TASTING NOTES

[budrichard]

If I hadn't been drinking and collecting wine for 30+ years, I would think that there was something wrong with with me when I read the majority of the tasting notes posted on various forums. The notes are more like essays submitted for English 101, designed to impress the Professor and readers with one's command of the English language. Where all the smells, flavors and judgements come from is beyond me! How one can rate a wine on a 50 or 100 point scale is beyond my meager scientific background. My mind and palate are simply not calibrated for that point differentiation. I guess I'll have to drink a 1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet tonight. I know I won't be able to write about it as eloquently as most, but I know what I like! -Dick

[Florida Jim]

If I hadn't been drinking and collecting wine for 30+ years, I would think that there was something wrong with with me when I read the majority of the tasting notes posted on various forums. The notes are more like essays submitted for English 101, designed to impress the Professor and readers with one's command of the English language. Where all the smells, flavors and judgements come from is beyond me! How one can rate a wine on a 50 or 100 point scale is beyond my meager scientific background. My mind and palate are simply not calibrated for that point differentiation. I guess I'll have to drink a 1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet tonight. I know I won't be able to write about it as eloquently as most, but I know what I like! -Dick

Dick,

I suggest to you that "poetry in a bottle" can often move one to wax poetic. I see nothing wrong with a bit of passion - equally, I see nothing wrong with those that are not so moved.

Best, Jim

[Varmint]

I often drink wine and can only exclaim, "Damn, I really like that." I'm usually unable to put into words why I like a particular wine -- is it the fruit, the acidity, the finish, the tannins? I'm sure that if I spent some time with those who did wax eloquently about the characteristics, I might be able to do so as well. But I just don't worry about it, and I enjoy it when I read others' notes.

[tjaehnigen]

If I hadn't been drinking and collecting wine for 30+ years, I would think that there was something wrong with with me when I read the majority of the tasting notes posted on various forums. The notes are more like essays submitted for English 101, designed to impress the Professor and readers with one's command of the English language. Where all the smells, flavors and judgements come from is beyond me! How one can rate a wine on a 50 or 100 point scale is beyond my meager scientific background. My mind and palate are simply not calibrated for that point differentiation. I guess I'll have to drink a 1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet tonight. I know I won't be able to write about it as eloquently as most, but I know what I like! -Dick

Writing tasting notes is a fun way to express yourself about a wine. Plus, if you do drink stuff regularly, and especially if you drink lots of different bottles and offerings, you can easily see differences in different wines. Try pouring 4 different wines one evening, even of the same varietal, vintage and region, and you will be able to sense differences. Honest.

[tommy]

I guess I'll have to drink a 1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet tonight.

but sure to share your notes. no less that 1 page, double-spaced. 12 point font. use of thesaurus and abstruse literary and architectural references optional.

[Dave the Cook]

I guess I'll have to drink a 1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet tonight.

but sure to share your notes. no less that 1 page, double-spaced. 12 point font. use of thesaurus and abstruse literary and architectural references optional.

Extra points for comparing the taste of the wine to things you wouldn't dream of putting in your mouth: start with rocks (and pebbles), leather, varnish and ink.

[tcizma]

When I was beginning to learn about wine ( a process that is still continuing, I assure you. ) I often felt that the terms used by the "experts" were obscure and difficult for the novice or layperson to grasp.

When I write about wine I try to use terms and phrases that will help people to imagine what it might taste like. Sometimes it comes out sounding a little bizarre, but usually more enlightening than the same old tired phrases many wine journalists continue to use.

Combining smells, flavors and textures have been helpful to me when I am trying to capture the essence of a wine in few sentences.

" like biting into an over ripe nectarine while burning incense, with an open can of diesel fuel in the room".

(balthasar ress hattenheimer schutzenhaus riesling spatlese 1985)

[Dave the Cook]

" like biting into an over ripe nectarine while burning incense, with an open can of diesel fuel in the room".

(balthasar ress hattenheimer schutzenhaus riesling spatlese 1985)

Actually, I understand that.

I was (mostly) joking in my earlier post, but if you were to say that it tasted like diesel fumes, I'd not only wonder how you knew what diesel fumes tasted like, I'd be disinclined to try the wine myself, even if you meant it "in a good way."

[Busboy]

Extra points for comparing the taste of the wine to things you wouldn't dream of putting in your mouth: start with rocks (and pebbles), leather, varnish and ink.

I can no longer drink New Zealand sauvignon blancs, having read that their rather distinctive finish tastes like "cat piss."

Ick. And strangely accurate.

[DaleW]

I suggest to you that "poetry in a bottle" can often move one to wax poetic. I see nothing wrong with a bit of passion - equally, I see nothing wrong with those that are not so moved.

I'm with Jim. I personally enjoy reading the more poetic descriptions. And have found that they can be a pretty good guide to what the wine will taste like, once you've gotten to know a poster's tastes (Florida Jim is a prime example - I get a very clear view of a wine from his posts - though I can seldom find them as cheap!).

I don't post notes here, but I do elsewhere. I'm afraid my notes are mostly of value just to me, I'm not an especially talented taster. But I post on public fora because:

(1) it is a good way to archive notes

(2) I enjoy comments (agreeing or disagreeing) re the wines, and I learn a lot

(3) it serves as a bit of a journal (I'm afraid my notes are extremely "non-Wilfried Knapp compliant" -a joke from another forum)

(4) I get to know other posters and they me- sometimes I meet folks at offlines and it's like they are old friends

I don't expect that folks agree with, like, or even read my notes. One quickly learns whose notes one finds valuable, and which ones are maybe best ignored. But I do feel that more notes, whether analytical, flowery, terse, verbose, or whatever, are valuable. Let a thousand......

As an aside, some of those apparently wierd flavors (wet rocks, leather, etc.) are clear descriptors when my warped brain reads them.

[malcolmjolley]

I'll side with budrichard: less is more.

I prefer to think of notes in terms of what one might say to a table. Better to keep it short and sweet to compare against the observations of others.

Lately, I've been leafing through Michael Broadbent's "Vintage Wine: Fifty Years of Tasting Over Three Centuries of Wine". He doesn't waste his words, which makes it fun to compare his notes against one another.

In the end, though, it's all about whatever you makes you happy.

[balex]

I guess I'll have to drink a 1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet tonight. I know I won't be able to write about it as eloquently as most, but I know what I like! -Dick

Have fun! I am embarrassed to say I have never heard of Domaine Grivelet Let us know how it is: just a simple good, medium, bad please -- no fancy stuff.

[primowino]

This is my first egullet entry so excuse the amateurish formatting. If busboy wants to taste some real cats pee he should try French Sauvignons instead of New Zealand, most of which tend to have overpowering tropical fruit flavours. Bordeaux examples tend to be more peeish than Loire ones (e.g Sancerre), as long as they are predominantly Sauvignon and not Semillon. Best of all try some Vin de Pays Sauvignons, they are often the most characteristic of cat's pee and gooseberry and cheaper.

Now I'm on board I plan to leave WTNs when I drink anything interesting, but as I'm in the UK they may not always be wines you can find in US shops.

Tomorrow night I'll be drinking a 1992 Fritz Haag Auslese and I'm expecting some of that diesel starting to come through.

Edited November 14, 2003 by primowino (log)

[tcizma]

Please post wtn on the Haag Auslese. ( which vineyard location?)

[balex]

Welcome to egullet, primowino!

[budrichard]

Tasting notes as requested:

1961 Vosne-Romanee 'Les Malconsorts', Domaine Grivelet.

Out of case of 12 purchased in the early 70's.

Very smooth with no tannin, almost powerful bouquet that becomes immediately evident upon decanting. Strong Burgundy taste that I still have not perceived in any wine outside of French Burgundy. Just flows out of the glass and down the 'Gullet'!

I don't believe this wine would be made today with modern vinification or would be held this long. Two bottles left. First bottle drunk about 1975 with one 'skunky' bottle in the case so far. Can't find my tasting notes for that period and about 1980 I stopped pasting labels and notes. -Dick

[futronic]

I write tasting notes for almost every wine I taste. I have a little book I scribble notes in, and then I transcribe them to my computer where I have a cellar management program that stores inventory levels and notes. Storing this information allows me to judge when I should have future bottles, and I almost always consult my program to select a bottle from the cellar (although, to be honest, by just looking at what I have available, I can tell what is (or is not) ready to drink).

In addition to the notes, I write the date, where I was, and who I was dining with so it acts more like a diary/journal than anything else. Much like the foodblogs some people keep on here.

I like writing notes, and some people look at me funny when I do, but after dining with me once, they get used to it.

[tjaehnigen]

I often tap TNs into my Blackberry -- quick, easy, emailable, cut and paste-able.