General Tasting Notes Discussion

[C57]

That seems a fair point Nick, so we could do Distillery, Bottler, age, abv, cask and any other info. Having the distillery at the front shouldn't distract too much from the bottler for those that have gone looking.

How about :

Bottler, vintage (if known), Age, abv, cask #, cask type - Distillery

then bottler is always first if you're in the board itself, and distillery is always at the end if you've opened the thread from elsewhere?

How well would that work in "View new" or "View active"?

[C57]

I've changed mine in the Aberlour board.
How does it work for you?

[Mark C]

An absolute mountain of notes already. Good going, guys!

[C57]

Mark, does your to-do list include hacking the code for the Tasting Notes boards to display alphabetically?
The code exists on the support forums...
I've slowly been standardising the Subject lines in line with Willie's suggestions

[Mark C]

Mark, does your to-do list include hacking the code for the Tasting Notes boards to display alphabetically?
The code exists on the support forums...
I've slowly been standardising the Subject lines in line with Willie's suggestions

It didn't, but I'll add it.

I was reading Michael Jackson's Malt Whisky Companion and I was wondering whether some sort of visual representation of each bottling might be a good thing? I like the way that book has the label of each (or most) bottlings above the notes.

[TheTross]

I had thought about the inclusion of images, and it would make the notes more interesting to look at, but they would HAVE to be a standard size for all notes to keep things tidy. Besides, not everyone knows how to upload images. Then there's the problem of copyright issues, or if member's photos are to be used, enforcing that and ensuring the resolution and overall photo quality is acceptable.

In all honesty the tasting notes are getting a little higgledy-piggledy in terms of title format. I really think it would be beneficial for a template to be created that members fill in in order to help keep the notes section as tidy and uniform as possible, particularly as they're going to be sorted alphabetically.

[C57]

Ha! And I thought they were gradually getting standardised as:

age, year if known, abv if known - distillery

or

IB Bottler, range, age, year, name, abv - distillery

[TheTross]

To be truthful they are, and I like the current format. I'm just thinking that a form might be useful in terms of ease of posting notes, but I could be wrong. Basically we need the titles to be of a standard format for the alphabetical sorting to work properly and to make everything look tidy and organised; I just thought a form would ensure that, but if everyone knows about, and is willing to use the current format then a form isn't necessary!

[C57]

A form that prompted the Subject format would be great - save a lot of work keeping the subjects standard.

And one to standardise the layout of the note itself would be good too.
Can such a thing be done?

I have found that the subject line has a length limit so free-form for a bold title within the body of the post would allow extra information that won't fit in the subject line.
I know som do this (Willie I think) and it's useful.
Some (ganga, Ryguy) also put the tasting date, which can be interesting when they taste again and find something different.....

[Onefortheditch]

Not wishing to rock the boat here, but isn't all this tasting note business just too much hard work? What happened to just liking a whisky? Analysis kills every good relationship - you've just got to go with the flow and live it. Do we have to categorise it and tell everybody how sophisticated our taste buds are? And it just seems like it gets everywhere, in every forum, topic and thread at some point.

Is it only me, or is there anyone else out there who just wants to drink the whisky, like the whisky and talk about anything else other than tasting notes.

I'll get my tin hat!!

[Yello to Mello]

Not wishing to rock the boat here, but isn't all this tasting note business just too much hard work? What happened to just liking a whisky? Analysis kills every good relationship - you've just got to go with the flow and live it. Do we have to categorise it and tell everybody how sophisticated our taste buds are? And it just seems like it gets everywhere, in every forum, topic and thread at some point.

Is it only me, or is there anyone else out there who just wants to drink the whisky, like the whisky and talk about anything else other than tasting notes.

I'll get my tin hat!!

I mostly just drink whisky. I can tell the distinct differences in all of them.

Tasting notes are fun to some and try to see if they can get some notes, and if they dont then, meh.

For the popular OB notes posted, a lot of lurkers view those threads, just look at the page view hits. More notes on the same whisky is sometimes a good thing.

I focus my notes more on the local ones if I tried something available that not too many wrote about. I will write one on the new Forty Creek, Im sure some want to know what I think of it no matter if they already had it or not...it might affect their buying decision.

I dont write them often but now that I know people view them more, I kind of want to polish them up especially if I read them myself a few years later.

I think even the people that made the most notes here also appreciate whisky for what it is and just drink it.

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Ditchie, philosophically I'm with you; I don't do tasting notes, and I tend to gloss over other people's notes. I've often puzzled over those who want to take a marvelous sensual experience and turn it into a lab experiment. Do we do this with other things we enjoy in life? "Dear, according to the sound meter, you reached 123 decibels, a new high!" That said, there's no harm in doing it if that's what some folk enjoy, the notes are segregated in an area where you do not have to tread, and occasionally, I find I actually want to read one or another, especially if it's a whisky I'm curious about.

[mongo]

i do tasting notes not in order to nail down a sensual/sensory experience but because as a prudent shopper i benefit from reading other people's tasting notes, and so feel i should give back as well. it's also interesting to review tasting notes and see how one's estimation of the same whisky changes over time (or doesn't).

[C57]

I often finish a bottle without making a note - I just enjoy the whisky (or not).
Sometimes I'll make a note once or twice in the life of the bottle.

[karlejnar]

I used to fill notebook after notebook with taste notes. But one day I realised that the books just got put away in a drawer afterwards, and they are never around when I want to find a note on a certain whisky.

So now I just enjoy the whiskies. I enjoy reading other's notes occasionally, and sometimes use them as a guideline for buying. Most times I just buy on chance in case I might not agree with the notes.

But at the end of the day people's taste differ and that would reflect on the tasting notes. So I try to be careful not to let the notes get too much influence. I like to make my own judgement as I believe everyone else do as well.

[The Third Dram]

I too believe it's 'healthy' to harbour at least a slight degree of skepticism when considering others' assessments of spirits, certainly as regards the ever present potential for differences in personal preferences as well as in personal perceptual strategies.

Yet I also believe that reviews provide a valuable resource for all aficionados of spirits in terms of helping to broaden appreciation and in terms of highlighting specific areas where opinions of those spirits may diverge or coincide.

Were it not for the words of the likes of Michael Jackson, Jim Murray, Wallace Milroy, Charles MacLean, David Broom and many others, I very much doubt that my own level of understanding and appreciation of whiskies could have reached as far as it has. That the opinions of these individuals on various whiskies has, at times, differed so much has only helped to clarify what I might expect of the whiskies they've written of.

I suppose it all boils down to having trust both in one's own taste buds and in the integrity of fellow whisky lovers - even if their 'take' isn't quite consistent with one's own.

Yes... I am an inveterate note taker when it comes to spirits. I admit it.