Or, worse (?) “solo; fell asleep”. 
On notes, For myself, I tend to focus on structure of the wine rather than trying to parse a fruit salad. And anything exceptional, (good or bad) especially if atypical, relative to expectations for the style.
Evolution in enjoyment … over the last couple of decades more focus on wine with food and overall experience if you will rather than overly analytical. And drinking more whites with food mid week as my wife feels that red wine does not agree with her.
Customers who I’ve become outside friends with I have invited to wine get-togethers and my number one requirement is are they fun to be around? not their wine knowledge nor their budget.
… but it is more fun when people can bring some fun wines. I’ve made it my own house rule if I invite people I don’t expect anyone to bring anything or feel pressured to spend a certain $$$. There are exceptions to this rule like 1-2 times a year we all want to do a champagne night.
I know I’m a nerd, but I feel like a reaaaaal nerd if I have a tasting note app open while I’m sipping wine.
It kills the mood for me.
Tangent - along with (or due to, or caused by) enjoying wine more casually, I am experiencing the well-documented wino phenomenon wherein the more I learn the less I know. I sometimes pine for my arrogant know-it-all-because-I-read-TWA self of years ago. Then I realize what I really want is today’s knowledge, albeit incomplete, with yesterday’s prices.
2 Likes
That’s how my group is, we generally have a $50-$60 value, but often some of the older folks in the group bring some incredible stuff just because. I have more fun in that group than when I was in a group at a wine storage facility drinking first growths, cult Napa, and Grand Cru Burgundy.
Oooh, a thread where I get to talk about my feelings? Is it Christmas? 
There are people here who met me when I was 23 years old, and it’d be curious to wonder if they thought, in regards to my palate or my wine aspirations, that I was much different then than I am now. Or if I was somehow more ridiculous? 
I was able to drink old wine at 15-16 years of age, which I think shaped my palate immediately (in regards to balance and mature flavors). But I also think that the reality which shaped my wine drinking was that I saw those bottles (and dinners/conversations) as ‘the best’ of my family. One of the things about my life, though, is that I had my boyhood cut prematurely short, and I think I became an exceptionally sentimental person before I was even 21. The poetry of a special flavors around a table of people to whom I am close or feel a special bond… well, it’s really the only wine specialization I ever wanted.
The wine community has brought much comfort & healing to my life. In addition to Joy. I am fond of embarrassing people by reminding them of that to their faces 
.
3 Likes
I’ve tried writing as many notes as possible, but lately just for wines that I felt deserved a note or that I had enough time with to really evaluate. Mine usually have aroma/flavor descriptors and talk a little about structure. However I’m finding in retrospect when looking at the notes over time these descriptors alone don’t mean as much to me as I originally hoped. I think we all like to pick apart the different facets of a wine (to see how they change in a given wine over time, to help with deciding whether to buy again based on palate preference) but it doesn’t fully convey the experience.
I just want to learn to write notes like @David_Bu3ker. Maybe he can offer an online course.
According to related topics, you are supposed to blame all of this on smartphones and social media.
It’s inspiration not perspiration. I used to puzzle my way through trying to write a note on every single wine I tasted. It was a fantastic learning experience in terms of teaching me to focus on what I was tasting. I learned a ton, and got pretty good at blind tasting.
In 2010 I suffered a severe concussion and completely lost my sense of smell for six months. I thought I was done. Slowly, and with intense dedication to trying to smell basically everything, it came back over the span of six long years. It was probably only two before I felt competent again, but fully six before I felt I was back at “full power.” That said, it changed. Some things now hit me like a freight train (I cannot bear the aroma of celery, as it dominates everything for me). Other things are quieter. I had to relearn what I had learned. The couple of years where I struggled to smell made me focus on structure, which made me an even better taster now.
All this to say that I am the product of a long and sometimes rocky road. I am also more than a little tired of writing tasting notes. But I am not at all tired of exploring/experiencing wine. I will still write notes on wines to document the experience of what a wine is now, and inform what I (or you) should do with other bottles, but I am most excited about wines that trigger something in my soul. If I take that first sip and go “wow” I am all in. Wines like that create images in my mind. They conjure song lyrics. They weave intricate tapestries documenting ancient battles. They are living beings with tales to tell.
12 Likes
BTW, Montmorency cherries are anti-inflammatory, great for exercise recovery. Probably doesn’t work with wine tasting notes, though.
-Al
@ToddFrench Great post and I suspect your sentiment is much more the norm than the exception.
@Jonathan_Favre You are the best my friend, and this age 50 maturity shows well on you. See you soon!
1 Like
Hey crazy coincidence, I got a business thing in Minneapolis coming up. Wait what weekend is it? 
1 Like
And they make the best tart cherry pies
1 Like
Great topic, Todd, and super interesting to read the thoughts of those much more experienced than me (i.e. the old-timers). It’s funny, but it seems over the 7 years or so that I’ve been serious about wine, I have experienced a microcosm of the all experiences expressed here. Every few months, the pendulum swings from writing detailed tasting notes on CT for every wine I drink, to keeping just brief descriptions in a spreadsheet on my laptop, to writing nothing at all. I sometimes have urge to organize a group for a structured tasting, and other times I want enjoy a glass or two with dinner at home without giving wine a second thought. Likewise, my buying strategy fluctuates frequently too- for a while I’m trying to track down fancy trophy bottles and a little while later it’s all about the QPR. I always assumed that I’d eventually settle into some sort of equilibrium, but reading these posts, sounds like everyone goes through an evolution of sorts that only sometimes reaches a stable conclusion. Time will tell where I settle out myself!
@ToddFrench - as others have said, thanks for a great topic and to everyone for a great ongoing discussion. While older (62) I have only been seriously collecting wine for the past 10 years or so and for the first three - four years or so, was writing notes for between 50% to 80% of the wines I consumed, which dropped to less than 10 percent of wine for the following 6 years. I think the drop-off was due to a huge lack of confidence and the time it took me to “get it right” when compared to other notes I was reading. As such, the time it took for me to take the notes got in the way of enjoying the wines.
Recently however, I have had the opportunity to do a lot of tasting at wine shop with the distributors that come through which has built my confidence (as well as my ability to remember the falvros) and age has taught me not to care what others think about my notes.
So in the last day or two, I am just beginning to write more notes, but will this last - who knows…
@ToddFrench Thanks for the thoughtful post. The way that I enjoy wine certainly has evolved a lot. So I scurried back to CT to look at my notes. My first one was just over 10 years ago. Wow! For several years I posted notes very infrequently (just four in 2015).
My style in notes hasn’t changed all that much. Some flavor descriptors, how much I liked it, maybe a little editorial commentary. But I think the biggest changes for me are in my confidence and ability to appreciate wine. I wrote notes rarely because I was unsure of myself, didn’t want to sound stupid, and wasn’t really sure what the notes were for. Now I’m more confident, don’t really care if I sound stupid, and have decided what the notes are for .
First and foremost my notes are for me. Sounds egotistical when I write that down, but my memory is not great. Without the notes I wouldn’t remember how ready things are (a matter of personal taste of course), whether I like them or not, whether I should re-buy, dig deeper into the producer, or look elsewhere. But I also like contributing to the community, and hope others find use in my notes. Is that 2006 Barolo still too tannic to open, or did it come to life after 3 hours in the decanter? Inquring minds would like to know. I look for this kind of information in CT and hope others get that from me, too.
And if I try a bunch of new producers (e.g. as I have with Ludes, Loersch, Stein, Steinmetz, Kilburg and von Othegraven lately) how on earth can I keep them all straight without notes? Who should I buy a lot more of (Steinmetz) or keep trying (most of the others)?
In wine dinners with 5 or 10 (or more) bottles I find that taking notes reduces my enjoyment of the event - my friends, the conversations, the food, the wine. I still take notes sometimes, but as often rely on others’ notes. I know my friends’ palates so their notes are nearly as useful to me as mine. At in-store tastings I try to take detailed notes - I am shopping after all so have to remember what to buy!
Other than note taking, my wine enjoyment has evolved a lot. I used to worry a lot about pleasure vs. intellectual analysis. But now I’ve come to see that these are totally intertwined for me. Relates to my confidence in my ability to understand a wine on my own terms (hah, that has nothing to do with blind tasting, at which I truly suck). My favorite, great wines are deeply pleasurable and also geek fests.
2 Likes
Hmm, it always seems like your notes from the dinners we’ve shared are posted minutes later, before my Uber gets home! 
. But I do find your notes very useful for reminding me what my own impressions were and I’ve cribbed descriptors from you once or thrice.
1 Like
So it’s a flat square?