Written for candidates preparing for CMS or WSET tasting examinations.
Curate's CMS formats put the blind tasting note builder in the shape of the deductive method: sight, nose, palate and structure, then conclusions, at the depth each examination expects. The builder mirrors the scope and underlying process of the CMS Deductive Tasting Grid while following Curate's own design language — it is visually distinct from CMS-provided documents, by intent.
Two formats are offered: CMS Certified and CMS Advanced/Master. Both run as selection and sliders rather than prose — the discipline of the grid, with the speed of chips — and both branch structurally on the session's wine type.
CMS Certified
The Certified format is the leaner grid, matched to its examination's scope:
Sight — primary color from the type's palette; deliberately without the intensity and clarity apparatus of the higher format.
Nose — fruit read as categories (red, black, blue for reds; citrus, apple and pear, stone, tropical for whites) with condition — tart, ripe, and the riper and baked registers — plus the non-fruit families: floral, herbal, spice, earth and mineral, oak, and winemaking characters. A search field covers aromas beyond the offered set; those land in the note's Off-Grid Aromas area.
Palate & structure — sweetness as a dry/off-dry call (whites), phenolic bitterness (whites), and the structural sliders — acidity, alcohol, tannin — on compact four-step scales from low to high.
Conclusions — hemisphere and climate, grape variety, country of origin, and an age range; each conclusion row carries an "Explain Why" field, because the Certified discipline is reasoning aloud, not just answering.
The pitch — the format closes with the Sales Pitch: sell this wine to a guest in two or fewer sentences, the service-minded exercise unique to this level.
CMS Advanced/Master
The Advanced/Master format extends the grid to full deductive depth:
Sight grows secondary colors, rim variation, gas evidence, staining, and a color-intensity slider running translucent to opaque.
Nose adds an age assessment (youthful → vinous), a minor-faults check, oak presence and origin (French, American, Eastern European), and finer fruit and non-fruit vocabularies split by grape and winemaking influence.
Palate & structure adds body, complexity, finish, texture, and balance; tannin gains a texture vocabulary (silky through coarse and stalky) alongside its level; the structural sliders move to five-step scales with medium-minus and medium-plus. A free-text field takes the main characteristics and dominating elements — the one place the format asks for your own words at length.
Conclusions run the full call: hemisphere and climate, possible varieties narrowing to a primary, countries to a country, region and appellation, vintage, quality, and style category, with rationale fields throughout.
Wine type prunes the grid where the discipline does: whites drop the red-wine apparatus (rim variation, staining, tannin texture), reds drop phenolic bitterness.
The Advanced/Master conclusions also keep themselves honest: the final conclusion offers only the varieties and countries shortlisted in your initial conclusion, the region and appellation search is scoped to the chosen country, and the vintage must fall inside the age range you committed to. A country outside your named hemisphere draws a notice rather than a block. One discipline stays yours: the region list is the full geographic hierarchy for the country, not a pruned exam list — knowing which regions are exam-relevant is part of the craft being practiced.
Session Tools
Both formats run with the Variable Timer and Progress Panel as configured; the CMS Advanced/Master plan adds Dictation + Transcription and Voice Control. Tasting context, environment, and the shared details cards remain available around the grid, and Flaws & Defects is reachable from the session's tools.
After the reveal, link the wine from the dashboard's session history — variety, region, and vintage conclusions are then graded, with the partial-credit semantics described there.
Curate is an independent software provider, not affiliated with the Court of Master Sommeliers or the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, nor endorsed by either.