By Julianna Hayes
Kelowna Daily Courier
A colleague of mine has an admirable wine note keeping system. He records his tastings meticulously in hardbound black journals which he catalogs chronologically in a library of sorts.

That way if someone inquires about a wine he reviewed or he re-tastes a wine he’s already critiqued years later, he can reference his notes with relative ease.

He’s meticulous about his record keeping, faithfully scribing his thoughts in his exceedingly neat penmanship. He dates each entry and notes the time, the place and the company he keeps with each one. And although I’ve never seen his shelves of filled books, I am certain the collection is every bit as impressive as others have described.

Awed by his attention to detail, I attempted to take a page from my colleague and went as far as purchasing a stack of hard-bound notebooks – granted, they were a far cheaper version obtained at a dollar store.

But while he excels at discipline and organization, I suck at it.

My own scribes were, in fact, scribbles that were periodically illegible, even to me. The pages became stained or smudged with wine. Plus the book got jammed with scrap paper containing notes I intended to transcribe, but never got around to it.

Quite frankly, while the system may work for some like my friend, I find this form of record keeping antiquated.

It’s irritating trying to balance a wine glass, a notebook and a pen at a massive tasting. I’ve spent a lot of time circling rooms looking for a clear spot to set down my glass, and whatever else I might carting, just so I can jot down a few thoughts.

I traded in my pen and paper a few years ago for a hand-held recording device for tastings where I didn’t have the luxury of sitting down. At first I used the mini-tape recorder salvaged from my days as a daily news reporter, before graduating to a tiny digital one and then eventually a recording app on my iPhone. It was an effective system, but I did look silly whispering to myself over a wine glass.

I caught a lot of people staring.

Being able to record voice on My iPhone is super convenient and I continue to use it for hands-free accurate interviewing. But another app has captured my heart in recent months for gathering information for wine reviews.

The Wine Notes app – WineNotesApp.com – is a free user-friendly option that takes note-taking to a whole new level because once you enter the data on a wine you’ve tasted, it instantly catalogues the information under a variety of headings giving you some amazing browse and reference options.

Here’s how it works: you simply touch the “add entry” tab, and put in the corresponding data for producer, varietal, vintage, proprietary name (if there’s one), region/country etc., and then build a profile for the wine noting the acidity, body and tannins etc.

You can select from a list of common aromas/flavours with simple clicks and record where and when the wine was tasted and the price. There’s also an option to type in notes in your own words if you have the time and inclination, plus take a photograph of the label so you can instantly recognize the wine.

Once all the data is saved, the program stores it under various categories making it browse-able by producer, region/country, vintage, varietal, etc. You can view recent entries at a glance or simply search by typing in a keyword. But that’s not all. You can also browse for a wine by characteristic. Say, for example, you’re looking for a wine to go with an Asian dish and recall tasting a wine that had passion fruit notes but can’t remember the name. You simply open the app, click the “browse” option, then “flavours” and press “passion fruit” and it will list all the wines that featured that characteristic.

There’s also a Twitter option with the program which theoretically enables you to share your reviews instantly using your Twitter account, but I couldn’t get it to work for me.

There are a number of note-taking apps out there, including another free one called Wine Ledger that I used for a time. But it’s pretty basic and doesn’t categorize your reviews in any way shape or form. Others apps feature a few more bells and whistles than Wine Notes, but they cost to download and I didn’t think the extras justified the expense for me.

One thing you need to be careful about with any record-keeping smartphone application is the risk of losing all your data, which happened to me a couple times with the voice recording program. Wine Notes does give you the option to back-up your library with the creation of an account, which I did, but have yet to test its effectiveness.

Wine Notes

Painted Rock 2007 Merlot

Black liquorice, soy, cassis, black cherry, cocoa, and spicy black pepper. Loads of richness on the palate with black fruit flavours, hint of mentol, pepper, mocha and moderate tannins. Quite yummy
Cellaring Potential: Cellar for 2-5 years
Score: A-
Price: $40
Notable: One of the top 25 wines chosen at Whistler’s Cornucopia Celebration of Food and Wine
Availability: Winery, select retailers

CedarCreek 2008 Syrah
Cherry, plum, coffee, toast, chocolate, clove and vanilla bean aromas with a slight hint of herbs. Cherry, coffee, toasty flavours with some moderate tannins on the finish.
Cellaring Potential: Cellar for 1-5 years
Score: B+
Price: $25
Notable: Pretty good value in a deep red and a screw-cap to boot.
Availability: Winery, select retailers

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