A hand-held RFID scanner has an extendable shaft with a handle for gripping of the RFID scanner. The shaft expands and retracts with a plurality of telescoping segments, either manually or with an electrical mechanism. An RFID antenna/reader is disposed on one end of the shaft. The RFID reader communicates with an RFID tag by RF communication link. A local controller, implemented as a PDA, is mounted to the extendable shaft and electrically connected to the RFID antenna/reader to receive data from the RFID tag. The local controller has an antenna for transmitting the data to a remote computer. The local controller executes software which allows the user to select whether the data is stored in the RFID tag or the remote computer. The software uses the RFID tag, RFID scanner with local controller, and remote computer to manage data associated with an object such as a wine barrel.