Tasting notes: Do you take 'em and why?

WINE TALK
21

never take notes. it’s a waste of time.

22

I do on CT, so I know what I thought of the wine at that moment and to guide future opening dates. Plus I enjoy enthusing about a wine I really liked or was disapointed in. Never take them during dinner. Later that night or the next day I enter my thoughts on CT.

23

I take them at tastings. It is part of the process of sorting out what to buy and recording initial impressions about what to pair them with. I don’t consider them of much use to anyone but me.

Once the purchase is made I don’t write anything down unless something surprises me, particularly if a wine seems like it isn’t ready to drink yet in which case I push my drinking window out.

If there are no surprises, it is “vino a mano”, and I am enjoying the moment. Taking notes detracts from that.

24

I do notes diligently, it’s part of the process. I have developed a template that I follow. When drinking at an event or dinner the notes are pretty scketchy and usually from memory. It’s nice when some is left over for a more thorough tasting. I enjoy reading others notes to determine whether to buy or not, drinking windows and aging potential. In return, I hope my notes will be helpful to others.
I drink in the evening after diner and like to follow a wine for several days a glass or two a night. My wife drinks white and rosé exclusively, so I will taste hers and comment with a note most of the time, she will take a taste and comment on the reds. She likes Chianti and some Syrahs, but defaults to Pinot Gris.
For her wine is a beverage and not a point of discusion. For me coffee, beer and cider are beverages and wine is to savour. [snort.gif]

25

Thanks for associating Idiot with Pobega.

26

Kyle, interesting questions and an interesting thread.

I remember when Michael Broadbent retired after about 70 years of wine tasting he was asked something like “what’s your best advice for someone starting out who is interested in wine”. He said that the best advice he ever got as a young man learning about wine, that he always followed, was if you taste a wine, “take a little note”. He put all of his notes in a collection of books and said that even now he often consults his early books for his notes on an old wine.

I used to scribble notes on papers at tastings (that I later lost) but then switched to books and late came to CT, as the ultimate electronic book.

I write notes so I can to remember what I have tasted, and what I thought of it. It does involve effort, but I don’t think it detracts from the tasting experience. It enhances it for me by making me think about what I am tasting enough to put it into words. It also helps me to remember more.

And of course its no hardship once you’ve typed a note to put it here on WBs and it’s great when that leads to an interesting discussion of the wine. You can also learn quite a bit I think by comparing your note on a wine with those of others, particularly if you know their palates.

But of course I wouldn’t take notes at every occasion like a dinner party. I find that I need at least a few contemporaneous adjectives to pull together a TN the next day!

27

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

28

This probably describes me, too. But I would replace “never” with “rarely.” I don’t use CellarTracker, and I have posted notes on only a handful of wines here, usually ones (as Neal wrote) that might be of interest and are certainly out of the mainstream.

29

Probably not, but it is not the first use in this thread.

30

As I get older, my dander seems to rise less predictably than it used to

31

I sometimes make mental notes then write them in CT for myself. I occasionally Pobega a recent arrival. In the future I will use the phrase “it got my dander up” in tasting notes.

32

That’s more or less where I’ve wound up, though I’d lump the distraction factor in under “too much work.” I found that I rarely went back to the notes that I had written. I will note on my cellar spreadsheet if I think something needs a lot more time or needs to be drunk up.

33

I’ve tried (and succeeded) in taking notes (and rating on my own system) every wine I’ve had from my own cellar for almost 30 years. (It helped when I got a cellar inventory program, Cellar Savant, which I still use, in the mid-late '90s).

I find such notes invaluable…to me. I am mainly interested in analyzing the structure of wines: fruit, acicity, frame (tannins) and the balance and quality of those elements…and in seeing how much pleasure it gives me. Writing notes (or reading them) of analogies to elements in other parts of life: cherries, balsamic vinegar, tire rubber, vaseline, etc…are of limited to no value for what I want to record and know.

Keeping these help me decide when to open certain bottles…as I will often say “don’t open for 5 years” or “drink soon” on such notes. And…without them, I’d probably open the same bottle way too frequently, forgetting I just had one that I said to hold for 5 years. It also helps me understand the evolution, with age, of certain bottles…especially since my collection is focused on the same group of producers in multiple (up to 15) vintages, with more or less the same wines and multiples of those wines. I am trying to age my wines to “perfection”…whatever that means.

I also put in the setting…and sometimes, it helps me remember good…and not so good…events I wouldn’t otherwise think of.

IMO, not taking notes is one of the main criteria that distinguishes drinking from tasting wines. And…especially when there are multiple wines …at one event, drinking is not something I find desirable…I want a tasting experience.

And, in fairness, though I don’t participate, I do consult CT from time to time to see what people are saying, though I have no idea of the credibility of most posted notes there, since I don’t know who wrote them. Bottom line: I want to depend on myself in tasting and recording what I drink.

34

I rarely write them at home or when out with non-wino friends (though I may write a note afterwards), but I always write them at wine tastings and dinners. For me, writing TN’s helps me to take the time to focus on the wine. It also allows me to compare my impressions among the various wines that evening as well as with other tastings of the same wine. I have to admit, I get a kick out of posting a TN in CT, then noticing a previous note I wrote and how similar or different it might be. For example, from my recent notes on an Emidio Pepe tasting:

2003 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
6/1/2012 - NR
Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Vertical (Joe & Magda’s, NYC): Young, rich and tannic, but it is also a touch fizzy. An odd wine or a natural wine at an odd state. Not rated.

11/15/2013 - 95 Points
Deep black color with a ruby edge. Youthful, intense, bright red fruit, liquorous nose. Bright fruit in the mouth. Quite youthful. Will probably be at its best in 20 years, but quite yummy now. 93 points.
Day 2, this wine is really singing. A bright cranberry nose tempered with a very appealing earthiness. A terrific young wine. 95 points.

5/7/2014 - 94 Points
Emidio Pepe 50th Anniversary Dinner, with Chiara and Emidio Pepe (L’Artusi Restaurant, NYC): From magnum. Cooler than the previous, so the nose is closed at first, but opening up as it warms in the glass to reveal notes of earth, licorice, cocoa, and black fruits. Intense ripe black fruit in the mouth. A simply gorgeous wine. Perhaps even more enjoyable tonight than the 2000. 94-95 points.


And then this (apparently, I over-estimated the time required to be ready):

1985 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
6/1/2012 - 93 Points
Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Vertical (Joe & Magda’s, NYC): Red fruit and raw beef nose. Rich tart red fruit. Needs another decade. 92-95 points eventually.

5/7/2014 - 97 Points
Emidio Pepe 50th Anniversary Dinner, with Chiara and Emidio Pepe (L’Artusi Restaurant, NYC): Still a touch of ruby in the color, but leaning to onion skin at the edge. Stunning nose of earth and black cherries with a hint of coffee beans. I could sniff this all night long. Palate of earth and cherries, great length. A long riveting wine still full of life. Should continue to evolve well for 20 years or more.

35

nice.

36

I don’t write as many notes as I once had. Anyway, I’m writing less notes.
As I get close to retiring I am seriously thinking of getting out of this life-lock-addiction altogether, or at least becoming a moderate ‘consumer of wine’ sans berserker board and cellartracker.

I so want to stop becoming a curmudgeon. It’s such a bad quality and one I despise in myself when it pops out.

:slight_smile:

37

In real life, yer just a pussy cat. We all know that!

38

I don’t any more unless it is a special event and I am asked by somebody. I will write a few here for this Berserkers site just to get some others experiences. They are very rudimentary however. Every great wine I have ever had is embossed in my memory. I can pull out the sensory experiences just by a deja vu experience. I don’t need to write it down any more.

39

This is very interesting.

This might be a little tangent but in Buddhist meditation there is a point at which your concentration during the meditation becomes a giving up to the impressions that flow in your mind. They come and go at will. You don’t try to fix them in time.

At that point, you are a master at meditation. I think the same happens with these tasting notes in folks who really write them well.

Sometimes the more you just allow your brain to do its thing, the better the tasting notes. Don’t try to force the impression. This is why practice with notes requires years of writing to really become proficient. Get to the point where it is a natural spontaneous thing. I never did to tell you the truth.

It is often more of a right brain (sensory) than left brain (true cognitive) experience. The problem is that when you are in that kind of mental state it requires more to remember the exact impression.

This is just my take and maybe a little tangent but I thought this was interesting.

40

[rofl.gif]