I regularly receive emails from people who want more information on how to best use barcodes on the wine bottle.

The first thing to know is that the barcode is generally a 13 digit number generated by the winery.  There is no hidden information in the barcode. Some of the digits represent the country of manufacture, some the identity of the producer company, some represent the particular wine and a couple of digits which act as a check sum, ensuring that the barcode has been read correctly.

The action of scanning a barcode simply reads the code as numbers and displays these on the screen, replacing the need to key the numbers in.  The important process follows, where a database such as Vinote Cellar is searched to display the wine details relating to this barcode.  

Vinote Cellar takes the value of barcodes further by printing a unique number and its barcode equivalent on each Vinote Bottle Tag.  This allows the cellarer to identify a wine bottle by scanning the tag’s barcode.  Just as the bottle barcode, through Vinote Cellar, provides details of the wine, the tag barcode provides details of the bottle to be viewed and adjusted; in particular this ensures accurate removal of opened bottles from the current wine list.

Barcodes on bottles and tags, in association with Vinote Cellar, make for accuracy, speed and efficiency in wine and bottle identification.

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