Guest Author - Lisa Shea

If you enjoy wine or are just getting into it, it's important to keep a wine journal. This lets you keep track of what wines you enjoy the most.

The beauty of wine is that it's all about your own taste buds. One person might love an Oregon pinot noir, while another person might be a fan of Italian chianti. Neither person is "wrong" - our own taste buds determine what is best for us. Our journals are our rating systems to help us learn what wines we enjoy best over time and how our interests change over time.

Here are some pieces of information that are good to track in your wine journal.

Wine Name / Grapes - Write as much information as you can. Many wineries change the names of their wines over the years. Be sure to include any specifics such as vineyard name. Also, write down what grape or grapes are in the wine and the percentage blend, if known.

Winery Name - Winery names change less frequently than wine names do :) This is often the primary way to identify a wine, after its name / grape blend.

Vintage - Not all wines have a declared vintage. Some are blends. Write down the release year if you don't have a vintage.

Drink Date - This information combined with the vintage help you to understand what sort of aging works well for what styles of wine.

Tasting Notes - What did the wine smell like? What flavors did you taste? Did the flavor last a long time, or only a short one?

Label - if you can remove the label, this is a great addition to your notes. It makes it much easier to find the wine again in the future. If you can't get the label off, then a photo or even drawing of the label can be quite helpful.