the winegetter

This Sunday, I want to turn our attention to tasting notes. The value of tasting notes and scoring points is always somewhat in dispute, so it merits our attention.

I stumbled about this blog post by Frank Haddad. He starts his post with a strong statement “I hate tasting notes.” He then goes on to explain why. (Always good to explain why you hate something!) And that is where I realized I agree with him. Haddad strongly dislikes tasting notes that are clinical, that don’t give us context about the wine. Whether it is typical for its varietal or region, whether a star on its own or with food, whether the drinker liked it or not…his point is: put emotion into tasting notes, let the reader know how you felt. Were you surprised? Was it pleasurable?

Now, I have spent considerable time writing tasting notes, perfecting them to suit my needs but also to get others to be able to read and hopefully understand them. I am trying to convey emotions, but maybe I will try to do more so…

Just a thoughtful reminder to show ourselves in our notes…

Have a great Sunday!

In the Glass: Ode to Terroir and Tasting Notes