I just got back from a wonderful press trip to Campania. It had many parts to it including two very big tasting days on wines from Campania. They gave us the chance to taste the wines blind or choosing looking at the producers. I knew a few of the producers so I decided to taste them blind. There were a lot of wines to try but it gave me a good overview and I felt an objective one of the wines. I also enjoyed tasting groups of the same variety and area but different years together. We tried 109 wines on day and 110 the next, split into whites and reds.

It was a lot of wine but I was glad to have tasted them blind. If I knew more of the producers or it was unmanageable and impossible to get through them all then I would have cherrypicked as I did in my Chianti tastings in February. There were 600+ wines to try during those days and that was not feasible for me. The other issue is do you write your notes by hand or in a computer.

I’m a little old school and often write my notes by hand but this time I used an excel spreadsheet to write the notes. It wasn’t perfect but I was able to get more information down and have it stored than if I had written them by hand. I am always on the search for the perfect platform or software to take notes. If anyone has suggestions, Please let me know.