Scanning Wine Bottles?

When you visit a wine store, you may spend some time reading the labels of various wine bottles. I bet though that you ignore the bar code. But then why would you care about the bar code? Well there may now be a reason why the bar code matters.

IntelliScanner is a small, hand-sized bar code reader and more. You use it to scan bar codes and then can organize the data you obtain in various ways. They have one specific for wine enthusiasts, the Wine Collector 250, which costs about $200.

Their website states: "Take your IntelliScanner with you anywhere, scan wine bottles, then plug it in to download the details. Wine Collector's mature software system automatically calculates optimal maturity periods, prints detailed reports, tracks locations with built-in Virtual Cellar, links you to sites like eRobertParker.com and Wine Spectator for wine research, and lets you add your own custom ratings. When you've finished the bottle, just scan it again and take it off the list."

So, you can scan bar codes on the bottles at a wine store and get info about those bottles. The scan provides details of the wines including name, varietal, winery, country, type, color and region. Or you could scan your wine collection at home and create a database. It would certainly be quicker than typing all of the information. It is thus like your own personal Cellar Tracker.

There are only about 67,000 wines in their main database but that is continually expanding. They even have a website where you can post your wine collections for others to see.

I like the basic idea of this scanner. It would make it much easier to keep track of my wine cellar. And I think the info derived from the scanning could make some interesting reports. But, the price tag is too high. At $200, this is more a toy for those with money to burn. I'll wait to see if the price eventually decreases significantly. And continue to type in my wine bottle info.