Sometimes it seems like a wine lover could use an extra hand… or three. You’ve got a wine glass in one hand, tasting notes in the other, a camera around your neck, your notebook in your pocket, the pen on the table and – oh yeah – you’d really like a bite of that cheese.
The Bordo Tasters Tablet is a new product that aims to help make things a bit more convenient for wine fans, especially those tasting in “extreme” conditions like large tastings or wine competitions.
The product is the brainchild of Nick Kubiak, formerly of The Andersons Maumee wine department and now a sales consultant for Pere Jacques Wine Imports. We connected on Twitter a couple months ago and he dropped off a tablet for testing.
The Bordo is ergonomically designed to help you take notes while tasting wine. It is about 1/4” thick and feels almost like an artist’s palette in your hand. It’s very lightweight, made out of what appears to be pressboard. There’s a glossy white finish on the top and a matte finish with the logo (and vineyard photo) on the reverse. There is a band of elastic running vertically along the center to hold down your notepaper or booklet.
There is a circular cut-out that forms the “docking station” for your wine glass. The sample I received has a nice booklet that you can use for tasting notes with check off boxes to record your ratings on sweetness, intensity, tannins, etc. as well as a place to record the wine producer, region, price and more. There’s a nice list of descriptors in the categories of sight, aroma and taste in the front.
The Tasters Tablet has gotten testing at the Cincinnati Wine Festival, which seems to be the sort of venue that’s just right for this product. For local events like the Wine Gala and Wine Affair, you are moving from table to table getting small samples and constantly referring to the program book. I know I’d have to try the wine, set down my glass, then write my notes in the book -- then pick up and do it all over again. It gets tiresome.
Another setting in which the Tasters Tablet would be awesome is the annual Wine Bloggers Conference I attend. During the event you sample hundreds of wines in a lot of different settings – taking good notes is a must. This also could come in handy if you are lucky enough to tour vineyard while sampling vino.
Bordo can also be branded for a particular event or sponsor, which could make this a popular swag item at wine festivals.
This won’t go with me to the local wine bar, but for “extreme” wine tasting situations I’ll be taking the Tablet. You can find out more about Tasters Tablet on their Facebook page.
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