Not the wall that causes a lot of political fighting, but the main wall in my cellar, and all the wines have been identified and inventoried, now all that leaves is four other racks in that room, plus the wine vault in the family room.  When all was said and done, I ended up packing and unpacking eighteen cases of wine, and let me tell you, that my back is rather tender from all that bending, stooping and stretching.  I tried to get it all organized.  All the French wine, and then the domestic wines by varietal, winery and vintage, followed by the rest of the Old World, and then the balance of the new world, and even all the Splits are done.  At least I have a better idea of what may or may not make the cut, but even then, I have fooled by what we have discovered as I have been slowly raiding the cellar, and still doesn’t seem to be making a dent in the collection.  I don’t know if that is good or bad, but I will accept it as a good sign. 

I have plenty, I hope, of the plastic or cardstock tags that can go over the corked end of the bottle, so that each bottle doesn’t need to be disturbed again for a while.  Supposedly the tags were supposed to be such that I could write on them, and then wipe them clean to use over and over, that didn’t work for me.  I was using “Post-its” and applying them to the hanging tags, but over the years there were different sizes being used and they would stick out beyond the tag and the secondary stickers would fall off and eventually be on the floor.  I found a size that I could actually get two labels from and they wouldn’t stick out beyond the hang tag.  Then with my spidery printing, I came up with a template that I could include the vintage, the grape or type, the region, the name and the winery.  All of this information was also printed up on lined paper, by column and row.  I will then get it entered onto a spreadsheet, so that if I have to make subtractions or additions, it will be easier on the computer. 

It was more work than I had anticipated, as I had to box up half of the wall to create a work zone and did column by column and I was working out of cases that I first sorted by varietal, and then started sorting by vintage, and thank God for sturdy empty cartons that I could put on the floor and then place another carton on top of, to make it easier on my back, as well as the different heights of the steps on the staircase going into the basement.  I don’t know if it makes me appear to be smart or to be lazy or maybe a combination of both, but it was a work out, and so will all the other racks that I will do, in the future.  I guess that I have a certain amount of pride, as I actually built the entire cellar room from scratch, as it was just an empty corner of the basement with poured concrete walls.  If nothing else, I will work up a thirst.