What do you HATE to read in tasting notes?

WINE TALK
1

I saw one today that always puts me in a near-rage:

Pain Grille


WTF!!! IT’S TOAST! The whole note is in English, and suddenly you feel like throwing out ‘pain grille’ because it sounds better than ‘toast’ or ‘toasted bread’? Pansy!

2

Saline.

3

Singing. [gheyfight.gif]

4

French, burgundy, bordeaux [diablo.gif]

5

People who intentionally try to write like Parker or any other writer really. Its the purple prose writng, intellectual masterbating whack jobs that write paragraphs of dribble that just pisses me off.

John

6

Bell pepper. Who wants to drink bell pepper?

7

Not a single one of these (nor likely whatever comes after my post) bothers me in the least. I would think most note writers are writing for themselves and so if something tastes like wet rocks (LOTS of wines do to me), bell pepper (ditto) or crushed berries (duh) to that person, just try to figure out what that means to your palate calibration. Or do what most people do with my notes, and ignore them.

The only thing that really bugs me is absolute declarative statements that come across as facts rather than opinion (“this is undoubtedly the finest Haut Brion since the 1864”).

Having said all of that, people are also free to be bugged by anything they read, so c’est la vie!

8

What Michael said.
Best, Jim

9

I guess I took the post to mean what term describes something unattractive in a wine…not that how it was written.

10

yeah, totally different thing!

I guess cat pee would qualify, then!!

11

Fecal, brett, wet hay dont do it for me.
As far as vocabulary, I hate seeing things that I dont understand such as something tasting like wet rocks. Well pardon me or not putting everything that can be found on the road in my mouth. Dont know what those taste like. Garrigue…never been there and so idiotically over used… you’re not cool unless the wine smells like that…whatever that is. Rusty nails…what? tetanus anyone? and on and on… [diablo.gif]

12

Damn. Tough room. You guys had better skip reading my tasting notes. [shock.gif]

13

[drinkers.gif]

Its the Nyquil talking

14

I ignore all TN’s of wines that have not been in the bottle for at least 6 months, normally a year if a red. People will start posting TN’s of 08 whatevers within a couple of months. Please spar us for awhile and let the wines at least stablize in the bottle.

And please don’t write that about the “griping tannins” of some 08 red . [boredom.gif] Go out and pitchfork babies or something to see if they bleed. Same difference!

15

I’m not big on a smoldering fireplace characteristic like Creosote & burning embers or even scorched earth in my mouth. Melted road tar doesn’t do much for me either. Camphor is something that sounds better for a cold and not in my wine. I used to hate the taste of pencil lead when I was a youngster and now it’s supposed to taste good ?
When it is said “lurking underneath all the extract & structure” sounds like something from the black lagoon is going to jump at you out of your glass.
I don’t know that I HATE to read these but it makes me think, hmmmm !

16

But it’s in French, so would that make it “French” toast? Confusing

I like tasting notes as a guide, but personally I like the back story the most–how it’s made, why is it different, who makes it, what are they trying to say, etc. etc. and in the end for all the effort in the goal, etc., I really just wanna know–is it a good execution, or not.

17

Gordon,
With your plan there would be no barrel sample notes.
I like tasting young wines from barrel. I can see your point with scoring young wines though?

Addressing the original question: I don’t mind anything in noting except flowery & superfluous notes that have nothing to do with the wine at all.

18

Mike;

Done plenty of barrel samples and enjoyed them. However, all bottled wines are blends of different barrels of which one probably didn’t taste all the barrels? One reason is that some barrels will taste like s… on their own, but will make a great ingredient for the blended wine. Even if they did taste all the barrels, the blend will have a flavor of its own.

Barrel samples are fun, but tasting notes of such are reflective of nothing! IMO

19

Different strokes I guess.

20

My thoughts exactly. When they just go on and on about the 74 different things they taste and smell in a wine, I want to beat them over the head with a bottle.