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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very handy notebook for the beginning wine lover, February 26, 2008
This review is from: Wine Tasting Notebook (Diary)
Twelve years ago I started drinking wine seriously, at first on the advice of a doctor, but soon just for the joy of the endeavor. Several wine lovers taught me that keeping good tasting notes is a great way to learn about wine very quickly. Steve De Long has put together a very handy notebook that will teach you how to do just that. The first section consists of 60 forms to help guide you in writing notes on your first 60 wines. I've posted a copy of the form in the first Comment, and De Long urges you "PLEASE SHARE: Download more forms as well as instructions from from the [De Long website], print out as many as you like, email to your friends or purchase De Long's Wine Tasting Notebook." The second section shows you how to fill out the form for the wines you taste, and the third section teaches you the meanings of 216 commonly used wine tasting words and phrases. The notebook lies flat for easy use, the paper takes a great impression from either pen or pencil, the Notebook looks elegant, and it fits easily in your pocket or purse. Robin Garr, web master of the fact filled "Wine Lovers Page" and author of The 30 Second Wine Advisor: Learn about wine in 30-second tastes -- quick, easy & fun wrote an excellent essay about the value of keeping wine tasting notes: "But here's a serious point: Anyone who enjoys wine enough to take it up as a hobby - which in my mind is really what being a wine "geek" is all about - is well advised to adopt early the habit of keeping a TN notebook. Make it a practice to jot down some kind of a note - it doesn't have to be fancy, but put down at least the name of the wine and a comment ("Great juice!" may be sufficient). At the end of a year, you'll have a book full of notes, and it can be very helpful to go back and jog your memory - when you try a new wine from the same region, or of the same grape variety, or the next year's vintage - it helps you build a "palate memory" that will strengthen your tasting skills. Over the years I've written over 50,000 wine tasting notes. My experience in writing them convince me that both the Tasting Notebook and the De Long's De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table are great resources for learning more about wine. Robert C. Ross 2008
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything one could want in a wine notebook, December 1, 2009
This review is from: Wine Tasting Notebook (Diary)
I've taught wine appreciation for several years and have a reasonably successful wine education podcast. I've urged students to take notes about the wines they try because it helps the learning process. There are any number of ways to do this, but many students find it helpful to have a pre-printed form to guide them. I discovered the DeLong Wine Tasting Note form some time ago and it immediately became my top choice. I've passed it out to students, used it in my own tasting group, and more. The form is just about perfect, and I'm a huge fan. Not only is it pre-printed, it offers you choices that you can circle (e.g. color: youthful, some age, aged). I use these forms all the time. I may not be a beginner, but I really like having a uniform way to write notes and descriptions for wines. I didn't know it at the time I acquired this notebook, but the pages inside are the tasting note form I rave about. This alone makes the notebook a perfect tool for the wine student--whether beginner, advanced, or expert. What makes this notebook a solid winner is its inserts. There are two copies (at least in mine) of a quarter-folded page with information on both sides. One side contains a version of a wine aroma wheel, broken down by category (e.g. tree fruits, citrus fruits) with examples (e.g. apple) and wines that commonly feature the aroma (e.g. Riesling). The other side features a detailed explanation of how to taste wine and use the tasting note form in a meaningful way. The fact that these pages are sort of laminated yet take up very little space is the icing on the cake. Right now, I cannot imagine using any other tasting notebook, and I would call it a "required text" for any wine appreciation course.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing..., July 19, 2008
This review is from: Wine Tasting Notebook (Diary)
This little book packs so much information in such a small space. And the tasting chart is very comprehensive, almost better then the wine wheel. Yes, you could do all that this book holds on your own, in your own notebook, but it's all here, EVERYTHING you need, in one spot. Love it. Got one as a gift for a wine lover too.
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