WineManager discussions

[JFMw]

WineManager is a new generation pocket cellar assistant. WineManager is the solution to help buying wines, track your cellar content, and select the proper wine from your cellar for your meal.

Vintage charts can be useful, but you need to know appelations to use vintage charts: where are "Chablis" or "Collioure" coming from? If you don't know, your vintage chart won't help you. WineManager will find the proper vintage chart depending on the selected appelation.

Many tools will let you know which wine you should buy for your meal, but if you already have some bottles it won't help. WineManager will go further and will suggest a list of wine from your own cellar.


WineManager key features:

• manage your cellar with all needed information
• food pairing advisor: select wines from your cellar
• advanced vintage charts sorted by appelations
• cellar analysis and suggested purchases list
• database and application usable from memory card
• tasting assistant: aromas and flavors selection

Cheers, Jean-François.

[Mike129]

Interesting.  Any idea what the price will be?  Any chance of having a PC side for more easily entering your initial celler contents?

[JFMw]

Interesting.  Any idea what the price will be?  Any chance of having a PC side for more easily entering your initial celler contents?

WineManager can export in CSV and XML format, but I'm not sure about import and synchronization capabilities yet. I will probably add at least CSV and/or XML import, or maybe an HotSync plugin synchronizing an XML file on the PC side: it will depend on users requests. Other features are planned, like a visual cellar management to find a bottle in your cellar, and a multi-cellar capability (to manage different places)... but I need to know which one is really useful: WineManager is still very complete and I don't won't to make it complex.

Price is not defined for the moment. Vintage charts and appelations list need to be updated frequently, and I don't know how many users will be interested by this application. People will have the possibility to buy a 1 year subscription with a small fee for yearly updates, or buy an "all-the-time" release including free updates.

The trial period is quite long (users need time to try such an application: you don't open/buy several wines a day!), I'll wait for users feedbacks to find the best solution.

Cheers, Jean-Francois.

[Mike129]

Okay, thanks, Jean-Francois.

I spent some time with the docs last night.  It is a very cool app, but I see one major problem I would have with it.  It seems to be based on a model that works well in France, but not so well in the US (which is where the majority of my wine originate).  To classify California wine by producer, color and appellation is simply not sufficient.  Although most of my French friends make faces at the thought, the varietal (or blend) used in the wine is also critical here.  The same producer in the same appellation might produce a Zin, a Cab and a Bordeaux-style blend.  They are not differentiated in the app, but they age differently and pair differently with foods.

Is there a better way to use this app with CA wines than I am inferring from the docs and a short time playing with the app?

This aside, I think it is a very nice app!  Congratulations and kudos!

[quijibo]

I just downloaded and started tinkering. Any thoughts on a "pro" version? I am a wine salesman; would love to plug in the name of the wine I am presenting, download a label and tasting notes. (I know that's a big feat - either needing a dedicated server/database, or a proxy to winemakers sites). Nice app, though!!!!

[JFMw]

Okay, thanks, Jean-Francois.

I spent some time with the docs last night.  It is a very cool app, but I see one major problem I would have with it.  It seems to be based on a model that works well in France, but not so well in the US (which is where the majority of my wine originate).  To classify California wine by producer, color and appellation is simply not sufficient.  Although most of my French friends make faces at the thought, the varietal (or blend) used in the wine is also critical here.  The same producer in the same appellation might produce a Zin, a Cab and a Bordeaux-style blend.  They are not differentiated in the app, but they age differently and pair differently with foods.

Is there a better way to use this app with CA wines than I am inferring from the docs and a short time playing with the app?

This aside, I think it is a very nice app!  Congratulations and kudos!

You're entirely right, and WineManager will handle this in a certain manner.

Let's take 2 examples...

(1) a wine from Napa Valley in Napa County North Coast California

You can select different appelations:

• Napa Valley California
(generic one)

• Cabernet-Sauvignon Napa Valley California
• Chardonnay Napa Valley California
• Pinot noir Napa Valley California
• Syrah Napa Valley California
• Zinfandel Napa Valley California

This example is quite simple.

(2) a wine from Los Carneros in Napa County North Coast California

You can select the following appelations:

• Los Carneros California
(generic one)

• Cabernet-Sauvignon Los Carneros California
• Chardonnay Los Carneros California
• Pinot noir Los Carneros California

You won't find Syrah or Zinfandel because WineManager doesn't have relevant specific data for Los Carneros.
However, you have the following appelations that could apply:

• Syrah Napa County California
• Zinfandel Napa County California

You could also use these appelations:

• Zinfandel North Coast California
• Zinfandel California

But of course "Zinfandel Napa County California" will be a closer appelation for a Los Carneros wine.

Note that cepage are available mostly for California, Oregon and Australia.

Hope it will help,
Jean-Francois.

[Mike129]

You're entirely right, and WineManager will handle this in a certain manner.
...

Ah!  I see.  "Appellation" is just slightly overloaded from the way I am used to using it, but that is fine.  This should work resonably well.  I'll give it a try.

Note that cepage are available mostly for California, Oregon and Australia.

Okay.  Any chance of that information being expanded over time, or is it limited by the data source you are using?

[JFMw]

Ah!  I see.  "Appellation" is just slightly overloaded from the way I am used to using it, but that is fine.  This should work resonably well.  I'll give it a try.

Okay.  Any chance of that information being expanded over time, or is it limited by the data source you are using?

Information will be updated frequently:
- at least every year to update vintage charts with new values (major releases)
- add/fix vintage charts and appelations when needed/reported
- add new appelations, for example new AVA from US
- add new regions, next in my ToDo list: Chile

There is no real limitation with sources, and I've developped several tools to maintain WineManager efficiently. Appelation and/or chart can be added/fixed virtually within a few minutes :-)

Jean-Francois.

[Mike129]

Excellent!

[JFMw]

I just downloaded and started tinkering. Any thoughts on a "pro" version? I am a wine salesman; would love to plug in the name of the wine I am presenting, download a label and tasting notes. (I know that's a big feat - either needing a dedicated server/database, or a proxy to winemakers sites). Nice app, though!!!!

I'm not sure I understand your request, but there is a feature planned that may be close. WineManager is able to export/import a complete entry, this feature is still used to backup a temporary item while scanning a barcode and to recover it later. In a future release, this feature will be linked to the exchange manager to send/receive a single item in WineManager. When done, users may receive/download a fully qualified  entry (from an email, a web portal...) directly in the edition form (user will just have to enter quantity and save this entry to add to his cellar).

Jean-Francois.

[beergeek]

Now if you just made this for beer, then I'd be interested!

[Neumahn]

This would be really useful if it came with a wine database.  It is empty when I ran it.

[JFMw]

This would be really useful if it came with a wine database. It is empty when I ran it.

In fact this would be the opposite way WineManager is working: instead of a (obviously limited) wine database, WineManager uses an appelations database. You select your appelation and WineManager tells you the best vintages for this appelation, and/or for a given meal. Then, if you buy this wine, you create an entry with the producer name, appelation, vintage and color, and WineManager will automatically display the vintage rating associated to this wine. When you'll have several such entries, WineManager will help you select the proper wine from your cave for your meal.

I guess it's a little bit unusual at first, but it's very efficient! I've been very frustrated by different wine applications: either wines were too expensive for me, or unavailable. I was needing something to help me choose a wine while shopping, supermarkets for example: I do not need an application to tell me where I might buy a wine bottle Finally I've decided to write WineManager for my needs, I've been using it for a year now, and I have currently more than 100 bottles in my database (and my wife has also a copy of this database on her Treo180)

Cheers, Jean-Francois.

[jfeliciani]

Hi Jean-François,

I've been using your program for about a month and have entered over 200 bottles of wine. I very much like the program. Here are some suggestions, changes, wishes, etc., that I have discovered in no particular order of importance:

 1) I don't like the dash between Cabernet-Sauvignon. It just looks wrong and it doesn't seem to serve any purpose.
 2) The price needs one more digit to allow costs over 99.99.
 3) The year field needs to allow an entry of NV for non-vintage wines.
 4) The "icon" of the glass should also have sparkling white, sparkling red, & sparkling rose.
 5) A code or field to designate what is on order and a way to list what is on order. For now I put a z in front of the producer to put all my orders at the bottom of the list, but it messes up the cellar summary.
 6) A code or field to designate where the wine was purchased, which would link to the code or field for what is on order, so you could list what is on order by place purchased. (Adding a delivery date (or date expected) would be nice for futures.)
 7) Add a # of bottles purchased field to the # of bottles left field that is currently on the general tab. (Another one for gifts would be nice also, so I know how many I've consumed versus given away).
 8) Add a current fair market value field to determine total FMV for insurance purposes (or just for fun!).
 9) When doing a search in the charts for adding a new bottle, there should be a way to page up/down the results. Varietals such as Cab Sauv are too numerous to easily find the correct appellation.
10) An additional tab to enter the Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, and Others scores along with their reviews of the wine.
11) If I go to Menu/Tools/Quick buy of a wine, some categories (such as CA) are so large that they do not fit on the screen, but there is no way to be able to page down to continue looking at the results.
12) If an appellation does not have a particular varietal, there needs to be a way to add it to an existing appellation without losing the automatic rating of that vintage for that appellation, or there needs to be a field added to allow entry of the varietal. As an example, there is no Sauvignon Blanc for Napa Valley (I understand why there is not one listed by your explanation in a previous post), but on the main listing, I need to be able to know that a Cakebread Cellars wine for Napa Valley is a Sauvignon Blanc and not a Riesling, Chenin Blanc, etc.. As it exists now, I either have to open a particular listing to see the varietal, or I have to add it to the appellation, but then I lose the automatic rating for that larger appellation (such as Napa Valley).
13) Finally, it would also be nice to have a field that would list another name designation in addition to the appellation and the producer. As an example, Kilikanoon has a series of Shiraz's that have additional names for a particular style or area (Oracle, Parable, Covenant, Testament, Killerman's Run, etc.). To be able to view that on the main listing, again would make it easier to find a particular wine without opening a listing. I could add it to the Producer, but then the cellar summary would list it as an additional line when it actually is the same producer.

I agree with you that I have never liked the way other programs have you enter the wines. Your way of entering the wine by appellation just makes more sense, and once I got used to it, I can enter a new wine very quickly. I also like the ability to add a picture of the bottle to a listing. It's a nice "wow" factor, and with some of my wine friends, it triggers their memory of whether they have had the wine in the past. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the bar code (especially since you have better ways to search, in my opinion), but I've also never been able to hold the Treo steady enough to have it correctly scan the code. So if you wanted to drop that feature, it would be fine with me!

As I've said, I like your program, I use it every day, and I look forward to any updates and improvements.

Joe

[JFMw]

Hi Joe,

Thank you for your suggestions! A new release will be available soon, I've added some of them in this release. Some other suggestions requires some more time, but be sure that I won't forget your report and will try to take your suggestions into account if possible!

Cheers, Jean-Francois.