Does anybody have a good wine journal in a Word document format?

I don't know it personally, but there is something on the web called "Cellar Tracker", it's a kind of journal you keep on the web (and others can read it too).

M.

What are you looking for in a "good wine journal" that you could not achieve by simply using Word? If we knew that we could maybe better answer your question better. I suspect you would probably find a spreadsheet more amenable.

Personally I write my wine notes in an ordinary text file. I use a simple structured format involving semicolons and newlines so I can process the file and put the results in a database if necessary.

For many of my wines I download a review from Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate--print two copies. One I stick in the bin where I am storing it, the other I put in a binder. On the binder copy I write my evaluation of the wine, dates purchased, consumed, etc. Once in the binder, you can divide by country, grape, etc. I tried several digital products and found that I was too lazy to keep them up. With hard copy near my wine glass, it's easier to keep current. Also the binder is a pleasant way to remember times past.

"Steve Slatcher" in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

This and related issues ("anybody know good cellar-tracking software?") are perennial on wine discussion forums in the Internet Age, generating much thoughtful discussion. My own view resembles that from Steve Slatcher above. An advantage of common-denominator general-purpose text or spreadsheet programs is their built-in portability. This is not something to underestimate. I can send a Word(tm) or Excel(tm) file to myself at other sites, or to other people, and the file is useful. This has diverted me from specialized software, for many years. (When I started putting my wine inventory on a computer circa 1981 -- I've posted data points from there occasionally -- it was in just a general-purpose text file, sorting by columns as needed. Spreadsheets are far more powerful, and are widely and cheaply available.)

I don't find these issues as imposing as the burden of transcribing endless pages of on-paper inventory and shipping receipts into a computer in the first place -- in whatever format. To say nothing of transcribing what sometimes gets casually requested: paper Tasting Notes back to, let's see,

Cheers -- Max

Life-style Software's Wine, is both a cellar log/database, and tasting note catalog. You can export the data in several formats, and, if you choose, there are additional tasting criteria, which you can use and incorporate. I have used this program for many years, and rate it about a 9. I use most parts of it, but do not know if it is still available. Seems it cost about $US 49 some ten, twelve years ago.

Hunt