The Auswine Forum

Howdy

Im new to wine, well not really new, I have enjoyed it for years... But at 28 years old it is starting to mean alot more to me and things are changing a little;
1 - I am enjoying the taste of wine a hell of a lot more than i used to..
2 - I am enjoying trying new wines, I am excited by the adventure...
3 - I am really enjoying the social aspect of wine, the company, talking about what I like and dont like about it...
4 - I have a little more to spend on 'better' wines.. I am not in the league of a few here but happy to spend a 2-4 hundred a month on wine...

My issues is that when I taste wine i am overly simplistic - I 'LIKE' it.. or its 'not for me'... Its either 'smooth' or its 'acidic'..

Thats about where my descriptive repertoire ends and I really want to develop that skill for a couple reasons, one is so I can have better and more informed conversations about the wine while i enjoy it.. Another is so I can contribute to this community and finally, and most importantly, is to understand WHY i like a particular wine so i can then make informed purchasing decisions.

Finally the other query I have is how/where do you store your tasting notes - my mates and I have been writing our 'comments' in a little book with a score out of ten (with one decimal) but the more we write in there the harder it is to find a particular wine.. Can you share your systems? Also how do you manage your cellar so you know where bottles are and when to drink by??

Sorry for all the questions but hope you can all share the wisdom!

Thanks
Tim

There is a YouTube channel, 'Pulling The Cork,' that have a series of videos on how to taste wine. I thought it was pretty helpful, with a good level of detail. This is the link to the first one in the series - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxwQRvbCAnw - I'm sure there are others out there doing a similar thing. I also like reading winefolly.com. Yeah, it's a seems a bit corny at times, but it's definitely fun to read. They have several articles on wine vocab. There is a website that I buy wine through that has a great educational section. I won't post the link here but send us a PM if you're interested.

As for tasting notes, I believe cellartracker, winecompanion, and other websites allow you to catalogue your cellar and attach tasting notes. I just use a template that I created on MS Word, and fill out on the PC during or after the tasting. A new document for each wine. It's pretty easy to organise alphabetically and search through...

As for the cellar? I have the small Vintec so finding things isn't too hard. I use a sticker to write the approx. intended drink date.

I'd start off by being able to recognize the basics which IMO are:

Tannins
Acidity
Residual Sugar
Oak
Alcohol

They're also some of the few relatively objective things about a wine..not that everyone will sense them in the same way but for example, you can measure the acid in a wine.

The rest of it is all very subjective and really, two great tasters can describe the same wine using completely different descriptors...whatever you smell/taste is right because that is what you are sensing.