Do Tasting Notes Help?

You might see tasting notes on the back of a wine bottle, maybe on a little card on the shelf in the store, or full tasting write-ups in wine magazines or online. How much do these actually help?

"Shelf talker" notes, often written by the winery, are seen on retail shelves

 There are good and bad wine notes

Wine notes should give the consumer an idea of what the wine will smell and taste like and it would be great if they gave ideas of food pairings. A good note might use words like toasted oak, raspberries, silky, and well-balanced -- terms fairly easy to understand if you have a little wine knowledge.

Not so helpful notes can read almost like poetry and sounds great, but tells you nothing. Others are plain dumb telling you a wine tastes like black dirt, white flowers, or roasted bay leaf. Huh? I'm sorry, but I've not yet had a wine that tastes like black tea or coriander, I've never roasted and eaten a bay leaf, I don't know the difference in flavors between black and brown dirt (maybe a 3 yr old boy would). This is an actual wine note: "candied violets form this elixir's fruitier elements, while a bouquet of pretty ylang-ylang, jasmine, lilac and tuberose blossoms decorate the balmy perfume." Say what?

Even the well written notes have a couple issues.

Everybody is different

We have different exposures to tastes and smells depending on past experiences. If could be our brains don't all interpret tastes and smells the same. I'm pretty sure our noses aren't all the same. Your gender, age, any illnesses you may have, any meds you're on, smoking, and other things all affect your smell.

Wines change

When it comes to wine notes on bottles those were written before the wine was even bottled. One it's in the bottle the wine changes, once it's age a couple months it changes, and a couple months more, and a couple years more, etc. There's really not way in heck these can be accurate.

When you see notes in a wine shop they are, of course, for selling wine so you don't always get what you read.

When a wine writer or a wine judge tells you something about a wine it's usually tasted close to the wine's release date and these folks don't just taste a couple wines, but possibly dozens or more at a sitting. I've done plenty of this informally and a wine often changes from the time you first open the bottle to 20 minutes later. And guess what? Your sense of smell changes, too. 

You can try this yourself if you have a few wines open sometime. Label them A, B and C then taste them A, B, then C and take notes on what you're smelling and tasting. Wait a couple minutes then taste C, B, then A and compare notes.

What might be best

A more holistic and general sense of the wine might make it fit with more people in whatever their setting might be. 

Some hints on food suitability. Not that it doesn't with roasted vegetables and lemon chicken, but be generic -- lighter food, spicier food, meaty dishes. There's noting wrong with non-food recommendations like "this is a great afternoon wine" or "a nice sipper all by itself."

Some hints on aging suitability realizing most people don't have ideal cellars. Maybe something like, "This should improve nicely within the first year and will probably keep its fruit for another couple years.