Post Tasting Note Checklists

[JacobH]

I sometimes regret not being able to take proper notes for some of the Ports I drink. The causes are usually one of these:

• Drinking socially so it would be rude / weird to scribble notes.
• At a walk-around tasting where there isn’t anywhere to write (and writing would take too long).
• Having drunk too much to be able to write legibly

For many years, I have thought about trying to make a “checklist” for tasting notes which allows me to record my impressions more quickly and with less actual writing. I could then print some for walk-around tastings (should we ever get those again...) and also, perhaps, work it up into a web-based form which would allow me to quickly record my thoughts from my mobile if out somewhere. The idea is not to replace long-hand notes but to provide an alternative when the former is not available.

Whilst a few pre-printed wine tasting notes are available online, the problem I have found with them is that they are for general wine-drinking rather than Port and so include loads of characteristics which are almost never present in Port, at the exclusion of a detailed consideration of what is. It is therefore clearly a DIY project.

What has put me off until recently is a worry that if I made my own I would not be able to identify, accurately, what words should be included.

It then occurred to me that I could avoid this problem (or, at least, reduce the risk) by adopting a scientific approach: analysing my own notes to pick out the words to include.

I therefore ran my Port tasting notes through a simple script which sorted them by frequency and then alphabetically. I then excluded any unique words and went through those that remained, removing anything save for descriptive ones. These I then used these as a basis for my checklist.

The attached is very much a first draft. I think I need to de-synonym it. I also wish there was a better way of handling adjectives. For example, we might have red, black or stewed cherries or currants but I am not sure having “fruit” and “adjectives” is the most obvious way of doing it. Perhaps the way is to re-arrange the fruit and fruit-like things (e.g. berries, citrus, nuts etc.)?

Has anyone else tried something like this? If so what works for you?

(PS: The second “Drunk” should read “Rating”!)

[jdaw1]

Also see A possible improvement to tasting-note technology (July 2009).

[JacobH]

Also see A possible improvement to tasting-note technology (July 2009).

Thanks. I'd forgotten that we had discussed this before. At least I now have 11 further years of notes from which to compile a list of descriptors!

[slateshalehead]

Once you have your criteria finally laid out, there are a few app platforms out there that could serve well for your list. Glide is the one I am most familiar with, and it requires no coding experience whatsoever.

[JacobH]

Once you have your criteria finally laid out, there are a few app platforms out there that could serve well for your list. Glide is the one I am most familiar with, and it requires no coding experience whatsoever.

Thanks. I hadn’t thought about turning it into an App. Although where’s the fun in “no coding”? It makes me think I could also do something sensible with the backend to my current tasting notes website to make it more mobile-friendly.