Wine Reviews and What They Mean

The 100 point wine rating system is fairly intuitive for most people; all they have to do is think of grade school and, immediately, the fundamental workings of the method are revealed:  higher scores are like an A+ and lower ones like an F (the range is 50 to 100—anything rated below 50 is probably not even wine).  This readily understood means of measuring a wine’s quality is convenient and straightforward for wine enthusiasts (whether amateur or expert) , but there are those who take issue with this way of conducting wine reviews and those who need to know exactly what it represents; and why it is still a very useful  guide to purchasing wine.

The Advantages of 100 Point Wine Rating System for Wine Reviews, and ‘Blind’ Tasting

A lot of present day wine reviews (i.e. those with the 50-100 scale) seem to rest on the shoulders of one man:  Robert Parker—an extremely well regarded wine-taster, which is what we hope he is if it is his system many use to judge a wine’s character.  Throughout his career as a wine-taster, he has repeatedly emphasized the need for a system that is both independent from the wine industry and is greatly flexible with its assignment of value judgments to its products.  Consider the difficulties with the following two scenarios.   (more…)