Why Collectors Make the Switch
CellarTracker is one of the wine world's great community databases, and its tasting note archive is unmatched. But it was designed before wine became a serious collectible asset class — it does not track what your collection is worth today, flag bottles that have appreciated significantly, or generate the tax and insurance documents that serious collectors need.
| Capability | CellarTracker | VaultSomm |
|---|---|---|
| Bottle inventory tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live market valuation | — | ✓ Real-time, per bottle |
| Portfolio gain/loss tracking | — | ✓ With cost basis |
| IRS Schedule D export | — | ✓ PDF report |
| Insurance valuation report | — | ✓ PDF report |
| Estate inventory | — | ✓ PDF report |
| Auction price monitoring | — | ✓ Alert-based |
| Tasting notes community | ✓ Extensive | — |
Many collectors run both platforms: CellarTracker for community notes and drinking recommendations, VaultSomm for financial tracking. This guide covers a full migration — exporting your CellarTracker inventory, importing into VaultSomm, and getting live valuations running on your cellar.
Step 1: Export Your CellarTracker Data
Log in to CellarTracker
Go to cellartracker.com and sign in to your account. You need a CellarTracker account with an active inventory — free accounts can export.
Navigate to your inventory export
From the top navigation, go to My Wine → Export. CellarTracker offers several export formats. Select CSV (comma-separated values) for the broadest compatibility.
Choose "All fields" if prompted — you want purchase price, location, and bin information included in the export.
Save and review your export file
Download the CSV to your computer. Open it in Excel or Numbers to verify it contains your inventory. Key columns you should see:
- Wine — Producer and wine name
- Vintage — The year
- Quantity — Bottles in stock
- PurchasePrice — What you paid per bottle
- Country / Region / Appellation — Geographic data
- Varietal — Grape variety
Missing Purchase Prices?
If your CellarTracker records are missing purchase prices — common for older entries or gifted bottles — don't worry. VaultSomm will populate current market values for every bottle regardless. You can add cost basis data to individual bottles later using VaultSomm's bottle detail view.
Step 2: Import Into VaultSomm
Create your VaultSomm account
Go to vaultsomm.pages.dev and create your account. Start with a free trial — no credit card required. Choose the Collector or Connoisseur tier based on the size of your cellar.
Use the CSV import tool
From the Cellar page, click Import → Upload CSV. The importer accepts CellarTracker's export format directly — column headers are automatically mapped to VaultSomm's data model.
Review the field mapping screen before confirming. VaultSomm will show you exactly which columns it recognized and which it skipped.
Confirm your import
Click Import Bottles. For large cellars (500+ bottles), this may take a minute. You will see a summary of bottles imported successfully, any entries skipped due to missing data, and suggestions for records that need manual review.
Step 3: Run Valuations on Your Cellar
Refresh all valuations
Navigate to Portfolio. VaultSomm automatically prices every imported bottle on upload, then reprices your full collection on March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31 each year — pulling auction results, retail pricing from wine.com, K&L, Wine Access, Total Wine, and Vivino, and recent secondary market data.
For a 200-bottle cellar, this typically completes in 3–5 minutes. You will see progress as values populate.
Review and refine individual valuations
Click any bottle in your Cellar view to see its valuation detail: the sources consulted, confidence level, and price range. If a value looks off — particularly for very rare or niche bottles — use the Refresh Valuation button on the individual bottle card to trigger a fresh search.
You can also manually override any valuation by editing the bottle's market value directly.
Add missing cost basis data
For bottles without purchase prices, open the bottle detail view and enter your cost basis manually. This unlocks the gain/loss calculation and enables the Schedule D tax report for those bottles. Even an estimated purchase price is more useful than none.
Step 4: Generate Your Reports
Once your cellar is imported and valuations are current, VaultSomm's reporting suite is immediately available from the Reports page:
- Insurance Valuation Report — Complete inventory with current market values per bottle, formatted for insurers
- IRS Schedule D Export — Form 8949-compatible gain/loss report for all bottles sold in a given tax year
- Estate Inventory — Full collection listing with fair market values at a point in time, suitable for estate planning documentation
- Form 709 Gift Summary — Summarizes gift-tax-relevant wine transfers
All reports are generated as PDFs and can be shared directly with your accountant, insurer, or estate attorney.
Common Migration Questions
Do I need to leave CellarTracker?
No. Many collectors keep both active. CellarTracker excels at community tasting notes and drinking window recommendations. VaultSomm handles the financial tracking. They serve different purposes — you can run both and import updated CellarTracker exports to VaultSomm periodically.
What happens to bottles I've already consumed?
CellarTracker's export only includes bottles currently in stock by default. Consumed bottles will not appear in your import. If you want historical records of sold or consumed bottles for capital gains purposes, you will need to enter those manually or via a separate CellarTracker export that includes consumption history.
Will my tasting notes transfer?
VaultSomm imports inventory data — producer, wine name, vintage, quantity, and purchase price. Tasting notes and community ratings do not transfer as they are proprietary to CellarTracker's platform. VaultSomm is focused on portfolio tracking rather than tasting note collection.
What if some bottles don't get valuations?
VaultSomm's valuation engine queries across retail, auction, and secondary market sources to maximize coverage. For extremely rare bottles with no public market data, it will return a low-confidence estimate or flag the bottle for manual review. Valuations are set at upload and refreshed quarterly — you can always set a manual value for any bottle where automated pricing falls short.
VaultSomm Tip
After your initial import, set up auction alerts on your highest-value bottles. VaultSomm will notify you when a matching bottle appears at a major auction house — useful for timing any future sales.
Ready to see what your cellar is actually worth?
Import your CellarTracker CSV and get market valuations on every bottle in your collection at upload, with quarterly updates every March, June, September, and December. Takes less than an hour.
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