Guide

How to build a wine cellar inventory spreadsheet (and when to move on)

A spreadsheet is where most cellar inventories start. Set up well, it works for a small collection. This guide shows which columns to use, what tends to go wrong and how to move to a dedicated app without retyping everything.

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ViniQ inventory overview listing bottles with vintage, location and drinking window
The same data a good spreadsheet holds, kept up to date automatically in ViniQ.

The columns that matter

Use one row per wine and vintage (not per bottle) with a quantity column. Keep each fact in its own column so you can sort and filter.

  • Producer, wine name, vintage

    Keep them separate. “Château Musar 2015” in one cell cannot be sorted by vintage.

  • Colour/type, country, region, grape

    Use consistent spelling — a drop-down list prevents “Bourgogne” and “Burgundy” becoming two regions.

  • Bottle size and quantity

    Magnums age differently and should not be lumped with 75 cl bottles.

  • Location

    Rack or bin code so you can find the bottle.

  • Drink from / drink by

    Two year columns. Conditional formatting can highlight wines past their window.

  • Purchase price, date and source

    Needed for valuation, insurance and deciding whether to buy again.

  • Notes and score

    Short tasting notes are what make the list useful a year later.

Where spreadsheets break down

  • Consumption is not recorded

    Bottles are opened and never deducted, so the counts drift.

  • History disappears

    Changing a quantity overwrites the past: you lose when you drank a wine and what you thought of it.

  • Not built for the phone

    Editing a wide sheet in the cellar or at the table is awkward.

  • No reminders

    A spreadsheet will not tell you when a wine is about to pass its peak.

  • Hard to share

    Two people editing one file leads to conflicts and copies.

Moving from a spreadsheet to ViniQ

  1. 1

    Clean up the sheet

    Split combined columns and make region and colour spellings consistent.

  2. 2

    Create your sites and bins

    Match the location codes used in your sheet.

  3. 3

    Bring the wines across

    Register wines in ViniQ, or contact us through the form on the home page with your file for help importing a larger list.

  4. 4

    Keep a CSV backup

    ViniQ can export everything back to CSV at any time, so you never lock your data in.

Frequently asked questions

Is a spreadsheet good enough for a wine cellar?
For under roughly 50 bottles that rarely change, often yes. Once you buy and drink regularly, the lack of history, reminders and mobile editing makes a dedicated app easier.
Can I export my ViniQ inventory to Excel?
Yes. Inventory and history export as CSV files that open in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.
Can you help me import my existing spreadsheet?
Yes. Contact us through the form on the ViniQ home page and include a description of your file.

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