The tasting sheet and the three Italians

Having been working on a "Rating and Tasting" sheet during the week, the idea of trying it with the guests tonight naturally came to my mind and the usual relaxed tasting became close to a Masterclass... I have written a lot of tasting notes during the last three years but was never sure about giving ratings in number at the end. I am now starting to think that the tasting notes are giving an incomplete evaluation of the wines and want to start rating them as well. To do that, I wanted a system that will be available to see and understood by all the readers because I simply don't want them to think that a 99 out of a 100 has too much to do with the direction of the wind for example! We tried the sheet all together and I believe that they all enjoyed filling their ratings on two of the three wines.

So we didn't rate the first wine,La Segreta Bianco 2009 from Planeta in Sicily but I did taste it during the afternoon and was able to use the tasting sheet for the first time. Here it is bellow...

Rating & Tasting Sheet

Name: La Segreta Bianco IGT Sicilia

Grapes: 50% Grecanico, 30% Chardonnay, 10% Viognier, 10% Fiano

Producer: Planeta

Vintage: 2009

1) Total pleasantness 14/20:

{Pleasantness of the colour 2/2

Pleasantness of the smell 4/6

Pleasantness of the taste 8/12}

2)Intensity of the taste 4/5

3)Concentration 8/15

4)Expression of the terroir and the grape(s) variety (ies) 9/10

5)Overall complexity 4/5

6)Total balance 24/40:

{Salt and/or acidity against sweetness 6/10

Concentration and intensity against alcohol 7/10

Concentration against intensity 5/10

Concentration and intensity against tannins and/or acidity 6/10}

7)Finish 3/5


TOTAL 64/100

Colour: Dark Yellow

Nose: Intense exotic fruit & lemon

Palate: Intense lemon & peach

Finish: Intense but very short

So my rating was 64/100, it is far less than Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator both at 87/100. The same rating for both of them, do they copy each other???

The second wine was the Arneis 2007 from Ascheri in Piemonte and this is where we all started rating...I am quite happy with the scores here because the average was a 68/100 while I rated 72/100, so, quite close although the numbers varied from 60 to 77.

The third wine for me was great, going onto the red wine territory; the Brusco dei Barbi 2007 from Tuscany had a good balance and the profile of a perfect food wine (lamb came to mind). My rating went as high as 88/100 but it didn't really match the ratings of the others because their highest score was 80! So it went from 69 to 80 with an average of 74.3/100 which is much higher than the first wine anyway...The tasting notes for this red wine: Colour: Brown Ruby - Nose: Gamey, ash & spice, freshly pressed grape - Palate: Plummy, thin tannins, great acidity but on the light side regarding concentration - Finish: Quite long(20 seconds) and pleasant

It was a great wine tasting and I will try to do something similar every month from now on.