Method

Tasting

How I taste when I'm working: for tasting notes, client assignments and podcast prep. Plus the biodynamic calendar and seven practical tips. For drinking wine with dinner you don't need any of this.

New (June 2026): the app got a fast live mode, QR flights and offline use. Read what changed and try it →

Open the tasting note app →Open source · GitHub
Editorial brutalist illustration: on the left an ISO tasting glass on a technical grid with measurement marks and stopwatches, on the right a wine bottle and bread on a wooden table. Working method versus casual drinking.
How I taste wine

My working method. For a midweek bottle with dinner I skip all of it, I just pour and drink along.

01An hour on the table

Before opening. Neutral glass, temperature checked.

02Half an hour open

No ritual: a freshly opened wine tells a different story than the same wine a little later.

03No scores

One concrete image, one smell, one texture. What I cannot remember does not belong in a note.

04Taste twice

Look, smell, taste, then again after five minutes. That second pass is usually where the note lives.

The biodynamic calendar

Maria Thun tied four day types to the moon's position. Scientifically airtight? A different conversation. But the same bottle reads more open on a fruit day than on a root day, and producers like Nicolas Joly time their bottling around it.

TodayMon, 24 August 2026
Fruit day

A good day for serious tasting. Wines whose signature is fruit read open: Pinot Noir, Riesling, young Champagne.

Moon before Sagittarius (Fire)
Fourteen days aheadsource: Maria Thun · computation Jean Meeus
Mon 24/8fruit
Tue 25/8root
Wed 26/8root
Thu 27/8flower
Fri 28/8flower
Sat 29/8flower
Sun 30/8leaf
Mon 31/8leaf
Tue 1/9fruit
Wed 2/9fruit
Thu 3/9root
Fri 4/9root
Sat 5/9flower
Sun 6/9flower
🍇 Fruit daysBest dayMoon in a fire sign (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). Wine shows its most expressive, fruity side. Pinot Noir, Riesling, young Champagne, anything that lives on clarity.
🌸 Flower daysGood dayMoon in an air sign (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius). Aromatic and open. Gewürztraminer, Muscat, older Champagnes with perfume.
🌿 Leaf daysModerate dayMoon in a water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). Flatter, sometimes grassy or closed. Analytical work, not pleasure.
🌱 Root daysBad dayMoon in an earth sign (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn). Flat, stiff, closed. Cellar work and reading about wine, not serious tasting.
More about the biodynamic calendar →Per day the moon phase, the zodiac sign and the advice
Seven tips for home
01
The glass changes what you tasteA neutral universal glass or ISO tasting glass covers 90% of what you need. The rest is trophy.
02
Cool sooner than warmWhite at 8°C drifts to 11°C on its own. White at 12°C never goes back to 9°C without another ice bucket.
03
Water and unsalted breadNot to rinse, that is a myth. To slow down, so you taste instead of swallow.
04
First impression within 15 secondsAfter that you start rationalising. One word, one image, then structure, acidity, finish.
05
No perfume, candles or fried fishThe room you taste in is the instrument you taste with. Treat it that way.
06
Taste blind, regularlyOne blind bottle a week, twenty euros at most. You learn more in a month than a year of open tasting.
07
Keep an anchor wineA bottle you know well and drink every month. You measure against that, not against points.
→Questions, or want to know what day type a specific date is? Get in touch