Our Methods

When learning how to write tasting notes on wine, there are many questions that need to be considered. Should we taste with or without food? Should the tasting be blind? Double blind? What are tannins? Should we use a 100 point scale? 20 point? 5 star?

We are new to the tasting note game - indeed, new to wine in general. We certainly do not consider ourselves experts, so take any scores and notes we put out there with somewhere between a grain and a lick of salt.

So why do we do it? It's fun! For us, writing tasting notes turns sharing a nice bottle of wine into an even more enjoyable learning experience, and posting them up here and on CellarTracker provides a venue to share that experience to a larger community of wine drinkers.

We want our notes to be helpful to others when thinking about a wine to purchase (or pull out of the cellar). Ultimately, we have found that the tasting notes that help us the most in picking out a wine are those that include a description of the wine in terms of aromas and tastes, but also that include something more. Context of the tasting, what the reviewer had with it, or at least some indication as to whether or not they liked it and how much!

Do you do blind tastings?

Most of the time, no. We simply pick a bottle from what we have that we think might be a good one to try that day. If a special occasion, a good experience at the winery where we bought it or a pretty label influences our feelings on it, so be it. Most of our bottles of wine come with memories attached, and reliving those memories is part of the fun for us. Tasting blind, while undoubtedly more objective, is not how we generally experience wine.

Why do you score? Why do you use the 100 point scale?

Scores on their own are useless, but a tasting note on its own can be equally uninformative, even if chock full of descriptors. We believe that a score combined with a note provides a clearer picture. Why 100 points? Frankly, we are young Americans who grew up in the grade-inflation age. That most wines worth drinking fall between 80 and 100 points on the 100 point scale mirrors that. Also, we like to contribute to CellarTracker and that is what is used there. We like to refer to the description of the 100 point scale provided over on Cork'd when we are pulling our scores out of thin air...

Do you taste wine with food?

Yes. And no. We tend to do the bulk of the tasting when there is not a fork and plate in front of us to distract us. Since our goal is to find good food and wine pairings through the proven method of trial and error (and occasional success!), we will incorporate what we ate with the wine into the reviews and it is possible that a particularly good pairing could give a wine some points, given that our scores are a tad capricious.

How do I get in on this?

Read some guides! Download some forms! We found these sites helpful in getting started: