We've spent most of our time on the other pages trying to convince you why we think that you should use Cellar! to track your wine experiences. Of course, we are a bit biased (and proud) of our product.

So, we thought that you might like to see what some of our users have to say. In fairness to other programs, where someone has mentioned a competitor's name, we have ***'d it out. It is our intent to stand on our own merits and not "slam" other products.

Derek K wrote:
I adore your program! I purchased it about a month ago after evaluating all six of the competing programs you list on your website. Yours is hands-down the best. It is easy to use and *fully* customizable.

For the first time in my life, I feel as though I have full control over my 500+ bottle home cellar. While before I knew the handful of wines I owned by the case, and had a loose sense of what I liked about them and how they were drinking at any given time, I couldn't keep track of all the wines I owned, say, 1-4 bottles of. Why did I buy them? When would I want to drink one? Should I plan on drinking them this year, or prioritize something else? Cellar! takes away all the guesswork - I can quickly scan my whole cellar and choose just the perfect bottle to drink now, or switch to an overview of the whole inventory to see what types of wines I need to restock (and, perhaps more importantly, which ones I don't)

Thank you so much for contributing greatly to my wine enjoyment experience.

Steve L wrote:

First, I want to stop and thank you for the tremendous benefit I have enjoyed from your software. As it stands now, my database contains data on 585 distinct wines, with over 400 bottles currently in inventory. This database has been an indispensable tool in my mission to learn about wines, and to encourage others to be adventurous in their exploration of the world of quality fermented grape juice. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like a testimonial as to the quality and usefulness of your application!

John D wrote:
I just wanted to thank all of you who have put CELLAR together! I have a small collection and your program has really helped me to "learn" the wine I have been drinking. I have been using your product for about 3-4 months and selected it after looking at a large variety of cellar programs. I am enjoying it immensely! Please keep up the good work and thanks for producing a really nice product!

Stig A says:
I have twice been given copies of software to test. Once an english language program from an Italien friend and once a French program from the publishing house Guide Hachette. None of them match the new version of Cellar! After using Cellar! for over 8 years now I must say it.s still the best program available - and your service whenever I have ahd any problems have been outstanding. Thanks!

Tony P wrote:
I assumed that ******'s software would be the best... boy was I wrong. After using his demo for a few days, I gave up and stumbled upon Cellar! while doing a search on the Web. As a former software developer, I found the UI and features in Cellar! that I would have expected in ******'s software. I have several friends I will be telling about Cellar!

Thank you!

Pat O wrote:
Thanks Mate. I downloaded the update. So far seems to being working perfectly. Thank you. I use your product, and have recommend same to many of my friends in the wine societies of which I am a member. Your assistance/support are greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Steve writes:
Thanks to all of you. I can't say how much I appreciate your responsiveness. I am, hopefully, down to the the final couple of hours of research and cataloging what my cellar summary says is 306 distinct wines. I have often received close to "real time" help from you all and that has saved me a lot of potential hassle and delay. I am glad you feel that my questions and feedback have been helpful to you as well.

Tom S commented:
A friend has used ******'s software for years and recommended it. I found the demo buggy and prone to error, not to mention feeling antiquated and obtuse. Your demo was beautiful and supports a key feature for me - barcodes. I showed this to my friend and he loved your package. That sold me.

Vernon from Berkeley, MI wrote:
I tried quite a few other packages. What I liked about your software was that I saw current development taking place, I liked the internet features, and it was obvious that a lot of work was continuing in providing current information on wines and wineries.

Don and Michelle of Wisconsin wrote to say:
Cellar Folks,
No problems here. Just upgraded from Cellar 2.20 to your latest version. Great job!! The User Interface is much more friendly. We have been using Cellar! since 1999 to manage three wine cellars in our home (His, Hers and Everyday). The filters are important to us - as we keep a hard copy leather book (by wine type) on hand to share with guests. The filters are now much easier to use. We will be using the barcode feature very soon. No more sign-out sheets!!
P.S. The download, registration and data conversion were painless. It is a joy doing business with you.

Ken R wrote:
I wanted to get back to you and let you know the database now works!! I was able to open it and it looks like everything is there and is ok. thanks so much for your help. The support you guys give for this product is a damned sight better than we get for the sofware packages at work for which we pay a ton of money!

I had to drop you a note to say how totally impressed I am with your program, your attentiveness to problems, your wide expanse of available links for help, your different "modules" of information and etc, etc, etc. I read the note from the user concerning slowing down and I agree, it will be hard to keep up the pace.

Guy, I have not seen a method for solving "bugs" by making it so automatic for the end user. Most users are lazy and never get around to reporting bugs but no so with Cellar!.

It's nice to see that your team is international, a Canadian connection to a great piece of work.

Again, thanks for Cellar!.

Cellar! seems to have the most intuitive UI and robust feature set. It was a no brainer which software package to choose. As for the competition, I’d be better of using Excel.

I suggest you look elsewhere, but I think you can download a demo and see for yourself. It didn't take me very long to download, try, and erase it.

Cellar! is decent. I've tried every one I've ever seen. Cellar! is the only one I haven't erased. All of the other vendors should take a look at Cellar!'s data entry and wine viewing interface. They are in another league.

I've seen advertisements for the "Cellar!" software both in Wine Spectator and online. Does anyone use this program? Is it worth buying? And does anyone have any alternate suggestions?

Robert

Dana replied:

I bought Cellar! about a month and a half ago after testing it and another shareware product (*******) extensively. I decided on Cellar! because IMHO it gave me more flexibility. Things I wanted to do but couldn't in *******, I could do in Cellar!. I'm not trashing *******. It's a good product and I almost bought it, but for me, Cellar! is better. A couple of particularly nice features of Cellar! are the extensive winery database and the ability to reorganize the "grid" so you can print whatever combination of data you want. I also like the shopping list feature and the ability to add Notes for wines that you don't have (yet!). Also, because Cellar! is a U.S. based product, I thought it was a little easier to deal with the economic logistics. I ordered Cellar! and it arrived in 2 days (and this was around the 4th of July)

I would encourage you to download the demo and try it for yourself. Play with it for a while so you can really get a feel for what it does. I was much more impressed with it after I dug into it for a while than just on first blush. Hope this helps.

Hi There,

Attached as a Word 7 Document is a brief outline of the criteria I looked for in Cellar Management software. The packages I checked out were mainly shareware off CD-ROMS and BBS's, but the 2 other commercial packages were ******, and ******* - which is also a very good package.

I had a friend, another Computer Scientist, design one from the bare-bones criteria that I have included - he used FoxBase and Delphi. I had an attempt using Access, but looked at the cost of your package and came to my senses!

What swayed me towards your package was the way that I was able to manage the various sections of my cellar, and the reporting options that are offered.

In the end, I was rather pleased that Cellar! came out on top, as you and your associates were the only ones that offered real assistance when I first asked for help on alt.food.wine.

I have placed my order with BMT Micro today, and I thank you very much for all the help over the last few months.

Best Wishes,
Ross

And the contents of his Word file:

Lookup Tables:

• District / Region / Country (e.g. Martinborough / North Island / New Zealand)
• Winery (allow for same company in different regions - e.g. Montana Marlborough and Montana Gisborne)
• Wines - particular wines
• Bottles - number of bottles for particular wine
• Tasting Notes - for wines that you may have had at a restaurant, but do not actually own to enter in the main database.
• Summary Information - Number of wines, number of bottles, actual cost, current value

Screens:

• New wine
• Wine information
• Bottle information
• Tasting Notes
• Wine information
• Bottle information
• Tasting Notes

Queries:

• By winery/producer
• By vintage
• By variety
• By type (dry white / dry red etc)
• By ready to drink year (allow for operators)
• By drink-by year (allow for operators)
• By District / Region / Country - any or all

Dear Cellar!,

I used to have my cellar records on an excel spreadsheet but remained frustrated with that setup. So I looked up wine software on the Internet and found Cellar!. From the description it looked ideal and after entering my 450 wines it works as promised.

I have been using Cellar! for several weeks now I can say it is ideal and reasonably priced.

What I like best is the attitude of the company. When you ask for technical assistance, even when its a dumb question, you get a great reply. The company also has an interest in wine. I have used Cellar!'s link into recent auction prices and that was a breeze.

Being from down under I can't help but be very impressed with its coverage of both Australian and New Zealand wines. Its database of over 8,000 wines was a pleasant surprise.

Andrew C. New Zealand

Pete Duffy, mgr. THE CHICAGO WINE CO.

As a software developer using relational databases I considered writing my own cellar software, but thought I would try Cellar! first. Now that I've used Cellar! for several weeks, I am completely satisfied with my choice.

The capabilities the software has is far out of proportion to its low price. The ability to change display criteria (and save them for future use) is important for ad-hoc needs. Being able to easily alter the location of my wines in the cellar as my collection grows is great. The extensive wine database makes entering new acquisitions a breeze. I also appreciate the glossary of wine and wine tasting terms to help decipher some of the esoteric wine reviews that are sometimes encountered. As a collector, being able to track the value of my wines is extremely important to me. A major advantage to Cellar! is the interface with auction results from The Chicago Wine Company. Since I'm also a customer of this fine auction house, the combination works great.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks,

John

I have been a user of Cellar! software since Version 1 and didn't even consider changing to any other system. The support I have received from the Cellar! team has been superb and I am encouraging them to keep their good product up. Since I have been using the software, I have total control of my wine cellar and its contents. The functionality of the software is excellent, very easy to use, and flexible enough to allow for individual taste. I am a very satisfied user and will continue to use the software for a long time to come.

Greetings, Daan

Thank you !!

It is service and attention such as yours that is a rarity to find these days. Having worked with buggy software programs over the years if I couldn't work around it I'd either make do or stop using the software. I work with several software companies handling their direct mail. Service, technical support, and upgrades are often the biggest problem areas we have to work around. Needless to say my husband and I are really excited about the program and will update you further of our progress. So far we find ourselves recommending this program to our other wine friends.