By John Boudreau, Mercury News
A new Web-based service, Vinfolio.com, offers serious wine collectors an array of features to help them to better enjoy their liquid treasure.
Vinfolio allows people to manage their wine inventories, stored in home cellars or at the company's 16,000-square-foot, climate-controlled storage facility in San Francisco. Its database includes photos of wine labels that can be viewed online, wine reviews from renowned Burgundy expert Allen Meadows and even individual notes of wine collectors.
"We are trying to apply technology in ways to make people's lives easier," said Vinfolio founder Stephen Bachmann, a former managing director at Broadview Capital Partners.
After a free 60-day offer, the basic subscription costs $20 a month.
It took more than a year of development to get the system up and clicking, said Bachmann. The company, which launched in fall 2004 in San Francisco, uses Microsoft servers and open source software to create a wine database and numerous applications for wine lovers.
Vinfolio will manage sales and purchases for clients. This service is of particular value to those looking for older wines, which often are found only in private collections. Vinfolio will scan the inventory of clients who have designated themselves as "passive" sellers.
Bachmann noted that the service can locate "a supply of wine that is not normally visible to anybody."
Vinfolio also provides bar codes for wine bottles. This makes for easy identification of new acquisitions to a collection -- and quick subtractions once the bottle is opened.
For instance, wine owners using a handheld scanner, which plugs into a computer and costs about $160, can quickly swipe the bottle after it is poured. The bottle is then automatically subtracted from the inventory. Vinfolio customers can also search their collection online and remove depleted bottles from their database. The service costs a small additional fee, unless the wine is purchased through the company.
"People always say they'll remember to take it off their Excel sheet," Bachmann said. "But they get drunk at dinner and don't bother."
The service is geared for collectors at all levels, from those whose collections include thousands of bottles to those just starting out. It even sells sampler packages to help people begin to identify the types of wines that tickle their palates.
Bachmann, who expects his company to do as much as $5 million in business this year, is adding new features to the service. For instance, he is planning an alert that tells collectors when a particular wine's value has increased a certain percentage over what they paid for it.
"We've put out a new iteration of the software each month," he said. "It just shows up. It will get better and better."
- Vinfolio's software allows wine lovers to view labels of their collection online, keep detailed records of their wine and create sub-collections.
- The San Francisco company will manage the sales and purchases of wine as well as offer tips on the best time to begin drinking a particular vintage.
- Vinfolio has a state-of-the-art wine storage facility.
- For more information: www.vinfolio.com