Wine tasting notes in your own words

A wine note is useful when it helps you recognise the bottle and remember what you thought. It does not need to sound like a critic. Begin with the words that arrived while you were drinking, even if the first honest sentence is simply “bright, lemony, and good with the fish.”

Start with three prompts

1. What did you notice first? A smell, a taste, a texture, or the way the wine changed with food.
2. How did it feel? Fresh, rich, light, drying, soft, sharp, or something else you would actually say.
3. Would you want it again? Loved it, liked it, or not for me is already a useful conclusion.

If nothing specific comes to mind, keep the occasion: who poured it, what you ate, or where you were. That clue can bring the bottle back more vividly than a borrowed list of aromas.

Use structure when it helps

WSET’s Systematic Approach to Tasting separates a formal note into appearance, nose, palate, and conclusions. Its tasting guidance also explains why swirling can make aromas easier to notice. That is a useful framework when you want to examine a wine carefully. You do not have to complete every section to keep a personal memory.

A short version is enough: look, smell, taste, decide. Write one observation from any stage, then stop when the note will make sense to you later.

Avoid false precision

If “cherry” is clear to you, write cherry. If all you have is “red fruit,” write that. A more specific word is not automatically a more accurate memory. The point is to preserve your experience, not to reverse-engineer the answer somebody else would give.

The same applies to numbers. A personal reaction can be more useful than choosing between 87 and 88, especially when you cannot explain what changed between them.

Keep the note beside the exact bottle

A good sentence attached to the wrong vintage is a bad record. Photograph the label or write the producer, wine, and vintage before the bottle leaves. Then keep your words with that identity.

Punt does this with a label photograph, three reactions, and a note you can type or speak. It does not rewrite your line. See the restaurant version of the routine, or decide what matters in a private wine journal on iPhone.