Wine Ratings
For years now wine ratings have seemed to be undermining their own value. What’s the value in a “100 point wine rating” scale if it only uses the top twenty percent?
A little while back, I decided to put the metaphorical pen to metaphorical paper and put down in words my arguments against the current North American wine ratings system. No wine ratings system is perfect, to be sure, but some of the reasons Robert Parker originally adopted a 100 point rating scale have become that system’s own handicap: the American grading system and mindset highly values the best in “grades” and since the current 100 point wine rating scale is correlated to the American school system’s method of grading, there is very little tolerance for a range of “good” scores.
To make matters worse wine ratings are arcane, showing little if any information from where the number was derived, and it reinforces an old and wrong idea that wine is somehow inaccessible. This is a terrible fate for a delicious product that is so loved around the world. Today, people want – expect – to be able to interact with what they purchase, and wine should not be any different. My wine ratings scale is explained ad nauseam in my article, but if you have the time I think you will find that it makes a lot of sense. In using it thus far, I think that’s it’s very, very nice to see that you can be sitting beside someone, taste the same wine, and very often find that your scores are in the same ballpark. That’s good for wine and fun for you! Enjoy my wine ratings scale.
