WineLovers Discussion Group

You folks convinced me to move my Excel database to Cellar Tracker. It took about five hours and was really quite simple. Now if I could automate the accuracy of the location of the bottles as easily.

France 37.47%,
USA 34.17%
Italy 9.66%
Australia 6.42%
Spain 6.23%
South Africa 2.93%
Germany 1.28%
Portugal 0.73%
Argentina 0.61%
New Zealand 0.18%
Hungary 0.18%
Austria 0.12%

While I have placed my inventory into CellarTracker, I have yet to poke around to see what it can do so this was a great topic for me. My breakdown is as follows:

USA 55%
France 37%
Australia 4%
Italy 2%
New Zealand, Portugal, Spain ~1% each

I'd say I have some gaps to fill.

Here is a chart of the average of the percentages of the 26 cellars reported on to date in this thread. Note that there is no weighting of the various cellars since most people did not report on the number of bottles in their cellars.

Herewith and subject to that rather unsupportable definition is a "typical" cellar:

France 40.9%
US 24.2%
Italy 8.8%
Germany 8.5%
Spain 4.5%
Australia 3.9%
Portugal 2.1%
New Zealand 1.0%
Chile 1.0%
Argentina 0.9%
Austria 0.8%
Lebanon 0.5%
Hungary 0.5%
Canada 0.4%
South Africa 0.3%
Misc 2.0%

Total 100.1%

Regards, Bob

Given the number of topics and tasting notes, I'm surprised that the German ratio is not higher. Or maybe it's just because my eye and my mind skips over the "complicated" German and Austrian names

That would be an interesting statistic-percentage of tasting notes.

I was surprised too, Brian, and even more surprised to see that 21 of the 26 collections had percentages below the group average.

Without David Bueker (39.5% over average), Otto (25.5% over), Michael K. (8.6% over) and Bill B. (4.8% over), the average percentage of German wine would have been only 4.9%.

As you noted, these percentages are suspect since we do not have a bottle count.

I wonder, though, Randy -- it does represent the "mix" in a number of different cellars.

If you lump a large collection, say 2000 bottles, with 9 other collections of say 100 to 200 bottles each, the larger collection will represent the tastes of only one person, but will have a very significant effect on the "average" collection of all ten members of the group.

The published averages may be more representative of what folks are collecting, and by comparing variations between cellars, indicate what distributions are "typical" or "atypical" of the different collectors as compared with the "average" collection. I was surprised to see that my collection is very close to the "typical" collection; in fact only one other collection is more "typical" -- and that by an almost insignificant amount.

If folks would like to Private Message me the number of bottles in their collections -- on a strictly confidential basis of course -- I'd be glad to run the numbers and see if they are significantly different. Now that the spread sheet is set up, it's very easy to do so.

Bob Ross wrote:Herewith and subject to that rather unsupportable definition is a "typical" cellar:

Germany 8.5%

And to think I was feeling a bit sheepish that my cellar is only 10.98% German, considering that Riesling is the world's greatest grape . It turns out that I'm above average. I still want more, though.

I'll play, with CT's help:

France 41.41%
USA 28.75%
Italy 19.06%
Spain 4.69%
Portugal 4.22%
Chile 1.88%

The French breadown is
Bordeaux 30.47%
Languedoc 2.81%
Loire 2.81%
Rhone 2.5%
Burgundy 2.03%
Champagne 0.78%

USA shows
CA 15.47%
TX 13.28%

Italy
Piemont 8.91%
Tuscany 4.69%
Umbria 3.75%
Abruzzi 0.94%
Veneto 0.63%
Alto Adige 0.16%

Inventory is still incomplete, so final tally might change a bit (lacking Santa Cruz Mtn Vnyd, for example.... got 'em stashed in 3 places). Germans are mostly old and dead, etc.

We tend to hit the Rhones and Italians pretty hard, so it's tough to keep those on hand.

Your're right, Herr Buckheimer - CT's pretty neat!

Brian K Miller wrote:Given the number of topics and tasting notes, I'm surprised that the German ratio is not higher. Or maybe it's just because my eye and my mind skips over the "complicated" German and Austrian names

I think for me, at least, it also has a lot to do with the fact that German and Austrian wines are woefully underepresented in Alberta's wine stores. Most of what you can find is of the Black Tower/Dr. Zen Zen variety.

I've only recently "discovered" German wines and have a lot to learn, but it's hard when there are so few of any quality here.

Bob Parsons has more of a predilection for German wines - I wonder if he has any insight.

Bob R, I will PM you with my bottle count. My "collection" is only about 110 bottles, but my wife is already looking at me funny.

I decided against using a computer program, and instead decided to use my hands:

Bordeaux - 1 finger
Burgundy - 1 finger
Vouvray - 1 finger
Oregon Pinot Noir - 4 fingers and a thumb
California Cab - 1 finger

Whoa, that was close, I almost had to use my other thumb.

The finger method is most likely the most accurate count since no rounding was necessary!
Welcome to the forum, Ben.

Sorry for the late reply there....yes there is a Japanese winery that I had heard of before. I gotta go back and find the label cuz I don't remember the name. The only thing I do remember is that the label was very "French".....and yes it was a gift.

Ben, that is too bad. You need a credit card and a good wine store. Where do you live? We need to hook you up Bro.

Credit card and good wine store? Check and check. If only it wasn't for those bills that come a few weeks later...

BTW, I'm in Minny.

Bob Ross wrote:I wonder, though, Randy -- it does represent the "mix" in a number of different cellars.

If you lump a large collection, say 2000 bottles, with 9 other collections of say 100 to 200 bottles each, the larger collection will represent the tastes of only one person, but will have a very significant effect on the "average" collection of all ten members of the group.

The published averages may be more representative of what folks are collecting, and by comparing variations between cellars, indicate what distributions are "typical" or "atypical" of the different collectors as compared with the "average" collection. I was surprised to see that my collection is very close to the "typical" collection; in fact only one other collection is more "typical" -- and that by an almost insignificant amount.

If folks would like to Private Message me the number of bottles in their collections -- on a strictly confidential basis of course -- I'd be glad to run the numbers and see if they are significantly different. Now that the spread sheet is set up, it's very easy to do so.

The correct statistic really depends on the question being asked. If the question is "what is the breakdown of wines cellared by people on this board?" then you want a weighted average. Each bottle of wine in the cellar is a unique observation. If however, you ask "what is the breakdown of the average cellar of people on this board?" then the unweighted average is correct. Each cellar is a unique observation.

In the first question, the variable that is being observed is the country of origin of each bottle of wine. In the second question, the variable under observation is the composition of each cellar.

Statistical foo-foo dust, but still valid.

Thanks, Mike. I was sputtering toward that clarity -- and never got there.

Wish I'd written that.

This prompted me to finally transfer a final printout from offsite storage to Excel. I'll work on Cellartracker later.

France is 69%. A somewhat idiosyncratic breakdown of total wines follows:

Burgundy 36.88%
Loire 18.13%
Germany 8.44%
California 6.56%
Italy 5.63%
Bordeaux 4.38%
Rhone 4.38%
Lebanon 3.75%
Spain 3.13%
Alsace 2.50%
Oregon 1.88%
Champagne 1.56%
Beaujolais 1.25%
Austria 0.94%
Portugal 0.63%


This tells me I must stop laying down Burgundy and start laying down more Champagne!

Here's my breakdown, from a custom d/b utility:

Australia - 0.3%
Bandol - 1.3%
Beaujolais - 2.0%
Alsace - 2.0%
Bordeaux - 14.5%
Burgundy - 6.9%
CA cabernet - 10.6%
CA/OR/NM Pinot Noir - 6.6%
CA Rhones - 5.3%
CA Zinfandel - 17.5%
Chablis - 0.7%
Italy - 1.3%
Loire - 4.0%
NZ - 0.3%
Rhone 23.7%
Spain - 1.7%
SW France - 2.0%

BTW, a suitably motivated person could deduce many of the cellar sizes from factoring the fractions reported, since they are all based on integral numbers of bottles. Just a thought...

Mark Lipton

Good time as any for an update.

Italy 46%
USA 39%
Chile 7%
Australia 3%
France 3%

Where has Bob Ross gone? I hope all is okay? Anyway, my cellar is too paltry to post with this crowd, but it is mostly French.

I should be worried. A recent case of Madiran that I ordered has made my "cellar" mostly red! 53% red, 47% white. This is the first time I can think of that I have more red than white.

France 50%
Germany 26%
Lebanon 8%
Rest made up of Italy, USA, Australia, Hungary, Portugal and Spain.

Ergo I have huge gaps that I should fill (Austria is first that comes to mind).

-O-

I am not a Cellar Tracker fan. I have no wish to archive what I consider to be private information on a public site (whether my name is visible or not), and I would not want to have done so if the operator sells, decides to start charging for the service, or dies and terminates it.

The matter of that specific site aside, I also have no need to know within 0.01% what my distribution of wines may be, nor do I feel pressured to go out and buy more to try and even out the distribution. To do so would be obsessive, IMO.

My cellar is a living organism, changing to suit my taste and market conditions. I have stopped buying Bordeaux. I no longer buy California wines. I have increased purchases in other areas.

I am not enough of a number nut to feel any need to quantify the distribution, nor use it to guide future purchases.

Similarly, I have no interest in what other people may have in their cellars, any more than I worry about how many pairs of socks they might have - the thought is quite foreign to me. I don't gauge my wine hobby by what others do.

To each his own.

The AA battery that powers the thermostat runs out of juice, and as a consequence the cooling unit fails to switch on in the middle of August when it should.

Or is that not what you meant?

-Paul W.