Taking notes for wines is highly recommended, but writing down every factor while tasting seems rather tedious. But more important than writing too much is writing too little – we can’t always be expected to remember every element that needs to be considered. So in order to fill up the blank spaces we waffle on about big fruit bombs and the smelliness of grandmothers’ purses.
For this reason I cooked up the Rational Wine Note. The main elements are listed and noting down levels of sweetness, acidity, tannin and alcohol becomes a simple matter of circling the right box. On the other side, elements to consider such as aromas, flavours and texture are handily indicated in pale grey – dark enough to read, but light enough to write over. I now offer it to you here for free.
(I recommend printing both pages one one sheet in landscape orientation – in printer options you may be able to select “two-up”)
UPGRADE: The Rational Wine Note 4.0 is now available! (Updated August 2016)
For a breakdown of how to consider all the various elements, please read this article – A Rational Approach to Wine Tasting
The Rational Wine Note is based on the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 3 Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT). I chose this one simple because I thought Level 2 was too simple and Level 4 Diploma was too detailed for the regular consumer.
You can find the various SAT files on the WSET website HERE.
I should probably mention this note is not endorsed by WSET in any way. This is just a tool I created for myself and have now chosen to share.
As the Wine & Spirit Education Trust is an educational charity I would not feel right in charging anything for this note. Therefore the below conditions apply.
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