Past or present tense

WINE TALK
1

When writing tasting notes, do you use the past tense, present tense or avoid tense and grammatic structure altogether?

2

i try to type like the FOB that I am. So my notes are an insult to the English language. That and I dont’ really put much time in writing them.

3

Dupe

4

Stream of Consciousness, baby!

Villa Erbice Amarone della Valpolicella Vigneto Tremenel 2000, Veneto
Things that make you say “DAY-AMN!” If you could somehow make a wine out of the best aspects of a perfect dry aged prime piece of beef, the guitar intro to Jimi Hendix’s “Little Wing”, J-Lo’s legendary onion and an unbelievably ripe and luscious black plum, this would be it. One of the joys of a great Amarone like this is that, due to the effect of air drying the grapes before pressing, it is delicious now provided you give it some air and some hungry man style food to interact with but it can also be aged for as long as you want and it will repay that time with compound interest. And, again, “Day-amn!!!”

This wine is long sold out…

5

no offense but this thread cracked me up. I know I should care more, but I just try to get them up quickly. I never even gave this a thought. I am sure I should, but I just can’t.

6

I am in total and complete awe of the awesome geekiness of this query, combining wine geekiness with grammarian geekiness in an incredible combined Voltron of geekiness. I would never be so geeky as to have an opinion on this issue or to have thought about it before on multiple occasions, but, my gut instinct, without ever having thought about it before, not even once, would be PRESENT TENSE based on my 11th grade English teacher who always forcefully instructed that events in literature are always spoken about in the present tense, and if wine is worth writing about it’s for reasons more aesthetic than gustatory. The thing about wine is that it’s a replicateable experience, like opening a book, so it’s always in the present tense for the person experiencing it for the first time, as opposed to, say, a piece of chicken, where once you’re done with it, it’s done.

7

I mix my tenses. To wit:

here is something spectacular about driving alongside the west coast. It is as clean as a childhood memory. The unfettering breeze that flows through the car window whisks away all my lethargy, alive and easy. As I travel up the road past the city lights, I clearly see the rolling hills begin to form like moguls down a ski slope. The hills are arid & tawny colored, with sun-burned grass and dry clay-loam soils filled with powdery cracks that run up and down them like wrinkles on an older woman. The hills are brushed w/ mossy green trees and lush shrubs, contrasting the tawny colored bends like chiaroscuro on a mat screen. As I travel along the road I can sense the ocean to the west, though I cannot see it. The saline smell of oysters on the shore and the sounds of foamy waves inching up the coast-line let me know that the water is west of those hills, but I cannot see it. I close my eyes for a brief minute, steadying the wheel of the car, and feel the crabgrass underneath my feet. The rhythmic pulse of the tides takes hold for a moment, reminding me how vivid a human’s senses can be when one’s over-reliance on sight is discarded. I open my eyes, satisfied in the moment.

The windy roads snake along the bend of the hills sweeping broadly, with swift turns and slopes that linger through dusk. As the hot sun cools its rays, setting past the ocean to the west, I can’t help but feel fresh and youthful. As a child I hated to travel by car. The trips seemed too long and the excitement of the destination would always end up agitating me. Perhaps that sense of anguish is what made the payoff all the greater when we finally wound up where we were going. The difference now is that this journey is a calming one. My thoughts were no longer of anxiety and impatience, but of observance and anticipation. The scents of the dusty herbs and the liveliness of the air conjured an almost idyllic feeling, a sense of warmth that is lacking in the cold, concrete months of a big city. The luxury of these thoughts seems to be at a premium as I grow old and become preoccupied with other such nonsense. I was content to think this way again, hoping I’d get to where the green vines would meet the mossy trees and lush shrubs soon. I hoped I’d get there soon…but if I didn’t, that would be alright too. The only sin about coming to this place is that I know I’ll have to leave it.


Once I entered the tunnel on the main highway, I knew that the town of Buelton was almost in sight. I thought of sipping wine and smiled. This was going to be a great trip.

8

Past tense, present tense, grammar? I can’t say that I care. Only how many flirties the damn wine deserves. flirtysmile

9

I wasn’t sure if he was writing a tasting note or an intro to a novel

10

flirties go beyond mere words

11

I write them in the future tense.

In haiku.

12

[welldone.gif] [rofl.gif]

13

Let’s mix Haiku and Olde English:

Sucketh this wine does

Thou nonce like Mollydooker

Suckage HATH limits

14

I never used to give it a thought when I was just entering them into CellarTracker; I’d just put nose this, palate that, finish t’other but since I began posting them in my blog I’ve tried to be a little more gramatically correct.

I like the idea of haikus though :slight_smile:

15

Bob Dole tense:

Eric Anderson finds lots of berries in the nose, he does. And it’s lush and plush in mouthfeel too. Eric Anderson likes this wine.

16

I’ve just always done it in present tense. I no longer think much about it, but I know I am consistent with it (to a fault?). If that is geeky, so be it!!

17

It only matters if you use verbs. Why would you do that?

18

I’ve been known to do both…in the SAME TN. I don’t really think about it. I do know that if I am reading an old TN in CT and see grammatical errors, I will correct them…

19

Maybe you should just adopt the “JSM TN Method” and just give a number. It eliminates this nasty grammar problem.

20

I still have no idea what anyone is talking about here.