I’ve always found it interesting to hear what others have to say about particular wines.  We’ve all been to the liquor store, and asked a probably very knowledgable sales-person to recommend a wine.  “Great!” you think to yourself.  “Since the contents of this bottle have been given a seal of approval, I bet it must be a great wine.”  Then you whisk yourself off home, kick open the front door, run to the kitchen without even taking your shoes off (which you always do, because you’re one of those people that doesn’t like shoes in the house- except this time, because you’re so excited), open up the bottle, pour yourself a brimming glass, taste it… and are ultimately disappointed.

Here’s the biggest secret of the wine world: only you can determine a good wine from a poor wine (just like only you can prevent forest fires).  The problem is, most of us don’t know what we like or why we like it, so it becomes a hit or miss situation everytime we shop for wine.  That is why I preach having a wine journal.

It’s simple.  You need paper, preferably bound in some way.  A .99 cent notebook will do just fine.  Regardless of how you set it up, there are some crucial things to have:

1. Label Info:  Just jot down the type of wine, style, varietal, vintage, vineyard- basically anything you can find on the label.  You don’t have to know what it all means at the moment, because you can look it all up later when you have the chance.

2. Date: It can sometimes be useful to look back on the day you had a particular wine.  If you can recollect that it was a particularly bad (or good) day, you may have been inclined to feel a certain way about the wine.

3.  Rating system: It’s raw but it’s beautiful.  You can use it to compare every wine you’ve ever had to one another.  You’ll find that as you get used to writing about and tasting wine, your system may become harsher- which is fine.  This can vary from a 5 star system to a 100 point system, and anything in between.  What’s important is that you understand it, and it helps you identify a class of your favorite wines.

4.  Notes:  Write down everything you can think of while you’re tasting the wine.  It’s your journal, no one else has to read it, so don’t feel embarassed of what you write.  It’s good to make note of the flavor, maybe the smell, certainly any food you may have had before or during consumption of the wine, as well as how many people are tasting the wine with you.  Is someone persuading you to feel a certain way?  Are you distracted?  I myself like to enjoy a glass of wine in a social setting, and then try to place myself in a more isolated setting for at least a few sips, where I can really focus on just the wine.

Just remember, the more you write, the more you’ll be able to pick out and identify wines you’ll like.  I hope this helps.  Enjoy!

Red Wines, White Wines

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February 10, 2009

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