Every tasting note in Curate is built on the same chassis: a set of summary cards, one per part of the note, with a fast popover path for quick entries and a full Editor Panel when you want every field. This page covers the mechanics shared by every note at every detail level; the pages that follow go section by section.
Starting a Note
The Add Tasting Note button sits at the top of the app. Its menu offers a new note at each detail level — Quick, Standard, or Advanced — and the level you choose sets how many fields and aroma choices the builder presents. See Choosing a Detail Level.
A note needs a wine, and there are two ways to have one:
Start from the wine. On any wine's page, start a note there and the wine is already attached.
Start from the note. Begin a note anywhere and identify the wine in the builder's Wine Details — brand, style, region, vintage, and designation. If the wine isn't in Curate yet, those few fields define it. See Adding a New Wine.
Blind tasting formats for exam candidates begin from the Sommelier dashboard rather than this menu — see About Curate for Sommeliers.
The Builder at a Glance
A note is laid out as summary cards, each covering one part of the assessment:
Tasting Details — a tabbed card holding Tasting Context (when, where, with whom), Tasting Environment (bottle, stemware, temperature, service), and Rating (scores and value). See Tasting Context & Environment and Scores, Value & the Drink Window.
Color & Appearance — what's in the glass, visually. See Color & Appearance.
Bouquet & Palate — aromas and flavors, including the Aroma Wheel. See Aromas & Flavors.
Profile Levels & Characteristics — the structural read: sliders and character selections. See Structure & Character.
Food Pairings — what the wine met at the table. See Pairings, Notes, Tags & Photos.
Each card shows a coverage indicator, a few summary rows reflecting what you've recorded so far, and edit buttons into the full editor.
Quick Selections
Most summary rows can be set without opening anything larger: tap the row and a small popover offers that field's most essential choices. Rows signal how they respond —
Pick from common options — a short list of the usual answers.
Enter a numeric response — a score, a price, a temperature.
Multiple linked fields — a popover carrying a small set of related fields together.
Opens in the Editor Panel — fields with too many options for a popover.
Quick Selections are the fast path through a note; nothing entered this way differs from entering it in the full editor.
The Editor Panel
The Editor Panel is the complete editor: every field of every section, with all available options. Open it from any edit button; the panel header reads "Editing" above the section's name, and a navigation rail moves between sections without leaving the panel. Close it with the panel's close button, by clicking the page behind it, or by swiping it away on touch screens.
The panel adapts to the screen: on wide displays it keeps a persistent icon rail alongside the note, on smaller displays it slides in over the page, and on phones it fills the screen.
Everything Is Optional
Curate never requires a field. The coverage indicators — segmented rings on card headers and the panel rail, bars on the Tasting Details tabs — show how much of each section you've recorded, as a count of fields filled. Hovering one presents an "In this Tasting Note" checklist of exactly which fields those are.
Coverage is a map, not a grade. A Quick note about a glass at dinner with three aromas and a score is complete if it captures what you noticed; the indicators exist so that when you want to go deeper, you can see where.
Dedicated Editors
Three parts of a note open as focused overlays rather than panel sections: the Aroma Wheel (from Bouquet & Palate), Flaws + Defects, and Photos. Each is covered on its section's page.
Saving
Saving is explicit. While a note is open, your selections are held in the builder — updating the summary cards and coverage as you go — and nothing reaches your tasting library until you press Save. If you navigate away with unsaved changes, Curate warns you first and offers to save and leave in one step. The details, including note visibility and the guest preview, are on Saving, Visibility & Guest Preview.
Tools
The builder's Tools menu gathers the rest. Fill from Previous Note copies the repeatable context from your last note — place and partners, occasion, service details like stemware, temperature, and decanting, purchase details, stimuli, and tags; never your sensory impressions — made for tasting several wines in succession. Orientation Tooltips toggles inline guidance hints for the builder's controls (also available as an account-wide preference — see Preferences & Taste Profile). The dedicated editors above open from here too.