Barcode (UPC/EAN)

Return to the main Barcode Support instructions:

One of the most common questions I receive has to do with the existing UPC or EAN barcodes that are on some bottles. You can indeed scan a UPC/EAN onto this screen to find/add a wine without touching the keyboard. When it works this is a nice time saver. However, as of December, 2012, the CellarTracker database has 1,389,277 wines, the largest wine database in the world. For most users ~99% of their wine is already represented. Of these 1.4 million wines, users have entered ~122,000 UPC/EAN codes. So while scanning a UPC may save you a few keystrokes, it is almost always the case that typing one or two keywords from the label will find you your wine. My advice is to put down the scanner and pick up the keyboard...

Alas, UPC/EAN is not a panacea (there are other products which pretend that it is), as there are significant issues with their application in the wine industry:

  • Many wines do not have UPC/EAN codes: Many older releases do not have codes, and many newer releases from smaller wineries do not have codes.
  • The same wine can have many barcodes: For foreign wines, each importer can set their own code. Also, different sizes, different releases of non-vintage wines, all can have different codes. These are all valid reasons.
  • The same UPC/EAN can be used for many wines: In some cases the producers and importers are sloppy (unintentionally or otherwise) about ensuring that each new wine gets its own code. Unfortunately this means that a Cabernet and a Merlot from the same producer, despite being separate wines, may bear the same code. More likely, vintage variations are often glossed over.

All this to say that UPC/EAN is not living up to its potential when it comes to wine.

By the way, the recommended CipherLab scanners do have one configuration issue that is easily addressed. By default the Cipherlab scanners are set to convert 12-digit UPC (US-only) to 13-digit EAN codes by appending a leading 0. However this can cause mis-recognition on CellarTracker. The Cipherlab website has the configuration manual for all of their handheld scanners. Print out the pages and do the following:

  1. Scan
  2. Locate the UPC-A settings in your manual, under Convert to EAN-13 Scan
  3. Scan

This will remove your leading 0 when dealing with UPC barcodes. As for the Cipherlab manuals, they are a bit technical because CipherLab is actually an OEM manufacturer.

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