- What date did I try it?
- The vintage?
- The winery?
- The wine?
- And then, I like to put misc notes- like, what grapes were in it? How did it compare to other stuff I tried? Do I have any fun factoids about the winery?
- Tasting notes- now really, I'm not fancy. Sometimes I literally put things like "mmm. me likey." I'm usually only this succinct if I'm in a major hurry, but I include it just to show that you don't have to be pretentious for your own private use. I don't think I've ever once discussed a wine's legs in my notes. I might remark if it has a long finish, or if it is super tannic... Basically, I use a language that works for me, so that later, if I look back and go "oh yeah, I said that had an herbal flavor to it," I'll know what I meant. If I put in extraneous info from the back of the bottle about "exquisite notes of granite, cassis, and mountain herbs" that's not going to help me as much as "good acid on the front- falls off on the end," or even "gross. Tasted like raisins, feet and damp, wet leaves." I'll remember that I don't want to drink that again.
Go forth, drink up!
Did you know?
One of my favorite fall wines, Blaufrankisch, is also known as Lemberger? I just learned this week that they are one and the same! The more you learn!