Your Tasting Notes

[quijote]

How do the rest of you organize your tasting notes? Do you pretty much use the board to register most of your notes? Or do you keep notebooks? Index card files? Computer program? Is each file or notebook dedicated to a different varietal or country or vintage?

I'm asking beause the notebook I've been using is starting to fill up, and instead of just getting more notebooks to fill, I've been thinking about organizing my TNs a bit more systematically. I even considered getting a couple of metal recipe holders for the job!

Any ideas?

[Innkeeper]

I use the board mostly, and then use the search function to go back and find them. Sometimes screw up as do others and post duplicate TNs. If we use a wine from our "laid down inventory", we cut it out of that file on our computer and paste it to the "wine history" file along with salient parts of the TN.

[dananne]

I use a spreadsheet program to keep track of the wines I drink and ones I have on hand. I list producer, varietal/name (including vineyard, if applicable), region, vintage, location purchased, and cost. I use an asteric (sp?) to indicate wines I have in stock, and I remove it when I drink the wine. If I have more than one bottle, I note how many I have, then reduce the number as appropriate. If the wine needs to age a bit, I'll include my guestimate on that, too. My TNs (which I call "Comments"), then, follow the above info. Sometimes they are very simple -- my TN for Banfi's Brachetto d'Acqui Rose Regale reads "Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!" and my TN for a black muscat from Wiebel reads "A little medicine-like (cough)." Wines I really feel strongly about I'll elaborate on in greater depth. Only pretty recently have I started to really post TNs here, so I'll refer to them on the board as IK does.

At times, I'll include ratings for the wines in the "Comments" section. I don't do this for any reason other than to try and find out which reviewer's palate I tend to agree with, and which ones I don't (for instance, I've found that I agree with Tanzer more often than with Parker).

[This message has been edited by dananne (edited 05-17-2003).]

[hotwine]

I use the board, and a database program from Collectware called "Cellar!" Kept a little 3-ring cellar book for years, but the computer is a lot more efficient.

[winoweenie]

Keep my cellar inventory by Vintage, Varietal (Cabs, Bordeaux one catagory, All other reds another)Producer and the number of bottles I Have. This samr info is then put on a page and the additional information such as the price,date of purchase and from whom, and finally where they are located in the cellar are entered. That way if I want to drink a 92 cabernet, I look at the 92 inventory page, pick out the bottle I want and take it off, then go to the alpabeticaly filed pages, find the location of the bin it's in and with luck, it be there. I'm a firm believer in the KISS system and even tho I ocassionally lose a bottle or so, they eventually show up. Tried a program and abandoned the sucker the first week. Found it was faster just grabbing the notebbok of what I wanted than firing up the computer, waiting for the sucker to decide iff'n it was going to work and then shuffling thru the inventory.
In place now for 20 years and outside of now when I have to squeeze in sideways to enter the hummer, has workrd fer' me. WW ( I put my tasting notes on the filed pages. The most important notes I make are how the wine is progressing and when to open another bottle. Been very fortunate so far about wine going over the hill.)

[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 05-17-2003).]

[quijote]

Wow, you folks are organized! And it looks like the computer has a definite edge here. I sort of see WW's point about using computers, and in my case I don't have much of a collection to keep track of. I guess I'm leaning toward notebooks at this point, but any other ideas? Anyone use index cards?

[tandkvd]

If any one uses a Palm Pilot,I found a program from Palm Gear that I have started using. It works well for the novice and seasoned veterians like IK and WW. It has a section for notes, and how many you have in the cellar. It's only $4.00 and you can download it for a free 30 day trial. You can view it at: http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=47877

[hotwine]

Quijote, I had a local printer make up some pages for a cellar book several years ago, and still have a bunch. Email me.

[Botafogo]

>>Keep my cellar inventory by Vintage, Varietal (Cabs, Bordeaux one catagory, All
other reds another)<<

Verne, SHAME ON YOU!!!!! Relegating the wondrous diversity and complexity of the world's hundreds of serious red varietals to "miscilaneous other" is just not right. I may have to come over there and perform a Sagrantino / Lagrein intervention....

Roberto

[winoweenie]

If you think the " All Other Reds " book is thin you should see the SW section. No entry for over 2 years, and only 7 active pages ( Sauternes and Late-Harvest stuff ). Just keep filling up the 2 diamomnds for CB when they git lowly. WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

[wondersofwine]

I use this board plus often recipe cards. It's fun to look back at my recipe cards from the 70's or 80's (mostly German Riesling then). I file them by region (France, Italy, California, etc.) but within region I'm not sure if its better to go alphabetically by producer/winery or by varietal--all cabernet sauvignon from California together or all Jed Steele wines together, all Robert Mondavi wines together, etc. That's the nice thing about the computer--you can search by winery or by vintage and varietal, etc.

[quijote]

Hotwine, I just e-mailed you--I think. Let me know if get my message! It just occurred to me, however, as I re-read your message, that you have actual paper templates, and not an electronic archive? I get confused so easily; it's all that wine I've been drinking. Anyway, let me know, and thanks....