Give every bottle a place.
Build a free wine rack map by rows and columns, mark everyday, drink-soon and hold positions, save it in your browser, print it and export every slot to CSV.
Main rack
Put the bottles behind the slots
Sommo stores the actual wine, vintage, quantity and drinking window in each rack position, then tells you what is ready.
Download freeA wine rack works when you can find a bottle and understand why it occupies that slot. Build the physical grid first, then mark positions as Everyday, Drink soon or Hold. The planner saves the anonymous map in your browser and exports every row and column to CSV. It does not need an account or upload your collection.
Start with Coordinates
Name the rack, count its rows and count the bottle positions in each row. Use the same direction every time: row one at the top, column one at the left. A photograph can then resolve any confusion when a shelf is moved.
The free cellar inventory template adds bottle names, vintages, quantities and purchase fields to the map. This tool stays deliberately visual.
Organise by Action
Collectors often sort by region because the labels look orderly. Readiness is more useful on a Tuesday night. A simple physical system works well:
- Everyday: bottles that can be opened without planning
- Drink soon: bottles in or near their ideal window
- Hold: bottles that need more time or belong to a future occasion
- Empty: capacity for the next purchase or rearrangement
Software can filter by grape, country, price and producer instantly. The rack should answer the physical question: where is the bottle, and is this the zone I meant to reach for?
Leave Space on Purpose
A rack filled to its last slot is already difficult to maintain. Leave 10 to 20% empty if you buy often, and avoid scattering one case across every remaining gap. One controlled empty row can save several complete rearrangements.
Store cork-sealed bottles on their side in a cool, dark and stable environment. The guide to wine storage explains temperature, light and vibration. Rack mapping cannot rescue a bottle kept above a radiator.
From Plan to Smart Cellar
Sommo’s wine cellar stores the actual wine in each rack position, tracks quantities and drinking windows, and ranks what is ready through Open Tonight. The map remains useful, but the bottle record becomes searchable.
Download Sommo when the coloured circles need to become real labels, vintages and dinner decisions.
Frequently asked.
01.How should I organise a wine rack?+
02.Should I organise wine by grape or drinking window?+
03.Does this planner save my bottles?+
04.How many empty slots should a wine rack have?+
05.How should bottles be stored in a rack?+
A map finds the bottle. Sommo knows when to open it.
Build real racks in Sommo with bottles, vintages, quantities and drinking windows, then let Open Tonight choose what is ready.
