Labelling or coding

[Cellar_Rat]

I want to setup an index system for my wines.
I have found some 18mm labels which fit over the cork.
There is room to write 4 characters clearly on it.
What would the best numbering system then? Has anyone else done this?

so far I have something like this..
> F199
F= year (2010)
1= base wine (Merlot)
99 = blend or variant (after 3 weeks in oaker)

Hope this makes sense - do you think it will work?

[Delmonteman]

I am a lazy labeller... My labels consist of a small circular sticker which has a letter on it, the letter refers me to an entry in my notebook. I select the wine from the book first, then go get it from the shelf. Letters started at 'a' a while ago and i have since progressed through the alphabet and am now on 'B' I.e. the next run of the alphabet but in capitals...

Beers are numbered similarly. Of course I'm buggered if I lose the book (but I'd be buggered anyway as it's got all my recipes in...)

[Cellar_Rat]

yes that's a good point, and my making it too complicated?

[NorthernWiner]

yes that's a good point, and my making it too complicated?

Nah! Dream big, man.

Something I've always wanted to do is devise some sort of bar coding system. Every type of wine would get it's own barcode. As it goes into storage, I'd scan it with my cell phone, which would automatically add it via wi-fi to my wine inventory system (based on the PC). And as bottles came out, I would scan them as well. This way I would always know what I had on hand and where it was stored.

Or at least that's my dream. And yes, I do wear rose colored lenses.

[Delmonteman]

I'm sure there must be a way of doing that Steve with those new grid type barcodes that smartphones can scan. I'm sure I have seen apps/ websites for creating the barcodes. Couldn't be that hard for some tech wizzer to link that to an inventory system...

Personally, a-z will suit me fine. The way I see it, a simple two character system using a-z will let me catalogue 676 wines before I need to worry about complicating things with perhaps using 3 characters!

But for you guys messing about with these things is fun anyway!

[TStarr]

There is a free font you can download that creates a bar code - think you have to start and end anything with a *, and then you can read it with a bar scanner.

http://www.barcodesinc.com/free-barcode-font/