If it’s atypical (for producer variety and vintage) and if so why. Either in terms of quality, or style.
Helpful to who? For what purpose?
Too open ended for me.
Cheers.
That exact feature already exists. And, yes, it is very nice.
Navigate to the page for a popular wine. Go to the “Community Notes” part of the page. Before the first community note, you will see a Dropdown menu that gives you various options on how to sort the Tasting Notes. Select “I’m a fan first.” Then, everyone who you are a “fan” of (called “favorite tasters” in the original CT) will have their notes displayed first.
The most helpful things:
- Provenance and condition of the wine;
- Serving temperature;
- Preparation of wine (eg. decanted or not, how long, etc).
All drastically affect a tasting note.
Compare a) a wine bought on the auction with poor levels, tasted in a hot room, popped and poured; with b) a wine professionally cellared since released and with excellent fill levels, tasted at proper temperature, and with proper preparation before hand. Two totally different outcomes.
Wine notes are like Trip Advisor reviews. You have to read between the lines of what’s written, then add the comments of people whose reports you’re aligned with. And even then…
Dan
“Recommended” or “not recommended.”
depends a lot on the wine. I do think there is a lot of info to be gained from how long the wine was open and how it evolved over that time. almost literally everything else is completely subjective. although I do like to know if a wine felt youthful or tired, and what kind of fruit notes people were getting.
I appreciate tasting notes that clearly describe the style of the wine, use comparisons of color and body (especially on aged wines) relative to its peers, and that give the taster’s impressions of the aromas, flavors, etc. Of course not everyone will perceive the same things, but it at least gives an idea of what to expect. If I see people commenting on the oak, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, etc., I know it’s probably not something I’m going to like.
I completely agree with that.
But this thread seems to be mostly about how we use the tool personally. My opinion isn’t “right”, it’s just how I interpet TNs and because Troy requested our opinions.
“It tastes like cat pee.”
Brian - thank you. I feel dim for not having noticed that. Great feature!
Marcus - I agree with your POV about the subjectivity of TNs, and that a mass of them often conveys useful information.
Helpful for me, of course, to decided whether or not that bottle needs more time or is ready to go. Clearly, based on people’s comments in the thread, they use CT in a variety of different ways, but this is one of the main reasons I use it.
I agree that all the other information people are talking about here (did you like it, etc.) is helpful, but to me the drink/hold info is the most helpful.
Obviously, “saline.” Also, whether the wine is a “poor man’s _____” or a “baby ________.”
The drink/hold bit is very useful. The weight of the wine is useful to guide pairing, I suppose.
Mostly, I like to see the poster’s degree of enthusiasm, at least when coming from a known quantity. (This is also why the ubiquitously derided points are actually useful, although I never use them myself). If I can tell the poster fell in love with the wine, it will pique my interest, or conversely, if the poster hated the wine, I will pay particular attention.
Value for money is useless to me unless the price paid is included. One poster here says I can’t afford a wine unless I can afford to buy cases; obviously his conception of value and mine are unlikely to align. An unadorned “great value” is meaningless to me.
But really, the thing I like about a tasting note is that someone took the time to post it. For myself, being prescriptive about what it has to or should contain misses the point and discourages people from sharing their views. So post what the hell you want, and I’ll appreciate it.
That seems a little bit out of left field, to me. I don’t read any of the posts here, including my own, as being prescriptive or trying to dictate what notes should or have to contain. The question was about what we find most helpful, and I think people have done an usually good job of sticking to that topic.
I didn’t mean to be critical of prior posters, or even the views they have expressed. My point was merely this: if someone (esp someone new to the board/lurking) sees lots of “this is how you’re supposed to do it” posts, it might deter them from posting at all, which I think would be a shame. If you were nervous about posting in the first place, posts intended to be helpful could be counter-productive.
I do see your point, and I share your belief that new posters shouldn’t be discouraged. Isn’t it also possible, on the flipside, though, that people new to writing tasting notes might find it very useful to have some ideas of what others find helpful, or what could potentially be included in a note? Offered in a non-restrictive way, of course.
Sarah, I find your list real helpful to people who might want to post notes. I have had the sense both in posts and in talking with people I have met that there are people who might want to post notes are intimidated by the fact that they cannot list obscure fruits or other flavors one detects in a wine. Neither you nor anyone else has answered the OP’s question by asking for such a list. Rather, your list seems to be more something that virtually anyone who posts here can do. So, I disagree with Neal and think that your template is a good one that if we all endorse it would actually encourage more people to post notes.
Nothing is worse than a tasting note that reads like a cake recipe - tastes like black forest cake with loads of chocolate and ripe bing cherry fruit flavors but with hints of anise. It's critic bingo! ("non-zero marginal willingness to pay" for BS descriptors) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Plus 3
I would add two things:
-
Put the wine in context (how is it compared to other vintages of the same wine, other wines of the vintages). That can be extremly helpful.
-
A score. I know, many people here don’t like scores or say they have no value. But the score is the ultimate thing that allows me to judge your preferences, wine tasting “skills” and wether our palates align or not. When I see a tasting note on Cellartracker of people I don’t know, a quick scan through the other tasting notes of that person allows me to judge quite quickly if I should listen to this person or not (as there will be overlap in wines we had and scored).
It is a skill set one hopefully has been acquiring in recent years, how to read consumer feedback and convert it into some useful guidance for yourself.
Whether CT notes, Yelp reviews, Amazon customer reviews, medical provider reviews, or whatever, you gradually learn how to find the bits of information that might be useful to you, filter out the majority of it that is not, develop a sense of what is motivating different people to write different kind of feedback, and apply all that information to decisions you are going to make.
I agree with Sarah, that people being snarky about CT and WB tasting notes is unfortunate when it happens (fortunately, very little occurred in this thread) because it probably discourages people from attempting them. And for all the many times these kinds of notes are less helpful or not helpful, in the overall aggregate, it’s a real benefit for there to be more of them.
I find other people’s tasting notes only useful if I actually know the person and have an idea if their likes or dislikes match up with mine. I often find that I can’t always replicate others tasting experiences kind of like shelf talkers. Wine appreciation is so subjective in many ways that is difficult to compare one’s own tastes with those of others.