Tasting note generator given 99+ pt rating!

Wine writers, already about as endangered as the Iberian lynx thanks to the sagging media world (not screwcaps), have something new to fear–automatically generated tasting notes! Have a taste of what the site spits out:

Fully refined almost corpulent Chenin Blanc. Hits you with sage, boggling cardboard and bashful mint. Drink now through 2009.

Now, a sample of “extra silly:”

Neo-classic but equally longingly elegant Zinfandel. Forces smoked oyster, acidic monster gasoline and corpulent jack cheese. Drink now through eternity.

Greg Sumner, the site’s creator and soon-to-be wine overlord, pulls back the curtain to reveal the formula:

How it works.
It’s very simple. I put word types into arrays, then chose a word at random out of the array. The tasting note comes out in the following structure:

(Intro) (Modifier) (Adjective) (Varietal).
(Adverb) (Adjective) (Flavor) flavors, (Adjective) (Flavor), and (Strength-word) (Flavor).
Drink (When) through (EndWhen).

Whoa, keep this thing away from sommelier robots! At least they don’t have a random score generator–yet.

5 Responses to “Tasting note generator given 99+ pt rating!”


  1. Hey, I thought that was how it was done anyway! Ha!
    It will be fun to see these plagiarized.


  2. Well, it just goes to show that you can’t always believe everything that you read. Plus it confirms what we always say, you’ve got to taste for yourselves to figure out what you really like (and dislike).


  3. I think I’ve seen this in use in a wine blog. Brilliant but hollow.


  4. Holy crap. Those tasting notes are like I would write. Someone has modeled my brain! Aaaaaagh!


  5. That is the funnest thing I’ve seen this week.


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