Least useful tasting note term to you?

WINE TALK
121

Because the wine is not about me and not about my palate. Wine is not a vehicle for egomania, boastfulness and self-promotion. All the great “tasters” I have known are able to submerge their ego and understand what is in the bottle. Where it came from and where it is going. And they’ve done that without charts, tasting wheels or tortured prose likening wine to 57 different fruits (the Heinz Variety Tasting method).

A great taster is at one with the wine. Something we can all hope to be through experience, constant skepticism and openness to new experience and new sensations.

How boring the world of Points/Tasting notes has become! I even see my friends, people I like, writing endless tasting notes with endless useless fruit/wood/earth analogies that are of no possible use to anyone. Yes, they drop off the points, but they are still using the same methodology. Furthermore, modern oenology has learned how to manipulate wine to create manufactured aromas and flavors that fit into the “tasting palates” artificial construct.

Written by the late, great curmudgeon of the wine world, Joe Dressner. I find most tasting notes to be pretty useless and never write any myself.

122

Mark - I stopped writing notes myself. I get the purpose of them - trying to communicate what the experience was like so that others can beenfit from your description - but I found myself writing notes that tended to be too generic within a group. That is, if I was tasting a flight of X all from vintage V the notes all sounded alike in broad terms and I wasn’t satisfied with the way I was able to describe the fine points of differentiation.

123

The more I enjoy a wine, the more difficult it can be to put the experience into words. Sometimes, I find I don’t want to cheapen the experience by doing so. My most favorable reviews often are also the most brief. I’m not sure that more verbiage would be helpful.

124

A more general complaint, but I get frustrated with tasting notes that describe the wine accurately enough but without in any way evaluating it – the kind of note where you could tack on “86” or “93” to the end of the note and it would read reasonably coherently both ways. A really good note shouldn’t need a score because you’ll know exactly how good the taster thought the wine was or wasn’t just from reading the note.