Organizing the Vino

I mentioned earlier this week that I have a system for organizing my wine.  Now let's keep this in perspective - I don't have a fancy wine cellar.  I also don't really know all that much about wine, and don't plan on making a full fledged hobby out of it. 

Wine is something I enjoy, I like learning about how it is made and the different flavors.  I love how it enhances a meal, or a party, or a sunset.  Could I tell you the difference between 2003 and 2009? Nope. Will I ever be able to tell you that?  Probably not, unless I look it up on the internet, but I probably won't care enough to bother.

So with my degree of expertise in mind, I share my wine organization system.  It works for me.  I have a wine fridge.  This allows me to put away some wines for aging purposes, and I have all my wine handy and ready to drink without taking up a bunch of space in a fridge, on the counter or in a cabinet.  It also gives me a limit to how much wine I can buy.  If the fridge is full, no more wine until I drink some of what I have.

The next challenge is to know what I have.  I wouldn't want to have guests over, and spend 10 minutes pulling out every tray of wine until I know what I want to choose.  Most of the time, I choose my wine by degree of fanciness.   I designate the fanciness by using those little stick on dots that I used in my spice rack organization effort.  I use red, green and yellow dots.  Just like a stop light.

Green dots can be used by anyone any time, no questions asked.  You need more wine?  Open a green dot bottle.  Green dots are for opening after a hard day at work, or when people are over for dinner and games, and we are starting a third bottle.  You get the picture.

Yellow dots are a little fancier.  They don't have to be used for an special occasion, but they might be the first bottles opened at a dinner party.  I might choose one of them as a hostess gift. If I have out of town guests, or I made a special dinner, I would open a yellow dot.  I even take yellow dots to restaurants that allow it for a corking fee (great money saving tip by the way!).

(Excuse the bad photo.  This wine fridge may be the hardest thing I have ever photographed.  

Only way to see red dots was to turn off the flash)

Red dots are special occasion only.  They are red because I probably 'invested' in these bottles.  They should have excellent food accompanying them.  It should be a time when I can savor and appreciate the wine.  Many of these wines won't peak for several years, so they are meant to be saved for awhile.   I only have 4 red dot bottles right now.

So that is the dot system.  I also have a notebook.  I just started the notebook last summer, and I don't know if it is good or just extra work.  Each bottle has a page that looks like this:

Doesn't it make me seem like I know what I am doing.  Um, no.  I pulled the things I like from about 3-4 different tasting sheets I found on the internet. 

I really like a couple of things about this sheet.  First, I record when I bought the wine.  Usually it was a festival, or tasting with friends, so it is fun to remember the occasion.  I also like having an idea of my first tasting impressions in the notes.  If it is a wine to be saved for a peak in the future, I put that date in there to make sure I drink it at its best.

When I open the bottle, I ask the people I am drinking it with to help me figure out how to rate all the various qualities.  Honestly, I have no idea if my impressions are right, or if this will be useful in anyway in the future.  If I am going to learn anything more about it, taking notes seems like a good place to start.

So that is it.  Dots and a notebook.  Not much of a system, but it does help ensure that one of my guests or I don't open a super expensive bottle at the wrong time.  It also helps me remember what I loved about each wine, and what type of food would be best to pair with it.

Do you have a system?  I would love to hear what works for you!