Felix Warners wrote:For me a tn is more usefull when I get an idea how something has tasted to you and not how much of each seperated ingredient is in the wine. If you went to eat at a very good restaurant I'm more interested in the way you thought it was, ambience, how the food tasted and what you ate than the recipe book of the chef. For own personal use a form like that (your form looks very good) would be very usefull but for a tn online I dont see much use for it.
Totally agreed. Most of us are really looking for descriptions of the wine's personality that the clinical facts don't capture.
That said, Howie, a form could be useful for a certain type of person. And if you're one of those, there are a couple of things that would make your form more meaningful. Body, for instance: light, med or heavy. And Buy Again, a yes or no question.
About some things that are on your list, I question the value of color. If it's normal and usual for variety/vintage/producer, there's no need to expend the energy writing that down unless you're comparing a lot of wines to each other. I realize it's an area of judging for points and it's a good thing for beginners to learn to pay attention to, but I think it's of little use for wines observed one at a time unless the color's exceptional to standard or when describing a mature wine. I would also advise against your limiting the range of colors. Whites can only be somewhere between light straw and deep golden? What about transparent, green-tinged, apricot, rusted, orange and tawny, just to name a few?
Finish is something else you might want to rethink. Is length meaningful? I mean, I use words like short and long, but they're just two words that might best describe a finish among other choices that would include harsh, astringent, bitter and hot on the bad end of the scale, and harmonious, full, and lush at the other.
Oakiness is something I'd put on a form if I were making one because I need to be reminded to address it. I'd probably be less inclined to use terms that would identify degrees the way one looks at body, and would go for terms that describe the oak's impact on the wine like barely noticeable, moderate, dominant, massive and integrated. Someone else might not need this at all.
Pretty hard, really, to make a one-size-fits all form.
