool, it was a journal: what was bought, what was drunk, with whom, and what people thought of it. The bound notebooks sold by wine merchants descend from it. Spreadsheets, and then apps, took over this role, with different strengths and weaknesses. The real question is not which one is best, but which one you will actually maintain.

What a cellar book should contain

• Entries: date, source, price, quantity.

• Wine details: producer, cuvée, appellation, vintage, format.

• Location: where the bottle sits, precisely.

• The drinking window, when known.

• Removals: date, occasion, guests.

• Tasting notes: a few immediate impressions, without a rigid template.

This last section gives the book its true value. Ten years of tasting notes are worth more than a flawless inventory.

The paper notebook

Strengths: the tactile feel of writing, no screens, durable over time. A well-kept notebook is a fine object to browse with friends.

Limits: impossible to search, vulnerable to cellar humidity, quickly overwhelmed when buying by the case. Location is rarely recorded, value never. A bottle drunk without the notebook nearby is a bottle forgotten.

Best for: small personal cellars, and enthusiasts who want a journal first.

The spreadsheet

Strengths: flexible, free, easy sorting and filtering, totals at the bottom of the column. Shared online, several people can edit it. We detailed its setup in a dedicated article.

Limits: data entry remains fully manual, location is just a text column, drinking windows and market values require separate research. Nobody opens it in front of the racks with a bottle in hand.

Best for: medium-sized cellars managed by a disciplined user.

The app

Strengths: entry via photo or phrase, visual location with depth, calculated drinking window, auto-updated value, sharing, and a journal that follows you into the cellar on your phone. Tasting notes are written as the bottle is opened, not three days later.

Limits: requires a phone or computer, and selecting an app with an exit option. Make sure it exports your data.

Best for: any cellar starting from a few dozen bottles, and essential once past a hundred.

Taking the best of all three

Nothing stops you from keeping a notebook for special bottles and occasions, while letting an app track inventory, locations, and values. This is often the most balanced approach.

In Tannin, the cellar book builds itself as you go: scanning a label logs an entry, drinking a bottle logs a removal with its note, and finished wines stay on record so you can buy them again. Everything exports to CSV, anytime.