"99 bottles of wine on the floor, 99 bottles of wine..."

November 30, 2009
Peoria, AZ

Well, we did it. We finally tackled one of the tasks that's been on the "to do" list for too long: organizing the "wine box". Even though it's been hanging over us for a long time, the boxes of wine sitting in the hall since we got back to Arizona was the triggering factor.

So, we got up early, I printed out the spreadsheet inventory, and we started removing bottles. I called out each wine and Geri checked it off on the list. I then started organizing the bottles into one of three groups: wines that should age for a few more years, wines we probably should have consumed by now, and everything else. When I initially packed up the wines when we sold our place in New Jersey in 2005, I tried to do a rough estimate of the year we'd target to drink each. Well, the wines went into storage, first in the bunker in Connecticut (Horse Ridge Cellars) and then in the "wine box" here. While we've certainly consumed, my lack of organization has made that process more of a hit-or-miss proposition.

By lunch, we had the whole wine box emptied. The box has 16 rows that hold 18 bottles each. The racks are two deep, so each row has 9 bottles in the back and 9 in the front. Trying to think ahead, I decided to put all the "age for a few years" bottles in the back, and all the "Drink in the next few years" ones in the front. All of the "oh, wish we'd had that last year" wines will live "outside the box" until we're done with them. I counted 99 bottles in this last category, so needless to say we won't be heading to the wine store any time soon.

I labeled the box like a spreadsheet, with letters for the "columns" and numbers for the "rows" (old habits die hard). By late afternoon, everything going into the box, including a good chunk of our new purchases, was in place and noted, and the box was turned back on. By bedtime, things were back to their normal 55°F temperature. Now all I have to do tomorrow is put the remaining "drink quickly" bottles in the racks outside the box.