Wine XT - 2.3.22

This is a terrific product. It might even bring some order to the chaos of my cellar. Great features, lots of possibilities. It's a tool to store all your tasting notes. And important for me, I can use my bottle tags.

I must quickly add that having encountered database corruption issues I submitted all my files to the author, who was able to identify the problem code and suggest a temporary solution pending a bug-fix.

I do not want to comment further on the bug, only to add that the author was swift, supportive and effective in his advice and that can only be to the good.

Thank you Mr. Buhler.

At first, I thought: “Wow, what a great application!” - Then I looked a bit closer and discovered, that this program unfortunately doesn’t work in most details. In fact it is quite disappointing for a real wine lover.

Basically it’s a large database application, that works with “characteristics”, that can be checked or unchecked, in order to describe a specific wine. Unfortunately all important characteristics are missing - or how can you describe a Cabernet without the words: “cherry, blackberry, red currant, pepper” and how do you want to describe the taste of certain Chardonnays without the words: “ fresh, mineral, flint-stone, apple...”, or an Australian Shiraz without:” tar, eucalyptus, mulberry, oak”, or how do you describe a Riesling without the words: “peach, gooseberry, acid, fresh”? Also words like: “reticence, oxidized, firm, ripe” and “alcoholic” are missing. Instead one is being offered characteristics like: “stony, salty, metallic, intoxicating” and “flat”... - no comment on that.
The scent-pages has similar problems: No “vanilla, cassis, currant, cherry, chocolate, tobacco, eucalyptus, honey, yeast, alcohol, mocha, acetone, pain grillé, soil, leather, coffee et cetera, et cetera”, instead the page offers words like: “cork, pears, musty” and “sulfur” - no comment on that, either. And it really gets complicated, when it comes to sparkling wine (see: bubbles), sherry, madeira or port...
To cut a long story short: It is literally impossible to describe a wine using the expressions offered by “Wine XT”. From my point of view, it therefore cannot be recommended as a software for “wine tastings”.

Maybe one could use it a “Wine Cellar Management-Software” instead, I thought. But if you look closer here, you soon find other limitations: The moment you open a new file, todays date is entered by default as “tasting date” - too bad, if you just bought the bottle and haven’t open it - you have to erase the tasting date, otherwise you will later think you already drank it. Not a good start for use as cellar-management.
Next, one can choose from pulldown menus to enter what kind of wine it is. The problem here is, that you can only enter what the application offers you and nothing else. Bad luck, if you are looking for something, that is missing. When your wine comes from “Hermanus, South-Afrika” or “Ribatejo, Spain”, you simply can’t enter it.
You like German Wines and what to enter the origin (“Großlage”) like “Kiedricher Gräfenberg” or “Abtsberg”? Well bad luck, you can’t. Same in Argentina and most other countries: no “Lujan de Cuyo” in “Mendoza”, you cannot find it anywhere.
Different example: You want to use the software to manage your wines on a commercial basis and you want to enter the current price of the bottle in order to compare it to the price you once paid for it, when you bought it? Sorry - there is no field for it. So it doesn’t help to keep track of your sales, either.
This problem appears through the whole application... One last example: You want to enter the correct classification for your “Château d’Yquem” (“Premier Cru Classé Superieur”)? Well, keep on looking. No “Premier Cru Classé en Graves”, either, no “First Growth” in Germany, no description for “complexity” or “intensity” in the “Quality Section”, no possibility to enter more than one wine-critic (like Gabriel, Platter, Broadbent, Vinum...), no odd bottle sizes ...and so on. That means, in my eyes: Is's a good basis for beginners, but if you're a real wine lover, you soon enter problems (that could be solved with freely editable fields).

It certainly has potential, but there is still a lot to do.

But - there is still hope: With his last update (2.2) the color “rosé/pink” was added in the color palette! A great step into the right direction...

Over the past year and a half I've watched this application grow better and better with each release. I use it to manage my 500-bottle collection, and it's the best wine manager I've found for the Macintosh.

The amount of data that can be kept on a bottle is staggering. I mostly use the basic information (type, region, year, best-drinking dates) and ratings from my favorite wine reviewers. The built in cellar reports do everything I need them to do, but they're also customizable via templates.

One nice feature that the author added is that winery & wine supplier information is stored in the Mac Address Book, so that they're available through that application as well.

The 'XT' portion of the name of this application is confusing, being that 'XT' is a standard naming inclusion for Quark XTensions... every time I see this app run through the list here at VT it makes me think it's a Quark Plug-in... otherwise I have no comment... except that the 'drunken pirate' review was pretty darn funny. :)