A spreadsheet, an appraiser every third year, and a somm who remembers everything.
That is the real competition and two thirds of it works. Here is what each costs today, which questions it cannot answer, and five situations where Aivin is the wrong purchase. The spreadsheet is free until the person maintaining it leaves. The appraisal is a published $2,500 to $6,000 and rebuilt from scratch every time.
Source: Published engagement ranges for restaurant and private-cellar appraisals, American Society of Appraisers member directory rates, 2025–26 — Varies with lot count, travel and turnaround. Get two quotes.
A spreadsheet one person maintains
Free — until they leave for the group across town. Then the cellar is whatever the bin cards say, and the last person who knew why a lot was priced that way is gone.
An outside appraisal every three years
A published $2,500 to $6,000 for a mid-size restaurant cellar, and the appraiser builds the schedule from scratch each time because nobody kept the working.
The inactive inventory nobody caught
Capital in lots untouched for a year, plus the write-down on wine that went past its window while it was still priced as though it were young. This one is usually the largest and it never appears on a P&L.
Aivin, one room, everything
$3,540 a year at $295 a month per property, with the record and onboarding included. A valuation is $750 and $375 to re-certify.
Who answers what
Who answers what
The question
Who you ask now
Can they answer it
Aivin
What is in the cellar right now
Inventory software
Yes — that is what it is for
Reads it from your system
What it cost
Inventory software
Yes
Yes
What it is worth on six bases
Inventory software
No
Yes, with the working per lot
Comparable sales behind each figure
Inventory software
No
Venue, date, format, per-bottle
A document an appraiser will sign
An appraisal firm
Yes, in two to six weeks
Same day, for review
Reproducing last year’s figure exactly
An appraisal firm
Only if they kept the file
Effective-dated snapshots
Whether Friday’s pairing can be poured
Nothing on the market
No
Coverage at tonight’s covers
A defended pour per course
Your sommelier
Yes, and better than us
The argument and the near-miss
Depletion written back after service
Somebody, later
Typed in, or not at all
Close out and it moves
Several houses compared without a leak
A consultancy spreadsheet
By hand, and one slip ends it
Anonymized, cohorts suppressed
Five situations where Aivin is the wrong purchase
You need ordering, receiving and par levels
Aivin is not a purchasing system and will not become one. Buy that instead — and if a vendor tells you one product does both well, ask them to show you the receiving screen.
You want a signed appraisal with no appraiser involved
That does not exist here or anywhere. Aivin assembles the schedule; a credentialed appraiser reviews and signs.
You have forty labels and a wall of Chablis
A room that size does not have a cellar problem. Keep the spreadsheet and put the money into wine.
You want it to pick the wine
It will not. It argues, names what it avoided, and asks why when you overrule it. The judgment stays on the floor.
You need nine properties live next week
Onboarding is five to ten working days per property and a person does it. Nine houses is not a week and anyone who says otherwise is not doing it by hand.
