Vinfolio.com

VinCellar 3.0, our completely rewritten version of our free online cellar management software, was announced back in late December (see post for a summary of new features).  We have been making great progress and are entering alpha testing with internal users on Monday, April 7.  The public launch of VinCellar 3.0 is expected this summer. 

Designed for speed

In addition to functionality and ease of use, a fundamental aspect of the redesign was to focus on the performance of the application to deliver the best user experience.  Our Vice President of Engineering, Andres Camacho, recently posted this note in the Vinfolio forum on VinCellar.

What will the new VinCellar look like?

Your cellar screenshot:

Cellar Analysis screenshot:

Label View:

Wine Detail screenshot: 

Bottom line: You're going to love VinCellar 3.0.  Moreover, we have a steady stream of other functionality being added during the rest of 2008.

For the past year, Vinfolio has been working on an all new, dramatically enhanced version of VinCellar, our free online cellar management software which we estimate will launch in early 2008.  View demo.

Why we made a substantial investment

As good as the current VinCellar is, there's always room for improvement.  With feedback from our users on desired features and new Web technologies available to enhance the user experience, we decided in late 2006 to overhaul VinCellar.  Our goal is to make it the compelling choice amongst cellar management software alternatives.  Best of all, it will remain free!

New features

• Community tasting notes - You can already create personal tasting notes but you will now be able to share them in a myriad of ways including on a dedicated VinCellar website, through Facebook, and via a new format we call "Wineposts".  We'll even pay you (in the form of wine credits in our store) to submit your personal tasting notes prior to the official launch.  Learn how to participate.
• Reorganization of tasks by individual wine - The redesign enables us to pull tasks related to given wine (such as Add, Remove, Move, Sell) into a single page while preserving your ability to build lists of wines for acting upon as a group.
• Valuation data - We will continue to have all wine auction price data from the Wine Price File plus licensed retail price data  to enable you to monitor the changing value of your collection.  With VinCellar 3.0, we will be upgrading our capabilities in the retail pricing area.
• Cellar analysis tools - Our current graphical reporting capabilities will be taken to a whole new level.
• Visual browsing of your cellar using a special "label view."
• Integrated third party content and links - VinCellar already offers about 100,000 professional reviews which Vinfolio has licensed and there is more to come.  We're also building in links to other frequently used wine reference sites.
• Buying and selling made easy - You'll be able to easily know when Vinfolio has wine in stock which is relevant to your interests and also be able to sell anything from individual bottles to your entire collection through a new format of an auction mechanism we've created.  (This functionality has already been designed but will be rolled out in a second phase).
• Robust reporting, including printing in a restaurant wine list format.

There's a lot more and we actively want your feedback once the beta version launches (visit our new VinCellar 3.0 topic in on our Vinfolio forums page).  As a Web-based application, we'll be rolling out updates on a continuous basis.

Bottom line:  By integrating comprehensive cellar management capabilities with community and professional content, and combining it with social networking standards such as Facebook and Vinfolio's ecommerce capabilities, you'll finally be able to satisfy your wine-related needs in one place.

Vinfolio recently launched a Facebook widget called My VinCellar which enables you to let your friends see the wines you've been drinking or adding to your collection in your free VinCellar online cellar managment software account at Vinfolio.  We're still tweaking the application but it's now ready for a broader audience.  Please post any comments, problems or suggestions on the Discussion Board of the My VinCellar Facebook page and our development team will address them.

1. Select the optimal wine for the next drinking occasion since you know exactly what you own
2. Avoid duplicate purchases of wine
3. Realize you may be owed wine bought on pre-arrival that you never received
4. Locate items more quickly
5. Evaluate how balanced or unbalanced your cellar is
6. Determine which wines may be past maturity and need to be consumed
7. Assess the appropriate insurance value
8. Transfer accurate inventory data to a cellar management software application

The final point facilitates ongoing maintenance and other time-saving benefits (see my post “Cellar management software – why use it?”). After all, the last thing you want to do is to have to repeat the inventory process.

If you don’t have the time to perform an inventory yourself, Vinfolio provides an on-site wine inventorying service anywhere in the U.S.

For the rest of you, this post explains why you should use software:

1. Know what you own, where it is, what you liked –Avoid duplicate purchases, enable drinking or selling wine before it goes bad, locate wine more easily in your cellar, record personal tasting notes, and track pre-arrival purchases from multiple retailers to ensure you receive what you paid for.
2. Access integrated third-party reviews – While some professional reviewers won’t license their reviews, the ability to tap professional scores, reviews, and drink date recommendations in an integrated way from within your chosen cellar management software saves time cross-referencing multiple independent sites and provides a mechanism to keep review content current without manually updating it. This will never be available in Excel. Integrated community tasting notes are also a good source of opinions when organized properly.
   
3. Track cost details and current values – Understanding your cost relative to the current value of a wine may affect what you select to drink, donate or sell (and you ability to document your tax basis). Integrated access to current valuation data also helps you maintain proper insurance coverage on your wine collection.
4. Analyze your collection – The ability to examine your wine collection through reporting and graphs is important for achieving balance or other objectives you have.

Despite the benefits, we still find most new customers come to Vinfolio with no record of what they own and those that do, usually have an outdated Excel spreadsheet. But then most software does not offer the critical integrated data capabilities outlined in points #2 and #3 above. Therefore, the return on investment (ROI) for the personal time needed is still too high to justify the effort for most busy collectors.

Time-saving, convenient features and services can lower the “investment” and raise the “return!”

1. That's why Vinfolio licensed Stephen Tanzer's and Allen Meadow's professional reviews for use in VinCellar.

2. That's why Vinfolio acquired and then converted the Wine Price File from a print-only resource to a primarily online valuation tool integrated into VinCellar.

3. That's why Vinfolio barcodes every bottle purchased from us and adds all details to VinCellar for you automatically

4. That's why we offer on-site inventorying, invoice data entry, and invoice scanning services.

5. That's why we’ve made it easy to use your VinCellar account to select wine to submit for sale through us or arrange physical transfers to or from our storage facility.

Bottom line: There are compelling benefits available for using cellar management software. We’d love you to use our free online VinCellar offering but even competitive products would be better than using nothing.