Wine, whiskey & spirits inventory in AssetVault
4-minute read · v1.2 · Free, Pro, & Collector+
If you're tracking a wine cellar, a whiskey shelf, or a spirits collection, AssetVault gives you the same offline-first privacy as the rest of the app — plus a toolkit specifically built for drinkers. Your inventory never leaves your device. Not to us, not to a server, not to anyone.
This guide covers what's in v1.2 for wine / whiskey / spirits collectors and how to use it.
What's specifically for drinkers
When you set an item's category to Wine, Whiskey, or Spirits, the AddItem screen surfaces a full drinker-specific toolkit:
- Personal score (0–100). Your rating. Industry-standard scale reads naturally next to public ratings (Robert Parker, Wine Spectator, Whisky Advocate). "Tried that Glenfiddich 12 last year, gave it 73, don't grab another." Empty = unscored — we render the badge only when you've put a number in.
- Critic score (0–100). The public rating. Distinct from your personal score so you can scan your shelf by "what experts said" vs "what I said."
- ABV (%). Alcohol by volume. Decimal precision matters for cask-strength bottles (60.5%, 63.2%) and serious whiskey collectors regularly cite ABV to one decimal.
- Date opened. Tap the field to mark "opened today." Tap again to clear (sealed). Cleanly separates investment-hold inventory ("never going to open this Pappy 23") from drinking inventory ("opened last summer, 60% gone").
- Drink-by window. Tap-cycles through 1y / 5y / 10y / 20y horizons so cellar collectors can flag bottles peaking soon without picking exact dates.
- Cellar position. Granular storage location ("Rack 3, slot 5") that complements the coarse Location and Room fields.
- Tasting notes. Multiline, dedicated field — distinct from generic notes so you can mix provenance/receipts in Notes with the actual drinking experience here.
- Cork condition (wine only). Tap-cycle picker: Pristine / Slight wear / Stained / Compromised / Recorked. Affects auction value materially — a stained or compromised cork hints at poor cellaring even when the bottle looks fine outside.
Category-specific condition states
Wine, whiskey, and spirits each have their own condition vocabulary because collectors track these things differently:
- Wine: Sealed · Cellared (Aging) · Opened · Drunk (logged) · Damaged
- Whiskey: Sealed BNIB · Sealed (no box) · Opened · Half full · Heel (less than 1/4) · Empty (display) · Auction-only
- Spirits: Sealed · Opened · Half full · Heel · Empty (display) · Display Only
"Sealed BNIB" (Brand New In Box) and "Auction-only" are real distinctions whiskey collectors make. So is "Heel" — the dregs left after pouring. We didn't invent these; we just gave them a place to live.
The 400K-item catalog covers drinks too
Type a name in AddItem and AssetVault's catalog returns instant suggestions:
- ~130,000 wines — vintages, châteaux, regions
- ~18,000 whiskies — distilleries, expressions, age statements
- ~2,300 scotches from Whisky Advocate's reference set
Catalog hits return in 9–15ms. If we don't have the bottle, AI fallback (Collector+) hits Gemini and caches the answer so the next user with the same bottle gets it instantly. The catalog stores public reference data only — your private inventory stays local.
Live pricing for wine
Collector+ subscribers get Wine-Searcher integration on wine items. Pull-to-refresh on the Detail screen and we fetch a current market estimate. eBay active-listing medians cover whiskey and spirits too, category-tuned so you don't get decanters polluting your cask-strength search.
Set up a wine cellar in AssetVault
- Tap + to add an item. Type the bottle name — autocomplete will surface catalog matches as you type.
- Pick a match. Name, vintage year, region, and an estimated value pre-fill.
- If you want, tap the photo placeholder and snap a label shot. AI Photo ID (Collector+) can fill the same fields from a label photo if you'd rather start visually.
- Set Category to Wine — the drinker fields appear automatically.
- Choose Condition: Sealed if it's still corked. If you've opened it, set to Opened and tap "Date opened" to mark today.
- Add Personal score if you've tried it. Add Critic score from Wine Spectator / Robert Parker / etc. if you're tracking that.
- Add ABV from the label.
- Set Drink by if you're aging it — tap to cycle 1y / 5y / 10y / 20y windows.
- Add Cellar position (rack/slot) if your storage is organized.
- Set Location (e.g., "Cellar A" or "Wine Fridge") and Room if you have multiple storage areas.
- Add Tasting notes if you've opened it.
- For wine specifically, tap-cycle Cork condition.
- Tap Save.
What we'd add next if you ask
The drinker toolkit covers the essentials, but there's always more we could do. If you're a wine / whiskey / spirits collector and one of these would change how you use the app, email us — we ship fast and the people who tell us what's missing usually get it:
- Provenance / where purchased as a dedicated field (currently lives in Notes)
- Bottle size — 750ml standard, magnum, half-bottle, jeroboam, etc.
- Decanting time recommendation for wine
- Pairing suggestions the AI can pre-fill
- Auction history tracking across multiple sales of the same bottle
Privacy contract for drinkers
Same as the rest of the app: your inventory lives only on your device. AssetVault has no servers holding your collection. Catalog lookups send only the typed text (no photos, no values, no location). AI Photo ID sends one image at a time only when you trigger it. Encrypted Backup (.avbk) lets you safely upload a password-protected snapshot to iCloud / Drive / Dropbox without trusting any cloud — including ours — with the contents.