Just take a picture

In this very busy wine life we all lead, it's easy to forget about the bottles we open and the wines we drink. Last year I had a funny conversation with a couple who was trying to recall a lovely Italian wine they shared at dinner the weekend before.

They wanted to know if I knew the wine and could recommend something similar, but during their recollection they couldn't agree on a basic detail: whether it was a white or a red.

Trying my best to play "do you know what wine we're talking about?" I asked a follow up question...

"Did you take a picture of the label"?

They looked at each other. "No" they said and agreed that would have been a good idea. We reminisced on how people use to take the labels off and how that's so hard with the label glue technology these days.

That wine remains a mystery to them and me.

I recommend snapping a photo of wines that you particularly like. Not because you will need that photo, but just in case. If it's an imported and obscure wine and you want to buy more of it, I also recommend taking a picture of the back label which usually has the importer's name listed too.

My wine photo album is only somewhat organized, but I admit that Apple Photos makes the process pretty darn easy to find something. If you don't use an iPhone you likely have a strong opinion as to why Apple is the worst and why your phone is better. In that case, it probably finds your wine bottles without you even typing anything.

In your iPhone: open Photos > click search (now just a magnifying glass) and type "wine" or "cabernet" or "wine list". The magicians in the phone will do the rest.

I'm proud to say there are 2,600 results for "wine" in my phone. Yes, some are duplicates and some are just photos of wine related things. Like wine cellars. I probably a have similar number of wine corks that I've been saving for decorating my future cellar.

I also use wine apps and like to explore new ones, but I know that is pretty niche even with collectors.

How do you like to remember what you've opened and enjoyed?